---
title: "The Four Dharmadhātus: From Phenomena to Unobstructed Phenomena-and-Phenomena"
author: "釋慧鏡 (Shi Huijing)"
series_short: "S8"
paper_id: "S8-P03"
paper_number: 3
date: "2026-04"
version: "1.0"
license: "CC BY-NC-SA 4.0"
---
# The Four Dharmadhātus: From Phenomena to Unobstructed Phenomena-and-Phenomena

## A Perfect-Teaching Reading of Abundant Offerings

**S8-P03**

## Abstract

The four *dharmadhātus* (法界) — the dharmadhātu of phenomena (*shì fǎjiè* 事法界), the dharmadhātu of principle (*lǐ fǎjiè* 理法界), the dharmadhātu of unobstructed mutual interpenetration of principle and phenomena (*shìlǐ wú'ài fǎjiè* 事理無礙法界), and the dharmadhātu of unobstructed mutual interpenetration of phenomena and phenomena (*shìshì wú'ài fǎjiè* 事事無礙法界) — constitute the most complete early systematic description that the Huayan school produced of the internal structure of the dharmadhātu, and they form the doctrinal foundation for the gate of "the unobstructed mutual identity of all phenomena" (*zhū fǎ xiāng jí zì zài mén* 諸法相即自在門) within the ten profound gates (*shí xuán mén* 十玄門). This paper proceeds from this structure to argue four interlinked theses.

First, the four dharmadhātus are not four parallel worlds but four contemplative angles upon a single dharmadhātu. Dushun's (杜順, 557–640) original text of the *Contemplation of the Dharmadhātu* (*Huayan fajie guanmen* 華嚴法界觀門) establishes only three contemplations (*sān zhòng guān mén* 三重觀門), described as "a single path penetrating downward" (*yī dào shù qióng* 一道竪窮). It was Qingliang Chengguan (清涼澄觀, 738–839) who later systematized the four-dharmadhātu schema, and Zongmi (宗密, 780–841) who installed Chengguan's definitions into his commentary on Dushun's text. The dharmadhātu of phenomena was originally excluded from the contemplative scheme because, in Zongmi's words, "phenomena do not stand independently" (*shì bù dúlì gù* 事不獨立故).

Second, the *Heart Sūtra*'s formula "form is emptiness, emptiness is form" (色即是空，空即是色) corresponds to the third of the four dharmadhātus — the unobstructed mutual interpenetration of principle and phenomena. The *Heart Sūtra* arrives at this stratum and stops there. The Avataṃsaka tradition takes one further structural step: from the relation between phenomena and principle, it moves to the relation between phenomena and phenomena. This further step is precisely the doctrinal location of the "gate of mutual identity," and it is the natural extension that the S2 *Heart Sūtra* series finds within the S8 Avataṃsaka series.

Third, the third of Samantabhadra's ten great vows — "to widely cultivate offerings" (*guǎng xiū gōngyǎng* 廣修供養) — is the most direct embodied practice of the dharmadhātu of unobstructed phenomena and phenomena. The structural claims that "a single stick of incense is all offering implements" and that "of all offerings, the Dharma-offering is supreme" are not rhetorical embellishments but literal statements about how mutual identity functions at the level of practice.

Fourth, unobstructed mutual interpenetration of phenomena and phenomena is not pantheism. Each phenomenon remains *this very phenomenon*; differences are not annulled. "Unobstructed" means "without mutual obstruction," not "fused into one." The paper devotes a dedicated middle-way correction to this misreading. The *Heart Sūtra* and the Avataṃsaka are not graded along a single ascending scale; they are the same dharmadhātu unfolded at two different positions in the doctrinal taxonomy of the Huayan school — the consummate teaching (*zhōng jiào* 終教) and the perfect teaching (*yuán jiào* 圓教).

**Keywords:** Four Dharmadhātus, Unobstructed Phenomena-and-Phenomena, Mutual Identity of All Phenomena, Abundant Offerings, Dushun, Chengguan, Zongmi, Ten Profound Gates, Form Is Emptiness, Perfect Teaching

**關鍵詞：** 四法界、事事無礙法界、諸法相即自在門、廣修供養、杜順、澄觀、宗密、十玄門、色即是空、圓教

---

## I. Introduction: One Step from the *Heart Sūtra* to the Avataṃsaka

The thirteen papers of the S2 *Heart Sūtra* series have unfolded the central architecture of the *Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra*: the deep practice of *prajñā*, the illumination of the emptiness of the five aggregates, the bidirectional identity of form and emptiness, the dissolution of ignorance and its dissolution, the unobstructed mind, and ultimate *nirvāṇa*. This architecture is in itself ultimate. A practitioner can rest within the *Heart Sūtra* for an entire lifetime and fully enter into emptiness without taking any further step. The "one step further" that this paper proposes is not aimed at *surpassing* the *Heart Sūtra*. Its purpose is to offer, to a reader who has already become stable within the *Heart Sūtra*'s structure, an indication of where the next natural question opens up.

The next natural question is this: *what about the relation between one form and another form?*

The *Heart Sūtra* treats the relation between form (*rūpa* 色) and emptiness (*śūnyatā* 空) — that is, between a phenomenon and a quality. *Form is emptiness, emptiness is form*: this "is" pries open the unobstructedness between phenomenon and principle. But once a reader is stabilized in this relation, another question naturally surfaces. *What then about the relation between this very form and another form? Between this stick of incense and that flower? Between this thought-moment and the next? Between this sentient being and another?*

The *Heart Sūtra* does not address this question directly. The work of the *Heart Sūtra* is to dismantle the most fundamental cognitive inversion — the perceived opposition between phenomenon and emptiness — and to stabilize the practitioner in the contemplation that "phenomenon and principle are originally not two." Once that work is complete, *prajñā* is complete. To proceed from this foundation is the work of the Avataṃsaka.

The Avataṃsaka's response is this: forms mutually interpenetrate one another and are mutually identical to one another; each phenomenon is unobstructed with respect to every other phenomenon; yet each phenomenon remains *this very phenomenon*. The stick of incense does not become the flower; the flower does not become the lamp; the water does not become the fruit. Each retains its own phenomenal character, its own difference, while at the level of "mutual identity" each contains the others. This structure has a specific name in the doctrinal vocabulary of the Huayan school: the *dharmadhātu of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena*. It is the fourth of the four dharmadhātus systematized by Chengguan from Dushun's three contemplations, and it is the doctrinal object of the "gate of the unobstructed mutual identity of all phenomena" within the ten profound gates.

The step from the *Heart Sūtra* to the Avataṃsaka is not a philosophical leap but a continuation of practice. When you are stabilized in the *Heart Sūtra*'s "form is emptiness," the next time you light a stick of incense, you will naturally discover that this stick of incense is not only the appearance of "phenomenon as principle" — it is also mutually identical with all offering events. This discovery is not imagination. It is the structure of "form is emptiness" naturally extending into the embodied dimension. This paper's task is to write that extension out clearly.

The principal source for the four dharmadhātus is Dushun's *Contemplation of the Dharmadhātu* as recorded by Fazang and annotated by Zongmi.[^1] For the systematization of the four dharmadhātus and their correspondence with the ten profound gates, the standard reference is Chengguan's *Commentary on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra* and his *Subcommentary*.[^2] For the doctrinal grounding of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena within the perfect teaching, this paper relies on Fazang's *Treatise on the Five Teachings* (*Wujiao zhang* 五教章).[^3] For the corresponding practice, the principal scriptural anchor is the section on "abundant offerings" within the *Samantabhadra Vow Chapter* of the forty-fascicle Avataṃsaka.[^4] The paper also returns to the *Āgama* sources for the four requisites of offering and for the early use of *acintya* (不可思議), grounding the seed of "phenomenal offering" in the earliest layer of the Buddhist tradition.[^5] The central correspondence around which the paper is organized is the triad: *four dharmadhātus ↔ gate of mutual identity ↔ abundant offerings*. These are not three independent topics but a single doctrinal structure expressed at three layers — the four dharmadhātus give the sequence, the gate of mutual identity gives the typology, and abundant offerings give the practice.

⚠️ One irreducibility statement before proceeding. This paper repeatedly uses phrases such as "the *Heart Sūtra* stops here, the Avataṃsaka continues." These phrases are not value judgments but doctrinal-position distinctions. The *Heart Sūtra* belongs to the *Prajñāpāramitā* corpus, which the Huayan school's five-teaching taxonomy classifies as flowing from the elementary teaching through to the consummate teaching. The Avataṃsaka belongs to the perfect teaching of the one vehicle (*bie jiao yi sheng* 別教一乘). These two are not stages on an ascending scale but different reception bandwidths of the same dharmadhātu. When reading this paper, please understand "one step further" as "the further unfolding of the doctrinal structure," not as "an elevation in attainment." At the level of attainment, the practitioner who has fully entered the *Heart Sūtra*'s "form is emptiness" and the practitioner who has fully entered the Avataṃsaka's "phenomena-and-phenomena unobstructed" have realized the same dharmadhātu.

---

## II. Scriptural and Treatise Foundations

### II.A Scriptural Sources

**1. The "Abundant Offerings" Section of the Samantabhadra Vow Chapter** (*Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra*, T0293, fascicle 40)

The fortieth and final fascicle of the forty-fascicle Avataṃsaka, the *Samantabhadra Vow Chapter Entering the Inconceivable Liberation Realm*, is the principal scriptural source for the ten great vows. The section on the third vow, "to widely cultivate offerings," unfolds in two layers. It first describes phenomenal offerings — clouds of flowers, garlands, heavenly music, parasols, garments, and various forms of incense (smearing incense, burning incense, powdered incense), as well as various lamps. It then describes Dharma-offerings — practicing in accordance with what has been taught, benefiting sentient beings, embracing sentient beings, taking on the suffering of sentient beings, diligently cultivating wholesome roots, not abandoning the bodhisattva's work, and not departing from *bodhicitta*. The section concludes with the famous statement: "Among all offerings, the Dharma-offering is supreme."[^6] Section VI of this paper takes this passage as its principal scriptural anchor for the practice correspondence.

**2. The Worthy Leader Chapter** (*Xianshou pin* 賢首品, T0279, fascicles 14–15)

The Worthy Leader Chapter contains the most spectacular display of mutual identity within the canonical text of the Avataṃsaka itself. Fascicle 14 contains the verse: "By the power of the Buddha's *avataṃsaka samādhi*, within a single mote of dust the bodhisattva enters *samādhi*; the *samādhis* of all motes of dust are accomplished, yet that mote does not increase; within one mote, inconceivable lands are universally manifested." This is the most direct scriptural basis for the formula "one is all, all is one."[^7] Fascicle 15 contains three sets of verses — the *samādhi* of the directional net (*fāng wǎng sānmèi* 方網三昧), the *samādhi* of the mutual entry of the six sense faculties, and the *samādhi* of the mutual entry of differing bodily forms — which respectively display the spatial, epistemic, and identity-related dimensions of mutual identity.[^8] The famous oceanic-seal *samādhi* verse appears in fascicle 14: "The forms of sentient beings differ from one another; their actions and sounds are likewise immeasurable; yet all of these can be displayed by the awesome power of the oceanic-seal *samādhi*."[^9]

**3. The Four Requisites and the Section on "What Should Not Be Contemplated" in the Āgama Corpus** (T0099, T0125)

The early Buddhist canon already contains a fully formed concept of the "four requisites" of offering: robes, food, bedding, and medicine. The *Ekottara-āgama* explicitly enumerates them in the chapter on the four kinds of persons.[^10] The *Saṃyukta-āgama* preserves the figure of the householder Citta (Citta-gahapati 質多羅長者) as the canonical example of a lay practitioner whose practice combined material offering with hearing the Dharma — first offering food and drink to elder monastics, then setting out a low seat to sit and listen.[^11] The concept of Dharma-offering is also seeded already in the *Āgama* corpus. In the *Ekottara-āgama*, the Buddha explicitly says: "One should make offering to that *bhikṣu* by means of the Dharma. Why so? Because the Tathāgata reveres the Dharma. Whoever makes offering to the Dharma has thereby revered me."[^12] In another fascicle, the same collection contains the verse: "To give to all sentient beings is not equal to giving the Dharma to one person; the merit of giving to sentient beings is great, yet the merit of one person's Dharma-giving is greater."[^13] The *Dīrgha-āgama*'s *Kūṭadanta Sūtra* and the *Ekottara-āgama* present in parallel a graded sequence of merit: material offering → constructing a monastic dwelling → taking the threefold refuge → undertaking the five precepts → cultivating loving-kindness → contemplating impermanence.[^14] This graded structure is already in the *Āgama* corpus in nascent form, and it is later carried by the Avataṃsaka's "Among all offerings, the Dharma-offering is supreme" into its perfect-teaching expression.

The "should not be contemplated" passage is found in the *Ekottara-āgama* under the four inconceivables: sentient beings, world, the realm of *nāga*s, and the realm of buddhas. The Buddha explicitly states: "These four matters have no wholesome roots in them; one cannot through them cultivate the holy life; they do not lead to release, nor do they lead even to *nirvāṇa*. They merely cause one to become deluded, the mind to become confused, and doubts and entanglements to arise." He then directs the disciples: "Therefore, *bhikṣu*s, contemplate the four noble truths."[^15] This passage represents the standard *Āgama*-level use of *acintya* — the term functions as an epistemological line that should not be crossed. The middle-way correction in §V.4 of this paper will compare this usage with the Avataṃsaka's ontological use of the same term.

