Overview

The Huayan scholar-monk Fazang (643-712) formulated, with the ‘Ten Subtle and Unimpeded Dharma-Gates’ of Pratītyasamutpāda, or ‘Ten Dharma-Gates,’ a series of cognitive and affective paradigms that describe how the Enlightenment-Mind apprehends reality. These patterns, in turn, model the way Buddhists understand, explain, configure, reflection, imagine, and engage the world. The basis for these paradigms is the truth and experience of pratītyasamutpāda, ‘dependent-co-arising,’ which the Buddha intuited. This book traces the origins and unfolding of the insight of an interdependent and multi-centered reality, which Fazang crystallizes with the ‘Ten Dharma-Gates,’ and employs that insight to reflect on modern ethical and moral concerns, curriculum design, and aesthetics. Examination of the presuppositions of Buddhist thought—distinguishing it from the certainty of absolute-centered ideologies that subsume all meaning and values—should be of interest to academics. Aestheticians, artists, and Buddhist devotees will appreciate the intuitive sources of Buddhism. This book opens new vistas for Buddhist studies.

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9781433192340

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Reviews

Huayan philosophy is often thought of as a difficult scholarly source within Buddhist practice. But using the Chinese Buddhist monk Fazang (643-712) as a navigator, Ronald Nakasone invites readers to learn how to apply this Buddhist view of true reality to their contemporary lives. While solidly based in many years of academic study, this book beautifully accomplishes its main aim of inspiring a spiritual journey in the midst of everyday living, from ethical and moral decision making to aesthetic pursuits such as calligraphy and painting. -Eisho Nasu, Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan Dr. Nakasone, long-time scholar of the Huayan (Avatamsaka) teachings, illuminates , dharmadhatu-pratityasamutpada, or universal dependent co-arising, a core insight from the Buddha's experience of Awakening. The culmination of many years of study and reflection, this book is a richly rewarding investigation of essential Dharma for 21st century students of the Buddha's wisdom. -Heng Sure, Director of the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery and Senior Monastic at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, Ukiah, California

Author Information

Ronald Y. Nakasone, a member of the Core Doctoral Faculty at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, earned his MA from Ryūkoku University in Kyoto, Japan, and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has written extensively on Buddhist doctrine, ethics, and aesthetics, aging and spirituality, and Ryūkyūan studies. He is a Jōdo Shinshū priest and a skilled sho(calligrapher)-artist.

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