It has been said by scholars that Huayan Buddhism is the philosophy behind Chan Buddhism and Chan Buddhism is the practice of Huayan. This is expressed in the slogan: “Tiantai and Huayan for theory and Chan for practice.” But my thesis is that Chan has its own textuality and Huayan has its own praxis. For this paper, I plan to explore the practice of Huayan Buddhism, which involves a meditation culminating in an interperspectival vision. This vision is articulated in the seminal “Huayan Fajie Guanmen” 華嚴法界觀門 (Meditative Perspectives on the Huayan Dharmadhatu) and its commentaries, which introduce and elaborate on the concept of the 四法界 sifajie “Fourfold Dharmadhatu.” This concept is articulated as a meditational framework, rather than a metaphysical theory, and is linked to other forms of Chinese thought, notably Daoism.