### II.B Treatises and Commentaries

**1. Dushun's *Contemplation of the Dharmadhātu*** (recorded by Fazang, abridged by Chengguan, annotated by Zongmi as T1884)

Dushun's contemplative system is the earliest systematic description of the Huayan school's view of the dharmadhātu. The original text is extremely concise; Zongmi himself notes that the entire text occupies only "eight or nine sheets." It establishes "three layers of contemplation" (*sān zhòng guān mén* 三重觀門): first, the contemplation of true emptiness (*zhēnkōng guān* 真空觀), which corresponds to the dharmadhātu of principle; second, the contemplation of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena (*lǐshì wú'ài guān* 理事無礙觀), which corresponds to the dharmadhātu of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena; and third, the contemplation of universal pervasion and mutual containment (*zhōubiàn hánróng guān* 周遍含容觀), which corresponds to the dharmadhātu of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena.

It is worth noting that Dushun's original text contains neither the term "four dharmadhātus" nor the phenomenal dharmadhātu as an independent contemplation. Zongmi's annotation explicitly explains why: "The phenomenal dharmadhātu is excluded. Phenomena do not stand independently. Within the lineage of the dharmadhātu, there are no isolated phenomena. If one were to contemplate phenomena alone, that would be the field of ordinary deluded calculation, not the field of contemplative wisdom."[^16] In other words, the phenomenal dharmadhātu, taken in isolation, is the object of ordinary deluded fabrication and not the object of contemplative wisdom. The systematization of the term "four dharmadhātus" is accomplished only later, by Qingliang Chengguan in the *Commentary on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (see below).

**2. Dushun's *Cessation and Contemplation in the Five Teachings of the Huayan*** (T1867)

T1867 is the earliest record of the Huayan school's *śamatha-vipaśyanā* practice. It establishes a fivefold scheme of teachings and gates: the gate of "phenomena exist, self does not" for the elementary vehicle, the gate of "production is non-production" for the elementary Mahāyāna, the gate of "the round fusion of principle and phenomena" for the consummate Mahāyāna, the gate of "the simultaneous cessation of speech and contemplation" for the sudden teaching, and the gate of "*avataṃsaka samādhi*" for the perfect teaching of the one vehicle.[^17] The fifth gate, the *avataṃsaka samādhi* gate, is the perfect-teaching contemplation. It takes "directly seeing that forms and so on arise from conditions, which is itself the dharmadhātu of dependent origination" as its gate of sudden entry. It then deploys the famous metaphor of Indra's net to give a complete picture of the central content of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena: "Manifold phenomena mutually enter one another, like Indra's heavenly jewels in a net of mutual containment without end."[^18] T1867 does not yet use the four-character compound *shìshì wú'ài* (事事無礙) — that term is fixed only later by Fazang and Chengguan — but the metaphor of Indra's net is already in place, and it carries the full content of "one is all, all is one, infinitely without end."

**3. Fazang's *Treatise on the Five Teachings of the One Vehicle of the Huayan*** (T1866, also called *Wujiao zhang*)

In fascicle four of his *Treatise on the Five Teachings*, Fazang explicitly constructs the theoretical foundation of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena in four stages: the doctrine of the same and different in the three natures, the six meanings of the cause-gate of dependent origination, the gate of unobstructed dependent origination of the ten profound mysteries, and the doctrine of the round fusion of the six characteristics.[^19] In fascicle two, Fazang aligns the five teachings with five gates of contemplative significance: the gate of grasping meaning from name (elementary vehicle), the gate of grasping principle from phenomena (elementary Mahāyāna), the gate of unobstructed principle and phenomena (consummate teaching), the gate of phenomena exhausted and principle revealed (sudden teaching), and the gate of the nature-ocean possessing all virtues (perfect teaching).[^20] It is significant that Fazang's term for the perfect-teaching gate is "the nature-ocean possessing all virtues" (*xìng hǎi jù dé mén* 性海具德門), not "unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena." The term "the dharmadhātu of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena" is fixed only later as a standard formulation by Chengguan in works such as the *Mirror of the Avataṃsaka Dharmadhātu* (*Huayan fajie xuanjing* 華嚴法界玄鏡). However, Fazang's phrases — "mutual identity unobstructed and fused," "the inexhaustible round fusion of dependent origination of the dharmadhātu," "one is all and all is one" — already carry the substantive doctrine of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena.[^21]

**4. Fazang's *Record of the Profound Meaning of the Avataṃsaka*** (*Tanxuan ji* 探玄記, T1733)

In fascicle one of the *Record of the Profound Meaning*, Fazang lists the names of the ten profound gates and unfolds them one by one through the metaphor of a single flower-petal.[^22] His core treatment of "the gate of the unobstructed mutual identity of all phenomena" appears in two places in fascicle one: first, in the flower-petal section, "this single flower-petal abandons itself and conforms to the others; its entire substance is fully all those other phenomena; and it forever embraces the others within itself; the entire collection of others is fully its own substance; the one and the many are mutually identical and confused without obstruction";[^23] and second, in the section on the ten meanings of dependent origination, where the sub-doctrines of "different-substance mutual identity" and "same-substance mutual identity" provide the technical justification for mutual identity in dependent-origination terms.[^24] Fazang explicitly distinguishes mutual identity from mutual entry: mutual entry pertains to *function* (the interpenetration of force-functions), while mutual identity pertains to *substance* (the wholesale yielding of one substance to another). The two are simultaneously present in their full perfection: "Both mutual entry and mutual identity are simultaneously and self-existently manifest."[^25]

**5. Chengguan's *Commentary on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra* and *Subcommentary*** (T1735 and T1736)

Chengguan (Qingliang Guoshi 清涼國師, 738–839) is the systematic organizer of the term "four dharmadhātus." In his *Commentary*, he explicitly links the four dharmadhātus with the ten profound gates and proposes the central thesis: "Only by way of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena can one then attain the unobstructed interpenetration of phenomena and phenomena."[^26] In fascicle two of his *Commentary*, Chengguan states explicitly: "The fourth, universal pervasion and mutual containment, is precisely the unobstructed interpenetration of phenomena and phenomena. Following the ancient masters, it is set forth as the ten profound gates."[^27] He further indicates that the ten profound gates are "of one and the same dependent origination, round and fused, each gate containing all the others." Chengguan also links the four dharmadhātus to the central import of the Avataṃsaka itself: "First, there is the elucidation of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena; afterwards, the revelation of the unobstructed interpenetration of phenomena and phenomena. The unobstructed dharmadhātu is taken as the central import."[^28] The argument in §III.4 below for the equation "unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena = the gate of mutual identity" relies primarily on this Chengguan system.

**6. Zongmi's *Annotation on the Contemplation of the Avataṃsaka Dharmadhātu*** (T1884)

Zongmi (Guifeng 圭峰, 780–841) annotated Dushun's *Contemplation of the Dharmadhātu* and, within his annotation, cited the four-dharmadhātu definitions from Chengguan's *New Sūtra Commentary*, thereby producing the most systematic correspondence between Dushun's three contemplations and the four dharmadhātus:

> The whole is uniformly the one true dharmadhātu, which is to say, that which encompasses the manifold of existence — that is, the one mind. Yet the mind, in fusing the manifold of existence, becomes four kinds of dharmadhātu. First, the dharmadhātu of phenomena: "*dhātu*" here means "differentiation" — each individual is differentiated and has its own measure. Second, the dharmadhātu of principle: "*dhātu*" here means "nature" — the inexhaustible phenomena share one nature. Third, the dharmadhātu of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena: it possesses both the meaning of nature and the meaning of differentiation, with nature and differentiation being unobstructed with respect to one another. Fourth, the dharmadhātu of the unobstructed interpenetration of phenomena and phenomena: every differentiated phenomenon, in accordance with its nature, is fused into communication with every other, layer upon layer without end.[^29]

This is the standard locus for the definitions of the four dharmadhātus. Zongmi also explains why Dushun establishes only three contemplations rather than four: "If one analyzes them in terms of the meaning-gates, there are four. But here, with respect to the wisdom that does the contemplating, there are only three layers. These three are simply a single path penetrating downward, unfolding in profound subtlety; it is not that beyond the first dharmadhātu there is a separate second or third."[^30] In other words, the four dharmadhātus are an analytic schema (*yìmén* 義門), while the three contemplations are the actual functioning of contemplative wisdom (*néng guān zhī zhì* 能觀之智); the three are a longitudinal progression ("a single path penetrating downward"), not three parallel sectors.

---
## III. The Layered Unfolding of the Four Dharmadhātus

### III.0 A Brief Genealogical Note: "Four Dharmadhātus" as a Later Term

Before unfolding each of the four dharmadhātus in turn, an easily overlooked historical point must be addressed: the term "four dharmadhātus" is not a usage of Dushun's original text but a later naming, made by Qingliang Chengguan during his systematization of Huayan doctrine. This brief genealogical note is essential for what follows.

Dushun's contemplative system is preserved in the *Contemplation of the Dharmadhātu*, recorded by Fazang, abridged by Chengguan, and annotated by Zongmi (currently extant in T1884). The original is extremely concise; Zongmi himself notes that the entire text occupies only "eight or nine sheets." What it establishes is "three layers of contemplation," not "four dharmadhātus": first the contemplation of true emptiness, then the contemplation of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena, and finally the contemplation of universal pervasion and mutual containment. Zongmi's annotation is explicit about why Dushun establishes only three:

> Briefly, there are three layers — the dharmadhātu of phenomena is excluded. Phenomena do not stand independently. Within the lineage of the dharmadhātu, there are no isolated phenomena. If one were to contemplate them alone, that would be the field of ordinary deluded calculation, not the field of contemplative wisdom. If one analyzes them in terms of the meaning-gates, there are four. But here, with respect to the wisdom that does the contemplating, there are only three layers. These three are simply a single path penetrating downward, unfolding in profound subtlety. It is not that beyond the first dharmadhātu there is a separate second or third. Since they do not stand laterally side by side, they are called three layers, not three sections.[^31]

Zongmi's explanation has three components. First, the phenomenal dharmadhātu is excluded because phenomena do not stand independently — to contemplate phenomena in isolation is to attend to the field of ordinary deluded fabrication, not to the field of contemplative wisdom. Second, while the analysis of the *meaning-gates* yields four, the *contemplating wisdom* operates with only three layers. Third, the three are a "single path penetrating downward" — a longitudinal progression rather than three parallel sections.

The systematization of the term "four dharmadhātus" was completed only later, by Qingliang Chengguan in his *Commentary on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra*. Chengguan explicitly enumerates the four — the dharmadhātu of phenomena, the dharmadhātu of principle, the dharmadhātu of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena, and the dharmadhātu of the unobstructed interpenetration of phenomena and phenomena — and links them systematically to the ten profound gates. Zongmi, following Chengguan, inserts the four-dharmadhātu definitions into his annotation of Dushun's text, explicitly attributing them to Chengguan's *New Sūtra Commentary*:

> The whole is uniformly the one true dharmadhātu, which is to say, that which encompasses the manifold of existence — that is, the one mind. Yet the mind, in fusing the manifold of existence, becomes four kinds of dharmadhātu. First, the dharmadhātu of phenomena: "*dhātu*" here means "differentiation" — each individual is differentiated and has its own measure. Second, the dharmadhātu of principle: "*dhātu*" here means "nature" — the inexhaustible phenomena share one nature. Third, the dharmadhātu of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena: it possesses both the meaning of nature and the meaning of differentiation, with nature and differentiation being unobstructed with respect to one another. Fourth, the dharmadhātu of the unobstructed interpenetration of phenomena and phenomena: every differentiated phenomenon, in accordance with its nature, is fused into communication with every other, layer upon layer without end.[^32]

Thus the Huayan school's contemplation of the dharmadhātu acquires a complete structure that preserves both the contemplative depth of Dushun's three contemplations and the doctrinal breadth of Chengguan's fourfold schema. This paper from this point forward uses the standard four-dharmadhātu terminology as systematized by Chengguan, but the reader should keep two things in mind. First, the dharmadhātu of phenomena is not an "ordinary realm" to be transcended — it is the dimension of differentiated phenomenal character that is preserved at every subsequent layer. Second, the four dharmadhātus are not four parallel worlds but four contemplative angles upon a single dharmadhātu, which Dushun called "a single path penetrating downward."

This brief genealogical note is important because it directly bears on the middle-way correction in §V.2 below. If the reader misreads "four dharmadhātus" as four independent strata to be ascended in sequence, then the entire Huayan structure of practice is read as a ladder-style religion — the precise opposite of what Dushun intended. Dushun's "single path penetrating downward" and Zongmi's "it is not that beyond the first dharmadhātu there is a separate second or third" are the most direct doctrinal resources against that misreading.

### III.1 The Dharmadhātu of Phenomena (*shì fǎjiè* 事法界)

**Definition.** The world of differentiated phenomena. Each phenomenon has its own particular character; each is bounded clearly with respect to others. A stick of incense is a stick of incense. A flower is a flower. This thought-moment is this thought-moment; that thought-moment is that thought-moment. The dharmadhātu of phenomena is the dimension of ordinary daily experience and is also the starting point of all subsequent contemplation.

Zongmi's definition of the dharmadhātu of phenomena, citing Chengguan, is: "*Dhātu* here means *differentiation*; each individual is differentiated and has its own measure."[^33] *Differentiation* (*fēn* 分) signifies *measure* and *limit*: each phenomenon has its own scope, with a clear boundary marking it off from other phenomena. At the level of the dharmadhātu of phenomena, this boundary is real. The flower is not the incense; the incense is not the lamp; the lamp is not the water. If even this layer of differentiation is denied, all subsequent contemplation hangs in midair.

**The corresponding practice.** Phenomenal offering. That is, each stick of incense, each flower, each cup of water as a concrete offering implement. This layer of offering is material, visible, countable. One stick is one stick; three sticks are three sticks. One cannot say "I have three sticks in my mind" and call this an offering of three sticks. The normativity of phenomenal offering lies precisely in its concreteness — it pulls the practitioner's mind down from the layer of abstract thought to the layer of concrete action.

