The Four Dharmadhatu () is a philosophical concept propagated by Master
Dushun
Dushun ( zh, c=杜順, p=Dùshùn, w=Tu-shun) (557–640) was the First Patriarch of the Huayan School of Chinese Buddhism, which has the Indian Avatamsaka Sutra as its central scripture.
Biography
Dushun was born in present-day Shaanxi provinc ...
(Chinese: 杜順; 557-640 CE), the founder of the
Huayan school
The Huayan school of Buddhism (, Wade–Giles: ''Hua-Yen,'' "Flower Garland," from the Sanskrit "''Avataṃsaka''") is a Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty, Tang dynasty (618-907).Yü, Chün-fan ...
. It builds upon and is a variant of the
Dharmadhatu doctrine.
The Four Dharmadhatu
The Four Dharmadhatu were outlined in Dushun's treatise, the title of which has been rendered into English as 'On the Meditation of Dharmadhātu'. The Four Dharmadhatu are:
*The Dharmadhātu of ''Shi'' (). ''Shi'' holds the
semantic field
In linguistics, a semantic field is a related set of words grouped semantically (by meaning) that refers to a specific subject.Howard Jackson, Etienne Zé Amvela, ''Words, Meaning, and Vocabulary'', Continuum, 2000, p14. The term is also used in ...
"matter", "phenomenon", "event". It may be understood as the "realm" (Sanskrit: dhātu) of all matters and phenomena.
*The Dharmadhātu of ''Li'' (). ''Li'' holds the semantic field: "principle", "law", "
noumenon
In philosophy, a noumenon (, ; from ; : noumena) is knowledge posited as an Object (philosophy), object that exists independently of human sense. The term ''noumenon'' is generally used in contrast with, or in relation to, the term ''Phenomena ...
". This realm may be understood as that of principles. It has been referred to as "the realm of the one principle". The "one principle" being qualified as
śūnyatā
''Śūnyatā'' ( ; ; ), translated most often as "emptiness", " vacuity", and sometimes "voidness", or "nothingness" is an Indian philosophical concept. In Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and other Indian philosophical traditions, the concept ...
(Sanskrit).
*The Dharmadhātu of Non-obstruction of ''Li'' against ''Shi'' (). This realm has been rendered into English as "the realm of non-obstruction between principle and phenomena".
*The Dharmadhātu of the Non-obstruction of ''Shi'' and ''Shi'' (). This realm has been rendered into English as "the realm of non-obstruction between phenomena".
[Samanta Buddhist Glossary (2006). "Four Dharmadhātu". Source]
(accessed: January 28, 2008)
See also
*
Eight Consciousnesses
The Eight Consciousnesses (Skt. ''aṣṭa vijñānakāyāḥ'') are a classification developed in the tradition of the Yogacara, Yogācāra school of Mahayana Buddhism. They enumerate the five sense consciousnesses, supplemented by the mental ...
*
Five wisdoms
The Five Wisdoms are five kinds of wisdoms which appear when the mind is purified of the five disturbing emotions and the natural mind appears.[Two truths doctrine
The Buddhism, Buddhist doctrine of the two truths (Sanskrit: '','' ) differentiates between two levels of ''satya'' (Sanskrit; Pāli: ''sacca''; meaning "truth" or "reality") in the teaching of Gautama Buddha, Śākyamuni Buddha: the "conventiona ...](_blan ...<br></span></div>
* <div class=)
*
Yogacara
Yogachara (, IAST: ') is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through the interior lens of meditation, as well as philosophical reasoning (hetuvidyā). ...
References
Further reading
* Oh, Kang-nam (2000). ''The Taoist Influence on Hua-yen Buddhism: A Case of the Sinicization of Buddhism in China''. Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal, No. 13, (2000). Source
(accessed: January 28, 2008)
External links
Taigen Dan Leighton, ''Huayan Buddhism and the Phenomenal Universe of the Flower Ornament Sutra''
Buddhist philosophical concepts
{{Buddhist-philo-stub