**Why phenomenal offering is not a "lower stage."** In the perfect-teaching reading of the Avataṃsaka, phenomenal offering is not a "preliminary stage awaiting transcendence." The differentiated character of phenomenal offering — that this stick of incense really is not that flower — is preserved at every subsequent layer. Principle-offering, unobstructed-principle-and-phenomena offering, and Dharma-offering all do not erase the "this very stick" of phenomenal offering. If a reader supposes that "I have already understood emptiness, so I no longer need actual offering implements," then this reader has fallen into the misreading of taking the phenomenal dharmadhātu as a mere preliminary. The dharmadhātu of phenomena is one face of the dharmadhātu, not its outer husk.

**Seed of a middle-way correction.** The reality of the phenomenal dharmadhātu is the foundation upon which all subsequent contemplation is built. To deny the phenomenal dharmadhātu is like denying color and saying "everything is just light waves" — technically correct, but this is not contemplating emptiness; this is abstraction. To contemplate emptiness, one must first stand on phenomenal reality, then see emptiness *within* phenomenal reality, then see unobstructedness *between* phenomena. Phenomenal offering is that standing point.

### III.2 The Dharmadhātu of Principle (*lǐ fǎjiè* 理法界)

**Definition.** The world of equality of nature. All phenomena are equal at the level of emptiness, absence of self-nature, and dependent origination. The "self-nature" of a stick of incense is empty, and so is the "self-nature" of a flower; the "self-nature" of this thought-moment is empty, and so is the "self-nature" of that thought-moment. The level of "absence of self-nature" treats all phenomena uniformly.

Zongmi's definition of the dharmadhātu of principle, citing Chengguan, is: "*Dhātu* here means *nature*; the inexhaustible phenomena share one nature."[^34] *Nature* (*xìng* 性) signifies *dharma-nature* (*fǎxìng* 法性) or *self-nature* (*zìxìng* 自性): although all phenomena have inexhaustible differences at the phenomenal level, they are uniform at the level of being "without self-nature." This "uniformity" does not mean that phenomena are erased; it means that the *substantial existence* of phenomena is erased. The phenomena are still there, but the phenomena are no longer "things that exist substantially."

**The corresponding practice.** Principle-offering. The same act of lighting a stick of incense — but now the focus of contemplation is not the concrete existence of the offering implement, but the absence of self-nature in the offerer (myself), the offered-to (the Buddha), and the act of offering (lighting). The "I" that offers is an aggregation of the five aggregates, without self-nature — this "I" is not an independent substance but a temporary collection of form, sensation, perception, formations, and consciousness. The "Buddha" who is offered to is the *dharmakāya* pervading everywhere, without particular characteristic — this "Buddha" is not an object located somewhere but the totality of the dharmadhātu. The act of offering is dependently arisen, without substance — "lighting" is a dependent collection of hand, fire, incense, and air, with no independent "lighting" entity. All three are empty. This is principle-offering — what the *Diamond Sūtra* calls "the threefold purity of the donor, the recipient, and the gift" (*sān lún tǐ kōng* 三輪體空), the bodhisattva who "performs giving without abiding," who "gives without abiding in form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or thought."

**An initial bridge with the *Heart Sūtra*.** The *Heart Sūtra*'s "the five aggregates are all empty" and "no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, dharma" is the contemplation precisely at the level of the dharmadhātu of principle — it gathers all phenomena into the level of natural emptiness, treating them all uniformly. The work that the *Heart Sūtra* does is not confined to the dharmadhātu of principle alone, but at this level it does its work with extreme thoroughness. The dharmadhātu of principle is the central contemplative arena of the lower section of the *Heart Sūtra*'s structure, the section running from "no ignorance" through "no wisdom and no attainment."

**Why principle-offering is not "higher than" phenomenal offering.** Principle-offering and phenomenal offering are two contemplative angles upon the same act, not one substituting for the other. When you light a stick of incense with the contemplation of principle-offering, your hand still has to grasp that very stick of incense, you still have to ignite it, you still have to plant it in the censer. None of these actions is reduced. What is reduced is only the illusion that "I am doing some substantially existent thing." Principle-offering is not "not doing phenomenal offering"; it is "seeing the absence of self-nature within the doing of phenomenal offering." If one reads principle-offering as "I do not need to do phenomenal offering since everything is empty," one falls into the *grasping misreading of emptiness* (*è qǔ kōng* 惡取空).

**Seed of a middle-way correction.** The "equality" of the dharmadhātu of principle is equality at the level of nature, not equality at the level of phenomenal character. The differences among phenomena are not erased at the dharmadhātu of principle — a flower does not become an incense stick because both are empty. "Sharing one nature" means "being equally empty," not "being equally the same flower." Confusing the two collapses one into a slide toward over-generalized emptiness.

### III.3 The Dharmadhātu of the Unobstructed Interpenetration of Principle and Phenomena (*shìlǐ wú'ài fǎjiè* 事理無礙法界)

**Definition.** The non-duality of phenomenon and principle. Each phenomenon is simultaneously the manifestation of emptiness; each instance of emptiness is simultaneously the support for a phenomenon. Phenomenon and principle are not two layers needing to be combined in thought; they are two faces of one and the same dharmadhātu — to lift up the phenomenon is to lift up the principle, and to lift up the principle is to lift up the phenomenon.

Zongmi's definition of this dharmadhātu, citing Chengguan, is: "It possesses both the meaning of nature and the meaning of differentiation, with nature and differentiation being unobstructed with respect to one another."[^35] Fazang in the *Record of the Profound Meaning of the Avataṃsaka* uses the metaphor of water and waves to clarify this unobstructedness: "The wave that is fully water is not water — because of the meaning of motion, not the meaning of wetness." And: "It is just as the appearance of waves makes the substance of water vividly manifest."[^36] Water (principle) and waves (phenomena) are not two things, yet one cannot say that any particular wave is the totality of water, nor that water is identical with any particular wave.

Dushun in the *Contemplation of the Dharmadhātu* unfolds this structure across two layers of contemplation: the contemplation of true emptiness and the contemplation of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena. The contemplation of true emptiness centers on the four propositions and ten gates of "form is precisely emptiness because it is empty" — the dispelling of deluded apprehension and the manifestation of principle.[^37] The contemplation of unobstructed principle and phenomena then unfolds the bidirectional relation between phenomenon and principle through ten gates organized into five pairs: pervasion (principle pervades phenomena / phenomena pervade principle), formation (principle establishes phenomena / phenomena reveal principle), opposition (principle obscures phenomena / phenomena obscure principle), identity (true principle is phenomenon / phenomenon is principle), and difference (true principle is not phenomenon / phenomenon is not principle).[^38] The conclusion of these ten gates is: "If one looks from principle toward phenomena, there is formation and dissolution, identity and separation. If one looks from phenomena toward principle, there is revelation and concealment, sameness and difference. Reverse and forward, free and self-existent, without obstruction, simultaneously and suddenly arising."[^39]

**The corresponding practice.** The Dharma-offering at the level of unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena. The same act of lighting a stick of incense, but now the focus of contemplation is the simultaneous, mutually unobstructed standing of phenomenal character and emptiness in this very stick. The fragrance of the incense, the shape of the smoke, the physical process of combustion, the presence of offerer and offered — all of these phenomenal characters are present in full; and at the same time, the absence of self-nature in these phenomenal characters is also present in full. The phenomenal characters are not reduced; the emptiness is not reduced; the two are simultaneously present in the same instant, mutually unobstructed.

**The central bridge with the *Heart Sūtra*.** This is the highest layer that the *Heart Sūtra*'s "form is emptiness, emptiness is form" reaches. *The Heart Sūtra stops here.* The full structure of the *Heart Sūtra* — from "while practicing deeply the prajñāpāramitā" to "the mind is unobstructed; being unobstructed, there is no fear; far from inverted dream-thinking, [one reaches] ultimate *nirvāṇa*" — opens precisely the dharmadhātu of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena. "Form is emptiness" is phenomenon-as-principle; "emptiness is form" is principle-as-phenomenon. The "unobstructedness" between them is the literal definition of this dharmadhātu. The *Heart Sūtra*'s "no wisdom and no attainment" passage takes this unobstructedness to its limit — even the contemplating wisdom and the resulting attainment are gathered into unobstructedness.

Chengguan once stated the position of *prajñā* with great precision: "Natural emptiness reaches through the elementary, sudden, and consummate teachings; wondrous existence is precisely the actual teaching. Where one penetrates both emptiness and existence in mutual interfusion, that constitutes the perfect teaching of complete virtue."[^40] *Prajñā*'s "form is emptiness" opens up the bidirectional interfusion of phenomenon and emptiness (the actual teaching), but it stops at the level of "phenomenon and emptiness." To proceed further, into the level of "phenomenon and phenomenon," requires the Avataṃsaka. This classification is not a dismissal of *prajñā* — Chengguan also acknowledges that *prajñā* "horizontally pervades the five teachings," meaning that the doctrine of *prajñā* can be horizontally extended to the level of the perfect teaching.[^41] But the *proper doctrinal scope* of *prajñā* is the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena, just as the central contemplative arena of the *Heart Sūtra* is the bidirectional interfusion of "form is emptiness." To speak of "phenomenon and phenomenon" requires new doctrinal tools — and these are what the Huayan school developed in the wake of the *Heart Sūtra*.

**Why this is not "the *Heart Sūtra* falling short."** The *Heart Sūtra* and the Avataṃsaka belong to two different doctrinal positions, not to two graded steps of an ascending ladder. The work that the *Heart Sūtra* does — the dismantling of the apparent opposition between phenomenon and emptiness — is ultimate. Once that work is done, sentient beings are liberated. The work that the Avataṃsaka does — unfolding, on the basis that phenomenon and emptiness are already unobstructed, the further mutual interpenetration between phenomenon and phenomenon — is *further unfolding*, not *upgrade*. A practitioner who has fully entered the *Heart Sūtra* has a dharmadhātu that *is already* the dharmadhātu — it is only that this practitioner may not have used the language of "unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena" to describe what they see. The Avataṃsaka's work is to articulate what they see in new language and to allow finer structures to emerge within that new language.

**Seed of a middle-way correction.** Unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena is not "the synthesis of phenomenon and principle"; it is "the original non-duality of phenomenon and principle." The word "synthesis" presupposes two independent things being combined — but phenomenon and principle have never been two independent things; they are two faces of one and the same dharmadhātu. To read unobstructedness as synthesis is to read the Avataṃsaka as if it were Hegel.

### III.4 The Dharmadhātu of the Unobstructed Interpenetration of Phenomena and Phenomena (*shìshì wú'ài fǎjiè* 事事無礙法界)

**Definition.** The mutual identity and mutual interpenetration of one phenomenon with another. Each phenomenon is unobstructed with respect to every other phenomenon, yet each phenomenon remains *this very phenomenon*. The stick of incense is mutually identical with the flower, but the stick of incense does not become the flower; the flower is mutually identical with the lamp, but the flower does not become the lamp. "Mutual identity" speaks of "shared belonging to the dharmadhātu," "shared origin in emptiness of nature," and "shared simultaneous arising in this very instant." It does not speak of "physical mutual transformation."

Zongmi's definition of this dharmadhātu, citing Chengguan, is: "Every differentiated phenomenon, in accordance with its nature, is fused into communication with every other, layer upon layer without end."[^42] The phrase "in accordance with its nature, fused into communication" is the heart of the definition. The reason each phenomenon can be mutually identical with every other phenomenon is not that there is some mysterious physical link among phenomena, but that each phenomenon exists "in accordance with its nature" (that is, in accordance with emptiness of nature), and that therefore each phenomenon at the level of *being-as-its-nature* is fused with every other.

Dushun in the third contemplation of the *Contemplation of the Dharmadhātu*, the contemplation of universal pervasion and mutual containment, unfolds this unobstructedness through ten gates: principle-as-phenomenon gate, phenomenon-as-principle gate, the gate in which phenomena contain principle and other phenomena, gate of unobstructed local-and-pervasive, gate of unobstructed broad-and-narrow, gate of unobstructed pervasion-and-containment, gate of unobstructed embracing-and-entering, gate of unobstructed mutual reference, gate of unobstructed mutual presence, and gate of unobstructed total fusion.[^43] The key principle of these ten gates is stated by Dushun in a single sentence: "Phenomena are fused as principle is — every phenomenon, by being in accordance with principle, is fused into communication. If one were only to consider phenomena, they would mutually obstruct one another. If one were only to consider principle, there would be nothing to obstruct and nothing to contain. Now, because phenomena are fused as principle is, there are ten gates of unobstructedness."[^44]

This sentence is of capital importance. It explains that the basis of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena does not lie in "direct unobstructedness between phenomenon and phenomenon," but in "every phenomenon being fused as principle is" — every phenomenon, because it is "in accordance with principle" (that is, in accordance with the principle of emptiness of nature), can be unobstructed. If one were to detach phenomena from principle and look only at phenomena, phenomena would obstruct one another. If one were to look only at principle without positing phenomena, there would be neither phenomena to obstruct nor phenomena to contain. Unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena is the *result* of "phenomena being fused as principle is" — this is the hinge that allows the leap from unobstructed principle-and-phenomena to unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena. Without the foundation of unobstructed principle-and-phenomena, there is no unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena. Chengguan therefore states explicitly: "Only by way of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena can one then attain the unobstructed interpenetration of phenomena and phenomena."[^45]

**The corresponding practice.** Dharma-offering deepened in the perfect teaching. The same act of lighting a stick of incense, but now the focus of contemplation is that this very stick of incense is mutually identical with all offering implements — that the entire structure of flowers, lamps, water, fruit, and immeasurable offering implements is simultaneously present within this stick of incense. This is not to say that the stick of incense physically becomes the flower or the lamp. It is to say: under the contemplation of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena, the offering event of this stick of incense is, at the level of mutual identity, one and the same event as all offering events. The merit of all offering events is fully *present* in this very stick of incense — not metaphorically present, but literally present.

Chengguan in the *Commentary on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra* gives an extraordinarily direct statement of this structure: "Offering implements are themselves the substance of the dharmadhātu."[^46] Not that offering implements *symbolize* the dharmadhātu; offering implements *are* the substance of the dharmadhātu. He also says: "Each individual offering implement accords with truth."[^47] Each offering implement "accords with truth" — accords with thusness, accords with dharma-nature. He also says: "Offering implements and the like all penetrate to the unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena."[^48] These three sentences together constitute the literal statement of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena at the level of abundant offerings: a stick of incense is the substance of the dharmadhātu; a stick of incense accords with thusness; a stick of incense penetrates to unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena.

**The direct correspondence with the gate of mutual identity within the ten profound gates.** The gate of the unobstructed mutual identity of all phenomena is the name, within the typology of the ten gates, of the dharmadhātu of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena. Fazang in the *Record of the Profound Meaning of the Avataṃsaka* gives the central account of mutual identity: "This single flower-petal abandons itself and conforms to the others; its entire substance is fully all those other phenomena; and it forever embraces the others within itself; the entire collection of others is fully its own substance; the one and the many are mutually identical and confused without obstruction."[^49] *Abandoning self and conforming to other*, *the entire substance being fully the other*, *forever embracing the other within itself* — these three actions are the concrete operative form of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena as it occurs between phenomena. Mutual identity is not "mutual resemblance"; it is "wholesale mutual identity."

Fazang in the same text further distinguishes mutual identity from mutual entry: mutual entry pertains to *function* (the interpenetration of force-functions), while mutual identity pertains to *substance* (the wholesale yielding of one substance to another). "Because there is no function apart from substance, when one lifts up the entire substance as function, then there is only mutual entry without mutual identity. Because there is no substance apart from function, when one lifts up the entire function as substance, then there is only mutual identity without mutual entry. The function that returns to substance does not obstruct function, and the substance that is fully function does not lose substance. Thus the unobstructed simultaneous standing — both mutual entry and mutual identity simultaneously and self-existently manifest."[^50] Within the four-dharmadhātu correspondence, the dharmadhātu of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena encompasses both aspects — mutual identity (the wholesale identity at the substantial level) and mutual entry (the interpenetration at the functional level) together constitute the full content of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena. This paper's title uses the expression "the gate of mutual identity" because mutual identity directly addresses the central structure of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena (substantive wholesale identity between phenomena); the further unfolding of mutual entry will be reserved for subsequent papers (such as P05 on the gate of host and retinue, and P06 on Indra's net).

**Why this is "unobstructedness" and not "fusion."** This is the most central middle-way correction in this paper, and it will be unfolded in detail in §V. The conclusion is stated here in advance. Each phenomenon remains *this very phenomenon*. The stick of incense does not become the flower; the flower does not become the lamp; the lamp does not become the water. Each retains its own particular character, each has its own difference, while at the level of mutual identity each contains the others. "Unobstructedness" is "not mutually obstructing," not "fused into one." If it is read as "fused into one," one falls into pantheism — and pantheism is explicitly rejected within the doctrinal framework of the Huayan school. Fazang in the *Treatise on the Five Teachings* repeatedly emphasizes: "Although the one and the many mutually contain and accept one another in unobstructed self-existence, their substances remain distinct."[^51] And: "Without destroying the phenomenon, every single mote of dust is fully equipped with all the differentiated phenomena of the dharmadhātu, perfected with the subtlety of Indra's net."[^52] Substances distinct, phenomena not destroyed — these two statements draw the fundamental boundary line between unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena and pantheism.

***Naturally so, not divine transformation.*** Fazang in the *Treatise on the Five Teachings*, regarding descriptions like "within a single mote of dust, immeasurable buddha-lands appear," states explicitly: "All of these are *real meanings*, not transformations effected by divine power. They are objects within the field of wisdom in accordance with truth, in accordance with quantity. The other matters of transformation do not enter into this category. Why? Because all of these are the *real virtues belonging to the household of dharma-nature*. They are *naturally so*. They are not the field of discriminating consciousness."[^53] That is to say, unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena is the structural reality of the dharmadhātu of dependent origination (the real virtues of dharma-nature) — *naturally so*, originally so — not a result of supernatural transformation, and not an object that ordinary discriminating consciousness can measure. This explanation provides another safeguard against reading unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena as mysticism or as a supernatural event.

**What follows.** S8-P10, *Samantabhadra's Vows and the Perfect-Teaching Reading of the Ten Great Vow-Kings*, will continue, through historical-textual analysis, to argue the specific correspondence between the ten profound gates and the ten great vows. The argument in §III.4 of this paper for "gate of mutual identity = unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena" prepares the ground for P10, but the work of this paper itself extends only to the level of "the four dharmadhātus and the gate of mutual identity," and does not unfold the gate-by-gate, vow-by-vow correspondence.

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## IV. The Cross-Series Bridge: A Natural Extension from the *Heart Sūtra* (S2) to the Avataṃsaka (S8)

The thirteen papers of the S2 series have built up the full outline of the *Heart Sūtra*'s structure. From S2-P05, *Form Is Emptiness — The Assembly Line of Suffering*, through S2-P10, *Mind Without Obstruction — Crossing Fear into Ultimate Nirvāṇa*, the central contemplation of this structure is the bidirectional interfusion of form and emptiness — form is emptiness (phenomenon as principle), emptiness is form (principle as phenomenon), and the two mutually unobstructed. Within the schema of the four dharmadhātus, this bidirectional interfusion of "form and emptiness" corresponds precisely to the third layer, the dharmadhātu of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena.

S8-P03 takes this point of correspondence as its starting point and *takes the structure of the* Heart Sūtra *one step further* — from the relation between phenomenon and principle to the relation between phenomenon and phenomenon. The doctrinal location of this step is clear: unobstructed principle-and-phenomena is the third layer of the four dharmadhātus, and unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena is the fourth; the former is the basis of the latter, and the latter is the unfolding of the former. Chengguan's single sentence — "Only by way of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena can one then attain the unobstructed interpenetration of phenomena and phenomena" — secures both the continuity of the two (without unobstructed principle-and-phenomena, no unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena) and the difference of the two (unobstructed principle-and-phenomena does not equal unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena). The *Heart Sūtra* has done the work of the third layer, and the Avataṃsaka does the work of the fourth. Doctrinally the two stand in a relation of succession, not competition.

This relation of succession has a clearly defined position within the doctrinal taxonomy of the Huayan school itself. S8-P02, *The Taxonomy of Five Teachings: The Container of the Avataṃsaka*, has already established the container thesis of Fazang's five teachings (elementary vehicle → elementary Mahāyāna → consummate Mahāyāna → sudden teaching → perfect teaching). Within this container, *prajñā* is classified by Fazang as elementary Mahāyāna (the seventh school, "the school of the emptiness of all dharmas"); the Avataṃsaka is classified as the perfect teaching of the one vehicle (the tenth school, "the school of perfect illumination possessing all virtues"). Fazang's classification is not a denigration of *prajñā* — in the *Treatise on the Five Teachings*, he explicitly states that the movement from elementary to perfect teaching is not a hierarchy of value but the unfolding of one and the same dharmadhātu at different levels of reception.[^54]

It is worth noting that, within the lineage of Chengguan, Zhenguo (the Qingliang school) attempted in his *Brief Commentary on the Heart Sūtra* to draw *prajñā* up to the level of the perfect teaching. Zhenguo wrote: "The *Mahāprajñāpāramitā* says, 'all dharmas tend toward form,' which means all is form, and the one fully contains all — this is precisely unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena. The doctrine of *prajñā* covers the five teachings; it precisely possesses the perfect teaching."[^55] What this says is that the doctrine of *prajñā* can horizontally extend through the five teachings, from the elementary teaching of the school of emptiness all the way up to the perfect teaching's unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena. But Zhenguo himself acknowledges that this is an *exalting* classification — it is not the mainstream view. Fazang originally classified the *proper doctrinal scope* of *prajñā* as the elementary teaching; Zhenguo elevates it to the consummate or even sudden teaching; and the claim of "unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena" is "by extension of meaning" rather than "in proper doctrinal scope." The central contemplative arena of the *Heart Sūtra* still lies in the bidirectional interfusion of "form is emptiness," and that arena is precisely the position of unobstructed principle-and-phenomena.

Zhongxi in the *Subcommentary Stringing Pearls on the Brief Commentary on the Heart Sūtra* gives an extraordinarily precise judgment of the *Heart Sūtra*'s doctrinal position: "If we follow this interpretation, the doctrinal scope of this sūtra falls precisely within the perfect teaching's *common* sub-position. Within that, if one takes only the dual standing, its meaning corresponds to the consummate teaching; if one takes only the joint dissolution, it corresponds to the sudden teaching."[^56] That is, the proper doctrinal scope of the *Heart Sūtra* is the *common one-vehicle* sub-position (sitting between the consummate and sudden teachings), not the *separate one-vehicle* of the Huayan perfect teaching. Zhongxi also states with even greater concision: "Concerning the meaning of the aggregates: for the *śrāvaka*s they are real; in the elementary teaching they are empty; in the consummate teaching they are thusness; in the sudden teaching they are inexpressible; in the one vehicle they are the dharmadhātu."[^57] One and the same concept of "aggregate" unfolds across the five teachings with extreme clarity — the elementary teaching sees the aggregates as empty (the *Heart Sūtra*'s "the five aggregates are all empty"), the consummate teaching sees the aggregates as thusness (the *tathāgatagarbha* structure), the sudden teaching sees the aggregates as inexpressible, and the perfect teaching sees the aggregates as the dharmadhātu (unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena). The position of the *Heart Sūtra* is at the meeting place between the elementary teaching's "as empty" and the consummate teaching's "as thusness" — precisely the position of unobstructed principle-and-phenomena.

These textual sources together confirm one structural thesis: the step that S8-P03 takes from the *Heart Sūtra* and forward is not a philosophical leap but a natural extension of doctrinal position. The S2 series has found its precise position of succession within the S8 series — *S2 is not replaced; it is extended*.

⚠️ **Irreducibility statement.** The phrases "the *Heart Sūtra* stops here, the Avataṃsaka continues" recur throughout this paper. They are not judgments to the effect that the *Heart Sūtra* is insufficient. The *Heart Sūtra* and the Avataṃsaka are two different reception bandwidths, not two graded steps and not stages of progression. A reader can rest within the *Heart Sūtra* for an entire lifetime and fully enter into emptiness, with no need to take any further step. The "one step further" of this paper is offered only to a reader already stabilized in the structure of the *Heart Sūtra*, as an indication that, when one is already at rest in "form is emptiness," there is a doctrinal framework awaiting the next naturally arising question (the relation between form and form). This framework has the names *four dharmadhātus*, *ten profound gates*, *unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena*; in practice it has the names *abundant offerings*, *function arising in accordance with nature*, *upon first arousing the mind already accomplishing perfect awakening*. But this framework does not replace the *Heart Sūtra*. It is the natural unfolding of the *Heart Sūtra*, in the way that the view naturally widens after climbing to a certain height — the climber has not been "upgraded."

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## V. Middle-Way Corrections

Unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena is among the most easily misread doctrines in the Huayan school. Its character of round fusion and its character of transcendence are easily read as a metaphysical doctrine of unity, as mysticism's appeal to supernatural events, or as a ladder-style progression of practice. This section presents five middle-way corrections, each addressing one specific misreading.

### V.1 ❌ The Pantheistic Slide of Unobstructed Phenomena-and-Phenomena

**Misreading.** "All things mutually fuse, so all things are one." "All things are one body — you are I, I am you." "I am no different from the Buddha, so I just am the Buddha." This misreading reads "unobstructedness" as "fusion" and reads unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena as a metaphysical monism or pantheism.

**Correction.** Unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena is "unobstructed," not "fused into one." Each phenomenon remains *this very phenomenon*; differences are not erased but are simply not mutually obstructing. Fazang in the *Treatise on the Five Teachings of the One Vehicle of the Huayan* explicitly states: "Although the one and the many mutually contain and accept one another in unobstructed self-existence, their substances remain distinct."[^58] And: "Without destroying the phenomenon, every single mote of dust is fully equipped with all the differentiated phenomena of the dharmadhātu, perfected with the subtlety of Indra's net."[^59] *Substances distinct*, *phenomena not destroyed* — these two statements draw the fundamental boundary line between unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena and pantheism.

To put the matter more precisely: unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena rests upon an extraordinarily strict basis in the doctrine of dependent origination, not upon any arbitrary metaphysical pronouncement. Fazang at the beginning of the fourth fascicle of the *Treatise on the Five Teachings* identifies the theoretical foundation of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena as "the doctrine of the same and different in the three natures → the six meanings of the cause-gate of dependent origination → the gate of unobstructed dependent origination of the ten profound mysteries → the doctrine of the round fusion of the six characteristics."[^60] The six meanings of dependent origination — the meanings of emptiness/existence, of force/non-force, and of awaiting/not awaiting conditions — are the concrete establishing conditions of mutual identity and mutual entry: "From the meanings of emptiness and existence comes the gate of mutual identity; from the meanings of force and non-force comes the gate of mutual entry."[^61] The entire architecture of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena is built upon dependent origination, and this is utterly different from pantheism's claim that "all things are the same substance." Unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena says that "phenomena are mutually identical and mutually entering at the level of dependent origination"; pantheism says that "phenomena are one and the same thing at the level of substance." The former preserves difference; the latter dissolves difference. The directions are opposite.

"I am mutually identical with the Buddha" does not mean "I just am the Buddha." Mutual identity speaks of a structural connection between two events within the dharmadhātu, not of an identity of the two events at the level of personal identity. To read mutual identity as identity is to read the Avataṃsaka as if it were Spinoza's doctrine of a single substance — and the Avataṃsaka explicitly rejects that direction.

### V.2 ❌ Reading the Four Dharmadhātus as Four "Levels" to Be Climbed in Sequence

**Misreading.** The dharmadhātu of phenomena is the elementary level; unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena is the advanced level; I am to climb step by step from the dharmadhātu of phenomena up to unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena. This misreading reads the four dharmadhātus as a ladder-style progression of practice, presupposing that "higher is better" and that "the elementary needs to be transcended."

**Correction.** The four dharmadhātus are not a "ladder of practice" but four "contemplative angles upon one and the same dharmadhātu." The contemplative angles can be approached in sequence (phenomenon → principle → principle and phenomenon → phenomenon and phenomenon), but the dharmadhātu itself is throughout one and the same. Unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena is not a "transcendence" of the dharmadhātu of phenomena; it is the "simultaneous self-display" of the dharmadhātu of phenomena. A stick of incense, in the very moment it is being lit, is already unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena — it is only that, most of the time, our contemplation rests at the level of the dharmadhātu of phenomena.

Zongmi's explanation, in the *Annotation on the Contemplation of the Dharmadhātu*, of Dushun's three contemplations is exceptionally clear: "These three are simply a single path penetrating downward, unfolding in profound subtlety. It is not that beyond the first dharmadhātu there is a separate second or third. Since they do not stand laterally side by side, they are called three layers, not three sections."[^62] *It is not that beyond the first dharmadhātu there is a separate second or third* — that is to say, unobstructed principle-and-phenomena does not lie *outside* the dharmadhātu of phenomena, and unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena does not lie *outside* unobstructed principle-and-phenomena. They are longitudinal contemplative deepenings of one and the same dharmadhātu, not four parallel worlds.

To say more: the dharmadhātu of phenomena within the fourfold schema is not an ordinary realm to be erased. It is the dimension of differentiated phenomenal character that is preserved at every subsequent layer. If a reader supposes that "I have already understood unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena, so my experience of the phenomenal dharmadhātu (concrete offering implements, concrete actions, concrete differences) can be erased," then this reader has read the four dharmadhātus as a ladder-style religion — falling precisely into the direction against which Dushun and Zongmi repeatedly warn.

The correct reading is this: the four dharmadhātus are to be "read simultaneously," not "read in sequence." The moment you light a stick of incense, the dharmadhātu of phenomena (the concrete existence of this very stick), the dharmadhātu of principle (the absence of self-nature in this stick), the dharmadhātu of unobstructed principle-and-phenomena (the simultaneous standing of phenomenal character and emptiness in this stick), and the dharmadhātu of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena (the mutual identity of this stick with all offering implements) are simultaneously present — it is only that your contemplation may rest at one or another layer. The "layered unfolding" of the four dharmadhātus is the sequence of doctrinal exposition, not the steps of a ladder of practice.

### V.3 ❌ Reading "A Stick of Incense Is All Offering Implements" as Mysticism

**Misreading.** A stick of incense "really" becomes all offering implements; this is some kind of supernatural event. Or: "When I recite a name of the Buddha, this is equivalent to having performed all forms of merit, so I do not need actual practice." This misreading reads unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena as a divine transformation or as a cheap shortcut to awakening.

**Correction.** "A stick of incense is all offering implements" is not a physical event but a structural statement. It says that "under the contemplation of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena, the offering event of this stick of incense contains the structure of all offering events," not that "this stick of incense magically becomes all offering implements." Conflating the two is to fall into mysticism.

Fazang in the *Treatise on the Five Teachings* addresses this question with remarkable directness: "All of these are real meanings, not transformations effected by divine power. They are objects within the field of wisdom in accordance with truth, in accordance with quantity. The other matters of transformation do not enter into this category. Why? Because all of these are the real virtues belonging to the household of dharma-nature. They are naturally so. They are not the field of discriminating consciousness."[^63] This passage has three key components. First, unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena is "real meaning," "real virtue," "naturally so" — not a result of divine transformation. Second, it is "an object within the field of wisdom in accordance with truth, in accordance with quantity" — it can be measured only by wisdom in correspondence with reality, not by "the field of discriminating consciousness" (the imaginings or speculations of ordinary persons). Third, "the other matters of transformation do not enter into this category" — divine transformation is explicitly excluded from unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena.

The word "is" in "a stick of incense *is* all offering implements" does not mean "physically becomes," but "is mutually identical at the structural level of the dharmadhātu." The basis of this mutual identity has been explained in §III.4 — phenomena are fused as principle is, and each phenomenon, by being "in accordance with principle," is unobstructed with every other. Without this basis of "in accordance with principle," a stick of incense is just a stick of incense; with this basis, a stick of incense structurally contains the entire structure of all offering implements.

The same logic applies to the misreading that "reciting one name of the Buddha is equivalent to performing all forms of merit." The perfect teaching's correct reading of this saying is: when this single recitation of the Buddha's name is sincere, in correspondence with the dharmadhātu, and arising in accordance with nature, then the structure of this very thought-moment is fully equipped with the entire merit of the ten profound gates — but this "being equipped" is structural, not a "cheap substitute." If the recitation is not arising in accordance with nature, it remains simply a recitation, with no structural unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena. Unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena never erases the concrete actions of practice — it says that, when those actions are nature-arising, those actions are equipped with all the merit of the perfect teaching.

### V.4 ❌ The Semantic Confusion of *acintya* — The *Āgama*'s "Should Not Be Contemplated" and the Avataṃsaka's "Inconceivable"

**Misreading.** The *Āgama*'s "inconceivable" (the realms of the Buddha, the world, sentient beings, *nāga*s — that ordinary persons should not contemplate) and the Avataṃsaka's "inconceivable" (the realm of the bodhisattva, entry into the inconceivable liberation realm, the inconceivability of the body of the ten manifestations) are read as a contradiction — "Why does the *Āgama* tell us not to contemplate things that the Avataṃsaka then describes at length?"

**Correction.** The same Sanskrit term *acintya* occupies two completely different functional positions in the *Āgama* and in the Avataṃsaka. In the former it is an *epistemological line that should not be crossed*; in the latter it is an *ontological exclamation*. This carries forward the container thesis of S8-P02: the *Āgama* corresponds to the elementary teaching, and the Avataṃsaka to the perfect teaching; the same term occupies different functional positions in different teachings.

The *Āgama*'s *acintya* is "do not go there." In the *Ekottara-āgama*'s chapter on the four norms, the Buddha enumerates four inconceivables: sentient beings, world, the realm of *nāga*s, and the realm of the buddhas. The Buddha explicitly states that these four matters "have no wholesome roots in them; one cannot through them cultivate the holy life; they do not lead to release, nor do they lead even to *nirvāṇa*. They merely cause one to become deluded, the mind to become confused, and doubts and entanglements to arise." He then directs the disciples to "abandon these matters of the world and seek instead by skillful means to contemplate the four noble truths."[^64] In other words: the four inconceivables are *objects that should not be contemplated*; to contemplate them increases ignorance. In what corresponds to the Pali *Sabbāsava Sutta* (MN 2), the Buddha explicitly classifies "what should not be contemplated" as the cause of the increase of the three contaminants, classifying questions such as "thinking of the distant past" and "thinking of where sentient beings come from and where they go" as belonging to "what should not be contemplated."[^65] There is also a vivid story in the *Āgama* corpus: a layman in Śrāvastī sat by the side of a lotus pond contemplating the formation and decay of the world, eventually producing the hallucination of seeing armies of *asura*s passing through the holes of lotus stalks, and the Buddha derided him as "the most deluded among the deluded."[^66] In the *Āgama* corpus, *acintya* draws a line and says "do not cross it"; to cross it is to become deluded.

The Avataṃsaka's *acintya* is the exact opposite. The Avataṃsaka says "reality is beyond thought" — *acintya* names the unbounded depth and breadth of the dharmadhātu itself; it is an exclamation, not a prohibition. The *Chapter on the Manifestation of the Tathāgata* opens by saying: "This place is inconceivable: namely, the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Awakened One, has come forth by means of immeasurable dharmas."[^67] The *Chapter of the Ten Stages*, describing the bodhisattva at the tenth ground, says: "This bodhisattva's bodily action is inconceivable, his vocal action is inconceivable, his mental action is inconceivable, his mastery in *samādhi* is inconceivable, his realm of wisdom is inconceivable."[^68] In a single passage in fascicle 5 of the forty-fascicle Avataṃsaka, the term "inconceivable" is used more than twenty times in succession to describe the merits and adornments of the Tathāgata.[^69] Most emblematic of all is "the inconceivable liberation realm" — this is the realm into which the youth Sudhana finally enters in the *Chapter on Entering the Dharmadhātu*, and it is the central term in the full title of the forty-fascicle Avataṃsaka, *The Samantabhadra Vow Chapter Entering the Inconceivable Liberation Realm*. Within the Avataṃsaka, *acintya* is a liberation realm "to be entered, to be realized, to be dwelled in" — not a prohibition.

The semantic shift may be summarized in the following table:

| Dimension | *Āgama* *acintya* | Avataṃsaka *acintya* |
|---|---|---|
| Character | Epistemological warning | Ontological exclamation |
| Stance | Forbids contemplation (causes delusion) | Praises depth and breadth (causes joy) |
| Significance for practice | Should be abandoned; turn to the four truths | Should be entered deeply; realize inconceivable liberation |
| Result | Contemplating it → increase of contaminants, doubts, madness | Realizing it → entering the dharmadhātu, attaining self-existence |
| Rhetorical function | Stopping (forestalling wrong contemplation) | Praising (adorning inexhaustible merit) |

This is not a contradiction between the *Āgama* and the Avataṃsaka but a functional shift of one and the same term across two different doctrinal positions. The audience addressed by the *Āgama* is the disciple who has only just aroused the mind; this disciple needs to avoid the questions that throw the ordinary mind into confusion and to concentrate effort on the actual cultivation of the four noble truths — for this audience, *acintya* must be a prohibition. The audience addressed by the Avataṃsaka is the bodhisattva already stabilized in the contemplation of emptiness of nature; this bodhisattva needs, on the basis of emptiness of nature, to see the inexhaustible adornment of the dharmadhātu — for this audience, *acintya* must be an exclamation. One and the same term, because the audience is different, takes on a different stance. This is the most direct lexical demonstration of the container thesis of S8-P02: the perfect teaching does not erase the elementary teaching; the perfect teaching adds, on top of the elementary teaching, a new use of the same term.

### V.5 ❌ Reading "Abundant Offerings" as "More Is Better"

**Misreading.** The more one offers, the greater the merit; therefore one must work hard to buy more offering implements. One flower is not enough — make it ten; ten is not enough — make it a hundred; the more expensive the better, the more numerous the better. This misreading reads the "abundance" of "abundant offerings" as numerical multiplicity.

**Correction.** The "abundance" of "abundant offerings" is not numerical multiplicity but structural round fusion. A single stick of incense, offered with the contemplation of round fusion, is fully equipped with all offering implements. Ten thousand sticks of incense, offered with a contemplation of separation, remain merely ten thousand separate sticks of incense. The "supreme" of "the Dharma-offering is supreme" is not a ranking; it indicates a difference of *kind*: the Dharma-offering is offering to the Dharma, that is, practice itself, not material offering implements.

The *Samantabhadra Vow Chapter* states explicitly: "Among all offerings, the Dharma-offering is supreme. Namely: offering by practicing as taught, offering by benefiting sentient beings, offering by embracing sentient beings, offering by taking on the suffering of sentient beings, offering by diligently cultivating wholesome roots, offering by not abandoning the bodhisattva's task, offering by not departing from *bodhicitta*." And further: "The boundless merit of the offerings just spoken of, compared to the merit of a single thought of Dharma-offering, does not amount to one part in a hundred, nor one part in a thousand … Why so? Because all the Tathāgatas revere the Dharma; because, by practicing as taught, the buddhas come forth."[^70] This passage has two key elements. First, the content of the Dharma-offering is the seven items of "practice as taught + benefiting others" — every one of which is an act of practice, not a material offering implement. Second, the form of comparison is "one part in a hundred, one part in a thousand" — this contrast does not say that the Dharma-offering is "a little better" than material offerings; it says that the two are different in kind and incomparable in numerical terms.

This structure is already seeded in the *Āgama* corpus. In the *Ekottara-āgama* chapter on non-negligence, the Buddha directly states the verse: "To give to all sentient beings is not equal to giving the Dharma to one person; the merit of giving to sentient beings is great, yet the merit of one person's Dharma-giving is greater."[^71] The *Dīrgha-āgama*'s *Kūṭadanta Sūtra* and the parallel passage in the *Ekottara-āgama* present a sevenfold graded sequence: material offering → constructing a monastic dwelling → taking the threefold refuge → undertaking the five precepts → cultivating loving-kindness → contemplating impermanence.[^72] This gradation does not mean that the merit of the later items is "numerically greater" than the merit of the earlier items; it means that the later items touch upon deeper layers of practice — loving-kindness is deeper than the five precepts, and contemplation of impermanence is deeper than loving-kindness. The Avataṃsaka's "Among all offerings, the Dharma-offering is supreme" is the perfect-teaching completion of this *Āgama*-level gradation.

In concrete practice: when lighting a stick of incense, the question is not "do I have enough sincerity to buy a more expensive stick of incense," but "what is the inner grammar of this very stick of incense?" If the inner grammar is "I am performing a ritual," it stops at the dharmadhātu of phenomena. If the inner grammar is "the offerer, the offered-to, and the offering are all empty," it enters the dharmadhātu of principle. If the inner grammar is "the phenomenal character and the emptiness simultaneously stand together within this stick," it enters the dharmadhātu of unobstructed principle-and-phenomena. If the inner grammar is "this stick of incense, in the relations of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena, is mutually identical with all offering implements; the act of offering is itself the dharma being offered," it enters the dharmadhātu of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena. The progression from phenomenal offering to Dharma-offering does not lie in the number or price of the offering implements; it lies in the depth of the inner grammar.

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## VI. The Practice Correspondence: A Perfect-Teaching Reading of Abundant Offerings

This section places the layered structure of the four dharmadhātus onto the concrete practice of "abundant offerings." The four dharmadhātus correspond to four contemplative layers of the offering act — phenomenal offering, principle-offering, the offering of unobstructed principle-and-phenomena, and the offering of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena. But the central point that must be emphasized is this: **these four layers are not four sequential actions to be practiced separately on different days; they are four contemplative angles upon a single act, all simultaneously present.**

### VI.1 Phenomenal Offering (the Layer of the Dharmadhātu of Phenomena)

Light a stick of incense. The hand brushes against the form of the stick, the match strikes, the smoke rises, the stick is planted in the censer. The focus of contemplation here is the concrete existence of this very stick of incense — its materiality, its visibility, its countability. One stick is one stick; three sticks are three sticks.

The normativity of phenomenal offering lies precisely in its concreteness. It pulls the practitioner's mind down from the layer of abstract thought to the layer of concrete action. To merely *think* in the heart "I make offering to the Buddha" without any concrete action is not yet to have arrived at the layer of phenomenal offering — it is only an intention. Intention may be an inner condition of offering, but it cannot replace the material vehicle of offering. The list of offering implements in the *Samantabhadra Vow Chapter*'s "abundant offerings" passage — clouds of flowers, garlands, heavenly music, parasols, garments, various forms of incense (smearing incense, burning incense, powdered incense) — are all material, countable, formed. The Avataṃsaka does not erase the materiality of phenomenal offering on the grounds that "all is empty." Phenomenal offering is one face of the dharmadhātu, not its outer husk.

The "four requisites" of the *Āgama* corpus (robes, food, bedding, and medicine) are precisely the rooting of phenomenal offering in the earliest Buddhist literature. The householder Citta's offering to the elder monastics in the *Saṃyukta-āgama* — "with his own hands he offered various foods; when the meal was finished, the bowls were washed and the mouth was rinsed; then Citta the householder set out a low seat and sat in front of the elder, listening to the Dharma"[^73] — is extraordinarily concrete: his own hands, various foods, washing the bowls, rinsing the mouth, the low seat, sitting, listening. The full normativity of phenomenal offering lies in this concrete sequence of actions. The perfect-teaching reading of S8 does not erase this layer; it only adds the contemplations of the subsequent three layers on top of it.

### VI.2 Principle-Offering (the Layer of the Dharmadhātu of Principle)

The same act of lighting a stick of incense. But this time, the focus of contemplation is not the concrete existence of the offering implement; it is the absence of self-nature in the offerer (myself), the offered-to (the Buddha), and the act of offering (the lighting).

The "I" who offers is an aggregation of the five aggregates, without self-nature — this "I" is not an independent substance but a temporary collection of form, sensation, perception, formations, and consciousness. The "Buddha" who is offered to is the *dharmakāya* pervading everywhere, without particular characteristic — this "Buddha" is not an object located somewhere but the totality of the dharmadhātu. The act of offering is dependently arisen, without substance — "lighting" is a dependent collection of hand, fire, incense, and air, with no independent "lighting" entity. All three are empty. This is principle-offering — what the *Diamond Sūtra* calls the "threefold purity of the donor, the recipient, and the gift," the bodhisattva who "performs giving without abiding," "who gives without abiding in form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or thought."

But principle-offering is not "not doing phenomenal offering." The hand still has to grasp that very stick of incense, still has to strike the match, still has to plant the stick. None of the material actions is reduced. What is reduced is only the illusion that "I am doing some substantially existent thing." If one reads principle-offering as "I do not need to do phenomenal offering since everything is empty," one falls into the *grasping misreading of emptiness* — the very direction against which the S2 series repeatedly warns, and against which the S8 series continues to warn. The "emptiness" of principle-offering does not erase the "phenomenon" of phenomenal offering; it sees the absence of self-nature within the very moment of phenomenal offering.

### VI.3 The Offering of Unobstructed Principle-and-Phenomena (the Layer of That Dharmadhātu)

The same act of lighting a stick of incense. The focus of contemplation is the simultaneous, mutually unobstructed standing of phenomenal character and emptiness in this very stick — the fragrance of the incense, the shape of the smoke, the physical process of combustion, the presence of offerer and offered, all of these phenomenal characters are present in full; and at the same time, the absence of self-nature in these phenomenal characters is also present in full. The phenomenal characters are not reduced; the emptiness is not reduced; the two are simultaneously present in the same instant, mutually unobstructed.

This is the most direct embodied realization of the *Heart Sūtra*'s "form is emptiness, emptiness is form." You do not need to switch back and forth between "seeing the incense" and "contemplating emptiness" — they are simultaneously present in this very instant. To see the incense is to contemplate emptiness; to contemplate emptiness is to see the incense. The word "is" does not denote temporal "simultaneity"; it denotes structural "non-duality."

Chengguan in the *Commentary on the Avataṃsaka* gives a direct statement of offering at this layer: "Practice in accordance with principle is the true offering. Mutual identity is signlessness; there is no need to extinguish or destroy."[^74] *Practice in accordance with principle is the true offering* — the phenomenal character of the offering need not be extinguished; in itself, by being "in accordance with principle," it is already the true offering. This is the offering of unobstructed principle-and-phenomena. The *Heart Sūtra* stops here. This layer of offering is already ultimate, and the practitioner can rest within it for an entire lifetime and fully enter into emptiness.

### VI.4 The Offering of Unobstructed Phenomena-and-Phenomena (the Layer of That Dharmadhātu)

The same act of lighting a stick of incense. The focus of contemplation is that this very stick of incense, in the relations of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena, is mutually identical with all offering implements — that the entire structure of flowers, lamps, water, fruit, and immeasurable offering implements is simultaneously present within this stick of incense. This is not to say that the stick of incense physically becomes the flower or the lamp. It is to say: under the contemplation of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena, the offering event of this stick of incense is, at the level of mutual identity, one and the same event as all offering events.

Chengguan's three direct statements in the *Commentary on the Avataṃsaka* describe this layer of offering with great precision. First: "Offering implements are themselves the substance of the dharmadhātu."[^75] Not that offering implements *symbolize* the dharmadhātu — offering implements *are* the substance of the dharmadhātu. Second: "Each individual offering implement accords with truth."[^76] Each offering implement "accords with truth" — accords with thusness, accords with dharma-nature. Third: "Offering implements and the like all penetrate to the unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena."[^77] These three sentences together: a stick of incense is the substance of the dharmadhātu; a stick of incense accords with thusness; a stick of incense penetrates unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena. This is the most concise installation of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena into offering at the doctrinal level.

More concretely, Chengguan in another passage explains the three meanings of "round-fusion: one fully containing all" within the perfect-teaching offering: "First, in terms of mutual support: the meaning of giving subsumes the six perfections, and so on. Second, in terms of correspondence: a single thought-moment fully cultivates all. Third, in terms of principle's fusion in accordance with nature: because the one and the many mutually contain one another."[^78] Why can the offering of one stick of incense "fully contain all offerings"? Because: (1) by mutual support — the act of offering this very stick subsumes the meaning of all other offering acts; (2) by correspondence — within this single thought-moment, all of the merit of all offerings is fully cultivated; (3) by principle's fusion in accordance with nature — by accord with dharma-nature, the one stick of incense and all offering implements mutually contain one another.

Looking back from this layer at the *Samantabhadra Vow Chapter*'s "Among all offerings, the Dharma-offering is supreme," one discovers that the Dharma-offering is "supreme" not because it is numerically ranked highest, but because it encompasses the previous three layers. The Dharma-offering is the simultaneous presence of phenomenal offering (the necessary concrete action) + principle-offering (the threefold purity) + the offering of unobstructed principle-and-phenomena (the simultaneous standing of phenomenal character and emptiness) + the offering of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena (mutual identity with all offerings). "Supreme" means "most thoroughly realizing mutual identity," not "twice as great as the others."

The seven items of Samantabhadra's Dharma-offering — practicing as taught, benefiting sentient beings, embracing sentient beings, taking on the suffering of sentient beings, diligently cultivating wholesome roots, not abandoning the bodhisattva's task, not departing from *bodhicitta* — are each a concrete unfolding of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena. "Practicing as taught" — the act of offering is itself the object being offered (the Buddha-Dharma); offerer and offered are mutually identical in this very act. "Benefiting sentient beings" — within the act of offering, the sentient beings being benefited and the Buddha being offered to are mutually identical at the level of "sentient beings are precisely buddhas." "Not departing from *bodhicitta*" — within the act of offering, the offering mind itself is mutually identical with the *bodhi* being offered to. Each item of the Dharma-offering is a concrete expression of "mutual identity."

### VI.5 The Simultaneity of the Four Layers

A final and crucial point: the four layers above are not four sequential actions to be practiced separately on different days; they are four contemplative angles upon a single act, all simultaneously present.

The moment you light a stick of incense, phenomenal offering, principle-offering, the offering of unobstructed principle-and-phenomena, and the offering of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena are simultaneously present — it is only that your contemplation may rest at one or another layer. The "layered unfolding" of the four dharmadhātus is the sequence of doctrinal exposition, not the steps of a ladder of practice. The cultivation of the perfect teaching is never a stepwise progression — "first do phenomenal offering for some time, then upgrade to principle-offering" — but rather: "every concrete action is, at every moment, the four layers simultaneously standing together."

The only difference is whether the practitioner's contemplation can keep up. If contemplation rests at the dharmadhātu of phenomena, only phenomenal offering is seen. If contemplation enters the dharmadhātu of principle, phenomenal offering is seen as also being principle-offering. If contemplation enters the dharmadhātu of unobstructed principle-and-phenomena, phenomenal offering and principle-offering are both seen as also being the offering of unobstructed principle-and-phenomena. If contemplation enters the dharmadhātu of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena, all four layers are seen as simultaneously present in this single stick of incense. But regardless of where contemplation rests, the stick of incense itself is *constituted by the simultaneous standing of all four layers* — its "unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena" does not wait for the practitioner's contemplation to appear; it is the originally so structure that is naturally present.

The practitioner's task is not to "upgrade" the stick of incense into unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena, but to allow the practitioner's own contemplation to keep up with the unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena structure that the stick of incense already is.

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## VII. Conclusion

### VII.1 Recapitulation of the Argument

This paper proceeds from a structural thesis: the *Heart Sūtra*'s "form is emptiness, emptiness is form" corresponds to the third layer of the four dharmadhātus (the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena), and the Avataṃsaka takes one further step from this layer to the fourth layer (the unobstructed interpenetration of phenomena and phenomena). This step is not a philosophical leap but a continuation of practice — when the practitioner is stabilized in the *Heart Sūtra*'s unobstructed principle-and-phenomena, the next naturally arising question is "the relation between phenomenon and phenomenon," and the Avataṃsaka's response to this question is that "phenomena are mutually identical and mutually entering, yet phenomenal characters remain phenomenal characters."

The genealogy of the four dharmadhātus runs as follows. Dushun originally established three layers of contemplation (the contemplation of true emptiness, the contemplation of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena, and the contemplation of universal pervasion and mutual containment), corresponding to the latter three dharmadhātus; the dharmadhātu of phenomena was originally excluded from the contemplative scheme because "phenomena do not stand independently"; later, Qingliang Chengguan systematized the four dharmadhātus in the *Commentary on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra*; and Zongmi in the *Annotation on the Contemplation of the Dharmadhātu* installed the four-dharmadhātu definitions of Chengguan's *New Sūtra Commentary* into Dushun's text. §III.0 of this paper provided a brief genealogical note on this development.

The central thesis of the four dharmadhātus is that they are "four contemplative angles upon one and the same dharmadhātu," not four parallel worlds. The differentiated character of the dharmadhātu of phenomena is preserved at every subsequent layer; unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena does not erase the differences among phenomena, but only erases the obstruction among them. This structure is repeatedly emphasized in §III.4 and in §V.1 (the middle-way correction against the pantheistic slide).

The corresponding practice is abundant offerings. Phenomenal offering, principle-offering, the offering of unobstructed principle-and-phenomena, and the offering of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena constitute the four contemplative layers of one and the same act. The "supreme" of "Among all offerings, the Dharma-offering is supreme" is not a ranking but "the most thorough realization of mutual identity." §VI provides the concrete unfolding of the perfect-teaching reading of a stick of incense.

The five middle-way corrections address: (1) the pantheistic slide; (2) the misreading of stepwise climbing; (3) the misreading of mysticism; (4) the clarification of the semantic shift of *acintya*; (5) the misreading of "more is better" in abundant offerings. Each correction addresses one specific misreading direction.

### VII.2 Relation to Other Papers

**Antecedent papers.** This paper inherits from the thirteen papers of the S2 series the structure of "form is emptiness," and locates that structure within the Huayan four-dharmadhātu framework as the third layer (unobstructed principle-and-phenomena). It inherits from S8-P02 the container thesis of the five-teaching taxonomy, continuing to unfold the extension from the *Heart Sūtra* to the Avataṃsaka along the line of doctrinal succession from the consummate teaching to the perfect teaching. It inherits from S8-P11 the established system of ten-gate terminology, and uses terms such as "the gate of mutual identity," "unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena," "mutual identity," and "mutual entry" without redefining them.

**Subsequent papers.** S8-P04, *Nature-Arising and Dependent Origination × the Gate of the Simultaneous Establishment of the Concealed and the Revealed*, will continue from another angle. P03 gives the *horizontal* structure within the dharmadhātu (four contemplative angles); P04 will give the *vertical* structure within the dharmadhātu (the relation between nature-arising and dependent origination). P04 will treat the perfect-teaching reading of the *Chapter on the Manifestation of the Tathāgata*'s passage on "How wonderful! How wonderful! These sentient beings have the wisdom of the Tathāgata yet do not know it." Together P03 and P04 will form a horizontal-and-vertical complementary pair within the structure of the dharmadhātu.

S8-P10, *Samantabhadra's Vows and the Perfect-Teaching Reading of the Ten Great Vow-Kings*, will continue, through historical-textual analysis, to argue the specific correspondence between the ten profound gates and the ten great vows. The argument in §III.4 of this paper for "gate of mutual identity = unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena" prepares the ground for P10, but the work of this paper itself extends only to "the four dharmadhātus and the gate of mutual identity."

S8-P05, *Faith Fulfilled Becomes Buddha and the Mutual Containment of Levels*, will form a doctrinal parallel with this paper's "abundant offerings" — the mutual containment of the fifty-two levels is the unfolding of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena along the dimension of stages of practice; the layered structure of the four dharmadhātus is the unfolding of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena along the dimension of contemplative angles; the two are two faces of one and the same structure.

### VII.3 Single-Sentence Pointing

The work of this paper can be condensed to a single sentence: *the* Heart Sūtra *opens through form and emptiness; the Avataṃsaka opens through form and form. A single stick of incense, in this very moment, is all offerings; differences are not erased; "unobstructed" is not "fused into one."*

### VII.4 Closing Verse

In the form of the closing verses of S8-P11, eight short lines:

> Before a stick of incense, the dharmadhātu becomes clear;
> Phenomena and phenomena unobstructed, but never fused into one.
> The *Heart Sūtra* has already pierced through form and emptiness;
> The Avataṃsaka further makes form and form mutually identical.
> The "abundance" of abundant offerings is not numerical multiplicity;
> The "supreme" of the supreme Dharma-offering is not a ranking.
> To light incense is to enter the inconceivable;
> Do not seek outside, for it is not divine power.

### VII.5 Dedication of Merit

May the reader, after completing this paper, the next time they light a stick of incense, pause for one extra second and ask: "Is this stick of incense phenomenal offering, principle-offering, the offering of unobstructed principle-and-phenomena, or the offering of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena?" And may they remember: these four contemplative layers are originally simultaneously present in this single stick of incense; the only question is whether contemplation can keep up.

May this small contemplation become the one step from the *Heart Sūtra* to the Avataṃsaka — not an upgrade, but an extension; not a transcendence, but a simultaneous self-display.

🙏 May this merit reach all beings, that we and all sentient beings may together accomplish the Buddha-Way.

---

## Cross-Series Index

| Paper | Relation to this paper |
|---|---|
| **S2-P05 *Form Is Emptiness — The Assembly Line of Suffering*** | The structure of the *Heart Sūtra*'s "form is emptiness," cross-referenced repeatedly in §III.3 and §IV |
| **S2-P06 *These Dharmas Are Marked by Emptiness — This Mind Is Neither Born Nor Extinguished*** | The unobstructed-principle-and-phenomena layer of the emptiness of the five aggregates, implicitly correlated in §III.2 and §III.3 |
| **S2-P10 *Mind Without Obstruction — Crossing Fear into Ultimate Nirvāṇa*** | The highest layer of the *Heart Sūtra*'s structure (the limit of unobstructed principle-and-phenomena), explicitly cited in §III.3 and §IV |
| **S8-P01 *Introductory Treatise on the King of Sūtras*** | The reception-bandwidth thesis of the Avataṃsaka, inherited by the irreducibility statement in §IV |
| **S8-P02 *The Taxonomy of Five Teachings: The Container of the Avataṃsaka*** | The succession from consummate to perfect teaching, the container thesis behind §IV and §V.4 (*acintya*) |
| **S8-P11 *The Ten Vows Beneath the Ten Windows*** | The system of ten-gate terminology and the initial treatment of the gate of mutual identity, used as the foundation for §III.4 and §VI |
| **S8-P04 *Nature-Arising and Dependent Origination*** | The vertical structure within the dharmadhātu, complementary to the horizontal structure of this paper |
| **S8-P05 *Faith Fulfilled Becomes Buddha and the Mutual Containment of Levels*** | The unfolding of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena along the dimension of stages of practice |
| **S8-P10 *Samantabhadra's Vows*** | The historical-textual analysis of the gate-vow correspondence |
| **S1-P01 *The Butterfly Effect of First Arousing the Mind*** | The seed-level account of "the round-fusion operation of 'one,'" implicitly correlated in §VI |

---

## Footnotes

[^1]: Dushun's *Huayan fajie guanmen* 華嚴法界觀門 is preserved as part of Zongmi's *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen* 註華嚴法界觀門, *Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō* (T) vol. 45, no. 1884. The original text is extremely concise; Zongmi himself notes that the entire text occupies only "eight or nine sheets." This paper cites T1884 as the location for both Dushun's original text and Zongmi's annotation, distinguishing between the two when necessary.

[^2]: Chengguan, *Da fangguang fo huayan jing shu* 大方廣佛華嚴經疏, sixty fascicles, T vol. 35, no. 1735; Chengguan, *Da fangguang fo huayan jing sui shu yanyi chao* 大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔, ninety fascicles, T vol. 36, no. 1736. Chengguan (738–839), known as Qingliang Guoshi, was the fourth patriarch of the Huayan school and the systematic organizer of the term "four dharmadhātus."

[^3]: Fazang, *Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang* 華嚴一乘教義分齊章 (also called *Wujiao zhang* 五教章), four fascicles, T vol. 45, no. 1866. Fazang (643–712) was the third patriarch of the Huayan school and the principal architect of the doctrinal apparatus of unobstructed phenomena-and-phenomena.

[^4]: *Da fangguang fo huayan jing* 大方廣佛華嚴經 (forty-fascicle Avataṃsaka), translated by Prajñā 般若, forty fascicles, T vol. 10, no. 0293. The fortieth fascicle is the *Puxian xingyuan pin* 普賢行願品 *(Chapter on the Vows of Practice of Samantabhadra Entering the Inconceivable Liberation Realm)*, the principal scriptural source for the ten great vows.

[^5]: *Za ahan jing* 雜阿含經 (*Saṃyukta-āgama*), translated by Guṇabhadra, fifty fascicles, T vol. 2, no. 0099; *Zengyi ahan jing* 增壹阿含經 (*Ekottara-āgama*), translated by Gautama Saṃghadeva, fifty-one fascicles, T vol. 2, no. 0125.

[^6]: *Huayan jing*, fascicle 40: 「諸供養中，法供養最。所謂：如說修行供養、利益眾生供養、攝受眾生供養、代眾生苦供養、勤修善根供養、不捨菩薩業供養、不離菩提心供養。」 T vol. 10, no. 0293.

[^7]: *Huayan jing*, fascicle 14, *Worthy Leader Chapter*: 「以佛華嚴三昧力，一微塵中入三昧，成就一切微塵定，而彼微塵亦不增，於一普現難思剎。」 T vol. 10, no. 0279.

[^8]: *Huayan jing*, fascicle 15, *Worthy Leader Chapter*: 「有勝三昧名方網，菩薩住此廣開示，一切方中普現身，或現入定或從出。」 「於眼根中入正定，於色塵中從定出，示現色性不思議，一切天人莫能知。」 「童子身中入正定，壯年身中從定出……一毛孔中入正定，一切毛孔從定出。」 T vol. 10, no. 0279.

[^9]: *Huayan jing*, fascicle 14, *Worthy Leader Chapter*: 「眾生形相各不同，行業音聲亦無量，如是一切皆能現，海印三昧威神力。」 T vol. 10, no. 0279.

[^10]: *Ekottara-āgama*, fascicle 21, *Chapter on the Four Persons*: 「所謂作功德阿羅漢，四事供養無所短乏，衣被、飲食、床臥具、病瘦醫藥，復免地獄、餓鬼、畜生道。」 T vol. 2, no. 0125.

[^11]: *Saṃyukta-āgama*, fascicle 21, *Citta-gahapati* connected discourses, sūtra 571: 「時，質多羅長者自手供養種種飲食。食已，洗鉢、澡漱畢，質多羅長者敷一卑床，於上座前坐聽法。」 T vol. 2, no. 0099.

[^12]: *Ekottara-āgama*, fascicle 20, *Chapter on the Wide Exposition of the Four Great Categories*: 「當以法供養得彼比丘。所以然者，如來恭敬法故，其有供養法者，則恭敬我已。其觀法者，則觀我已。」 T vol. 2, no. 0125.

[^13]: *Ekottara-āgama*, fascicle 4, *Chapter on Non-Negligence*: 「施一切眾生，不如法施人；雖施眾生福，一人法施勝。」 T vol. 2, no. 0125.

[^14]: *Dīrgha-āgama*, fascicle 15, *Kūṭadanta Sūtra*: 「常供養眾僧使不斷……不如為招提僧起僧房堂閣……不如起歡喜心口自發言：我歸依佛，歸依法，歸依僧……不如以歡喜心受行五戒，盡形壽……不如以慈心念一切眾生，如搆牛乳頃。」 T vol. 1, no. 0001.

[^15]: *Ekottara-āgama*, fascicle 21, *Chapter on the Four Norms*: 「有四事終不可思惟。云何為四？眾生不可思議；世界不可思議；龍國不可思議；佛國境界不可思議。所以然者，不由此處得至滅盡涅槃……然此四事無善根本，亦不由此得修梵行，不至休息之處，乃至不到涅槃之處，但令人狂惑，心意錯亂，起諸疑結。是故，諸比丘！當思議四諦。」 T vol. 2, no. 0125.

[^16]: Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*: 「略有三重　除事法界也。事不獨立故。法界宗中無孤單法故。若獨觀之。即事情計之境。非觀智之境故。」 T vol. 45, no. 1884.

[^17]: Dushun, *Huayan wujiao zhiguan* 華嚴五教止觀: 「行人修道簡邪入正止觀法門有五。一法有我無門小乘教　二生即無生門大乘始教　三事理圓融門大乘終教　四語觀雙絕門大乘頓教　五華嚴三昧門一乘圓教。」 T vol. 45, no. 1867.

[^18]: Dushun, *Huayan wujiao zhiguan*, fifth gate: 「多法互入猶如帝網天珠重重無盡之境界也……此帝網皆以寶成。以寶明徹遞相影現涉入重重。於一珠中同時頓現。隨一即爾。竟無去來也。」 T vol. 45, no. 1867.

[^19]: Fazang, *Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang*, fascicle 4: 「第十義理分齊者有四門。一三性同異義。二緣起因門六義法。三十玄緣起無礙法。四六相圓融義。」 T vol. 45, no. 1866.

[^20]: Fazang, *Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang*, fascicle 2: 「一攝義從名門。如小乘教說。二攝理從事門。如始教說。三理事無礙門。如終教說。四事盡理顯門。如頓教說。五性海具德門。如圓教說。」 T vol. 45, no. 1866.

[^21]: Fazang, *Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang*, fascicle 4: 「此教為顯一乘圓教法界緣起無盡圓融自在相即無礙鎔融乃至因陀羅無窮理事等……行德即一成一切成。理性即一顯一切顯。並普別具足始終皆齊。初發心時便成正覺。」 T vol. 45, no. 1866.

[^22]: Fazang, *Huayan jing tanxuan ji* 華嚴經探玄記, fascicle 1: 「第九顯義理分齊者，然義海宏深、微言浩汗，略舉十門撮其綱要：一同時具足相應門、二廣狹自在無礙門、三一多相容不同門、四諸法相即自在門、五隱密顯了俱成門、六微細相容安立門、七因陀羅網法界門、八託事顯法生解門、九十世隔法異成門、十主伴圓明具德門。」 T vol. 35, no. 1733.

[^23]: Fazang, *Huayan jing tanxuan ji*, fascicle 1: 「此一華葉廢己同他，舉體全是彼一切法，而恒攝他同己，全彼一切即是己體，一多相即混無障礙。」 T vol. 35, no. 1733.

[^24]: Fazang, *Huayan jing tanxuan ji*, fascicle 1, the doctrines of "different-substance mutual identity" and "same-substance mutual identity" within the ten meanings of dependent origination: 「五異體相即義，謂諸緣相望，全體形奪有有體無體義，緣起方成……是故無有不多之一、無有不一之多。」 「八同體相即義，謂前一緣所具多一，亦有有體無體義，故亦相即。」 T vol. 35, no. 1733.

[^25]: Fazang, *Huayan jing tanxuan ji*, fascicle 1: 「以體無不用故，舉體全用，即唯有相入無相即義。以用無不體故即，唯有相即無相入也。歸體之用不礙用，全用之體不失體，是即無礙雙存，亦入亦即自在俱現。」 T vol. 35, no. 1733.

[^26]: Chengguan, *Huayan jing shu* fascicle 1, the section on the central import: 「由事理無礙，方得事事無礙。若事不即理，事非理成，則互相礙；今由即理，故得無礙。」 See *Huayan jing sui shu yanyi chao*, fascicle 1, T vol. 36, no. 1736.

[^27]: Chengguan, *Huayan jing shu*, fascicle 2: 「第四周遍含容，即事事無礙，且依古德顯十玄門。於中文二：先正辯玄門、二明其所以……此之十門，同一緣起無礙圓融，隨其一門即具一切。」 T vol. 35, no. 1735.

[^28]: Chengguan, *Huayan jing shu*, fascicle 1: 「第六『其為旨也』下，旨趣玄微……於中有二：先明理事無礙、後顯事事無礙……以無障礙法界而為旨趣。」 See *Huayan jing sui shu yanyi chao*, fascicle 1, T vol. 36, no. 1736.

[^29]: Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*, citing Chengguan's *New Sūtra Commentary*: 「統唯一真法界。謂總該萬有。即是一心。然心融萬有。便成四種法界。一事法界。界是分義。一一差別。有分齊故。二理法界。界是性義。無盡事法。同一性故。三理事無礙法界。具性分義。性分無礙故。四事事無礙法界。一切分齊事法。一一如性融通。重重無盡故。」 T vol. 45, no. 1884.

[^30]: Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*: 「若分析義門。即有其四。今以對能觀之智。故唯三重。此三但是一道竪窮。展轉玄妙。非初法界外別有第二第三。」 T vol. 45, no. 1884.

[^31]: Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*, same as footnote 16.

[^32]: Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*, same as footnote 29.

[^33]: Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*, citing Chengguan's definition of the dharmadhātu of phenomena: 「界是分義。一一差別。有分齊故。」 T vol. 45, no. 1884.

[^34]: Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*, citing Chengguan's definition of the dharmadhātu of principle: 「界是性義。無盡事法。同一性故。」 T vol. 45, no. 1884.

[^35]: Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*, citing Chengguan's definition of the dharmadhātu of unobstructed principle and phenomena: 「具性分義。性分無礙故。」 T vol. 45, no. 1884.

[^36]: The water-and-wave metaphor on which Fazang relies appears in the ten-gate section of the contemplation of unobstructed principle and phenomena in Zongmi's *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*: 「全水之波非水以動義非濕故」「猶如波相虛令水體露現」. T vol. 45, no. 1884.

[^37]: Dushun, *Huayan fajie guanmen*, the central proposition of "the contemplation of gathering form into emptiness" within the first contemplation of true emptiness: 「色不即空以即空故。」 See Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*, T vol. 45, no. 1884.

[^38]: Dushun, *Huayan fajie guanmen*, the second contemplation of unobstructed principle and phenomena: 「但理事鎔融。存亡逆順通有十門……有五對。一相遍。二相成。三相害。四相即。五相非。」 See Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*, T vol. 45, no. 1884.

[^39]: Dushun, *Huayan fajie guanmen*, the conclusion of the second contemplation: 「約理望事則有成有壞有即有離。事望於理有顯有隱有一有異。逆順自在無障無礙同時頓起。」 See Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*, T vol. 45, no. 1884.

[^40]: Zhongxi 仲希, *Bore boluomiduo xinjing lüe shu lianzhu ji* 般若波羅蜜多心經略疏連珠記, fascicle 2: 「清涼曰：『性空通於初頓終教，妙有即是實教。若通於空有、二互交徹，具德即是圓教。』」 T vol. 33, no. 1713.

[^41]: Zhongxi, *Bore boluomiduo xinjing lüe shu lianzhu ji*, fascicle 1: 「般若竪貫二時、橫通五教，有帶有雙、談空談有，彰權實以明之，可稱絕唱。」 T vol. 33, no. 1713.

[^42]: Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*, citing Chengguan's definition of the dharmadhātu of unobstructed phenomena and phenomena: 「一切分齊事法。一一如性融通。重重無盡故。」 T vol. 45, no. 1884.

[^43]: Dushun, *Huayan fajie guanmen*, the ten gates of the third contemplation of universal pervasion and mutual containment. See Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*, T vol. 45, no. 1884.

[^44]: Dushun, *Huayan fajie guanmen*, the general statement of the third contemplation: 「事如理融　一一事皆如理故融通也。謂若唯約事即彼此相礙。若唯約理。即無可相礙。亦無可遍容。今以事如理融。故有十門無礙。」 See Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*, T vol. 45, no. 1884.

[^45]: Chengguan, *Huayan jing sui shu yanyi chao*, fascicle 1: 「由事理無礙，方得事事無礙。」 T vol. 36, no. 1736.

[^46]: Chengguan, *Huayan jing shu*, fascicle 9: 「即菩薩威力，同異生眾皆菩薩也。又表身口為供具故，供具皆即法界體故。」 T vol. 35, no. 1735.

[^47]: Chengguan, *Huayan jing sui shu yanyi chao*, fascicle 90: 「然毛孔出生等，廣如玄中。今更略示，謂彼普賢遊入十方，略有十門……三明供養，一一供具皆稱真故。」 T vol. 36, no. 1736.

[^48]: Chengguan, *Huayan jing sui shu yanyi chao*, fascicle 47: 「準下供具等，皆通事事無礙。」 T vol. 36, no. 1736.

[^49]: Fazang, *Huayan jing tanxuan ji*, fascicle 1, same as footnote 23.

[^50]: Fazang, *Huayan jing tanxuan ji*, fascicle 1, same as footnote 25.

[^51]: Fazang, *Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang*, fascicle 4: 「然此一多雖復互相含受自在無礙。仍體不同也。」 T vol. 45, no. 1866.

[^52]: Fazang, *Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang*, fascicle 1: 「事異。謂隨有舍林池地山等事。皆是法門……而不壞其事。仍一一塵中。皆具足法界一切差別事。因陀羅微細成就。」 T vol. 45, no. 1866.

[^53]: Fazang, *Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang*, fascicle 4: 「此等並是實義非變化成。此是如理智中如量境也。其餘變化等者不入此例。何以故。此並是法性家實德。法爾如是也。非謂分別情識境界。」 T vol. 45, no. 1866.

[^54]: Fazang, *Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang*, fascicle 1, the five-teaching taxonomy, T vol. 45, no. 1866. Fazang classifies *prajñā* as "the seventh school, the school of the emptiness of all dharmas = elementary Mahāyāna," and the Avataṃsaka as "the tenth school, the school of perfect illumination possessing all virtues = the perfect teaching of the separate one vehicle."

[^55]: Zhongxi, *Bore boluomiduo xinjing lüe shu lianzhu ji*, fascicle 1, citing Zhenguo: 「《大品》云『一切法趣色』即一切皆色，一中具一切，即事事無礙。般若義該五教，即具圓矣。」 T vol. 33, no. 1713.

[^56]: Zhongxi, *Bore boluomiduo xinjing lüe shu lianzhu ji*, fascicle 2: 「若依此釋，斯經分齊正當圓中同教。於中若唯取雙存，義當終教；唯取俱泯，則當顯教。」 T vol. 33, no. 1713.

[^57]: Zhongxi, *Bore boluomiduo xinjing lüe shu lianzhu ji*, fascicle 2: 「此蘊義，聲聞即實，初教即空，終教即如，頓教不可說，一乘即法界。」 T vol. 33, no. 1713.

[^58]: Fazang, *Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang*, fascicle 4, same as footnote 51.

[^59]: Fazang, *Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang*, fascicle 1, same as footnote 52.

[^60]: Fazang, *Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang*, fascicle 4, same as footnote 19.

[^61]: Fazang, *Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang*, fascicle 4: 「由空有義故。有相即門也。由有力無力義故。有相入門也。」 T vol. 45, no. 1866.

[^62]: Zongmi, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen*, same as footnotes 16 and 30.

[^63]: Fazang, *Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang*, fascicle 4, same as footnote 53.

[^64]: *Ekottara-āgama*, fascicle 21, *Chapter on the Four Norms*, same as footnote 15.

[^65]: *Ekottara-āgama*, fascicle 34, *Discourse on the Exhaustion of Contaminants*: 「凡夫之人不覩聖人，不順從如來之法……其聞法所應思惟法者亦不分別，不應思惟者而思惟之。未生欲漏而生，已生欲漏便增多。」 The Pali parallel is the *Sabbāsava Sutta*, MN 2. T vol. 2, no. 0125.

[^66]: *Ekottara-āgama*, fascicle 21: 「過去久遠，此舍衛城中有一凡人，便作是念：『我今當思議世界。』是時，彼人出舍衛城，在一華池水側，結跏趺坐，思惟世界……是時，彼人思議，此時便見池水中有四種兵出入。是時，彼人復作是念：『我今狂惑，心意錯亂，世間無者，我今見之。』」 T vol. 2, no. 0125.

[^67]: *Huayan jing*, fascicle 50, *Chapter on the Manifestation of the Tathāgata*: 「佛子！此處不可思議，所謂如來、應、正等覺以無量法而得出現。」 T vol. 10, no. 0279.

[^68]: *Huayan jing*, fascicle 44, *Chapter of the Ten Stages*: 「此菩薩，身業不可思議，語業不可思議，意業不可思議，三昧自在不可思議，智慧境界不可思議。」 T vol. 10, no. 0279.

[^69]: *Huayan jing* (forty-fascicle), fascicle 5: 「道場眾會不可思議，圓滿智慧不可思議，圓光照耀不可思議，威儀隨現不可思議，光明熾盛不可思議……」 The term *bukě sīyì* 不可思議 occurs more than twenty times in succession in the description of the merits and adornments of the Tathāgata. T vol. 10, no. 0293.

[^70]: *Huayan jing*, fascicle 40, *Samantabhadra Vow Chapter*: 「諸供養中，法供養最……如前供養無量功德，比法供養一念功德百分不及一，千分不及一，百千俱胝那由他分、迦羅分、算分、數分、諭分、優婆尼沙陀分亦不及一。何以故？以諸如來尊重法故，以如說修行出生諸佛故。」 T vol. 10, no. 0293.

[^71]: *Ekottara-āgama*, fascicle 4, *Chapter on Non-Negligence*, same as footnote 13.

[^72]: *Ekottara-āgama*, fascicle 19, *Chapter on the Four Modes of Application*: 「彼毘羅摩雖作是布施……不如作一房舍，持用布施招提僧……不如受三自歸佛、法、聖眾……不如受持五戒……不如彈指之頃慈愍眾生……慈愍眾生，不如須臾之間，起於世間不可樂想，此福功德不可稱量。」 T vol. 2, no. 0125.

[^73]: *Saṃyukta-āgama*, fascicle 21, same as footnote 11.

[^74]: Chengguan, *Huayan jing shu*, fascicle 29: 「四如理修行，真供養故。五相即無相，不須滅壞。」 T vol. 35, no. 1735.

[^75]: Chengguan, *Huayan jing shu*, fascicle 9, same as footnote 46.

[^76]: Chengguan, *Huayan jing sui shu yanyi chao*, fascicle 90, same as footnote 47.

[^77]: Chengguan, *Huayan jing sui shu yanyi chao*, fascicle 47, same as footnote 48.

[^78]: Chengguan, *Huayan jing sui shu yanyi chao*, fascicle 59: 「其『五約圓融一具一切』，更有三義：一約相資，檀義攝六等，二約相應，一念具修，三約理融稱性，一多互相攝故。」 T vol. 36, no. 1736.

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## References

### Scriptural Sources

- *Saṃyukta-āgama* (*Za ahan jing* 雜阿含經), translated by Guṇabhadra, fifty fascicles, T vol. 2, no. 0099.
- *Ekottara-āgama* (*Zengyi ahan jing* 增壹阿含經), translated by Gautama Saṃghadeva, fifty-one fascicles, T vol. 2, no. 0125.
- *Dīrgha-āgama* (*Chang ahan jing* 長阿含經), translated by Buddhayaśas and Zhu Fonian, twenty-two fascicles, T vol. 1, no. 0001.
- *Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra* (*Da fangguang fo huayan jing* 大方廣佛華嚴經, eighty-fascicle version), translated by Śikṣānanda, eighty fascicles, T vol. 10, no. 0279.
- *Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra* (forty-fascicle version), translated by Prajñā 般若, forty fascicles, T vol. 10, no. 0293.
- *Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra* (*Bore boluomiduo xinjing* 般若波羅蜜多心經), translated by Xuanzang, T vol. 8, no. 0251.

### Treatises and Commentaries

- Dushun 杜順, *Huayan wujiao zhiguan* 華嚴五教止觀, one fascicle, T vol. 45, no. 1867.
- Fazang 法藏, *Huayan jing tanxuan ji* 華嚴經探玄記, twenty fascicles, T vol. 35, no. 1733.
- Fazang, *Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang* 華嚴一乘教義分齊章 (*Wujiao zhang* 五教章), four fascicles, T vol. 45, no. 1866.
- Fazang (transmitted from Zhiyan 智儼), *Huayan yisheng shi xuan men* 華嚴一乘十玄門, one fascicle, T vol. 45, no. 1868.
- Chengguan 澄觀, *Da fangguang fo huayan jing shu* 大方廣佛華嚴經疏, sixty fascicles, T vol. 35, no. 1735.
- Chengguan, *Da fangguang fo huayan jing sui shu yanyi chao* 大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔, ninety fascicles, T vol. 36, no. 1736.
- Zongmi 宗密, *Zhu huayan fajie guanmen* 註華嚴法界觀門 (containing Dushun's *Huayan fajie guanmen* 華嚴法界觀門 and Zongmi's annotation), one fascicle, T vol. 45, no. 1884.
- Zhongxi 仲希, *Bore boluomiduo xinjing lüe shu lianzhu ji* 般若波羅蜜多心經略疏連珠記, two fascicles, T vol. 33, no. 1713.

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**Pointing at the Moon · Avataṃsaka Sūtra Series · S8-P03**

**Author**: Shi Huijing (釋慧鏡)

**License**: This paper is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

*All sūtra and treatise citations in this paper use the CBETA digital edition of the Taishō Tripiṭaka.*

GitHub: pointing-at-the-moon/dharma-research

YouTube: @PointingattheMoon