Domesticating the Dharma: Buddhist Cults and the Hwaom Synthesis in Silla Korea

Chapter Four: The Rise of Hwaŏm Buddhism in Silla

86 chapter four The Rise of Hwaŏm Buddhism in Silla T he Avataṃsaka Sūtra (Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra, Ch. Dafangguang fohuayanjing) provides a compelling vision of reality and a comprehensive Buddhist worldview. This Mahāyāna scripture was regarded as the first sermon preached by the Buddha Śākyamuni in the Lotus Storehouse World System after his enlightenment . Because it was delivered to a vast assembly of gods, spiritual beings, and bodhisattvas, but understood only by beings with advanced spiritual capacity, the scripture was conceptualized as an esoteric teaching (Kor. milgyo, Ch. mijiao) by medieval Buddhists. The sūtra presents a unified vision of reality tied to a detailed description of the bodhisattva path and incorporates the cults of several of the most prominent buddhas , bodhisattvas, gods, and other related beings of power believed to reside or be accessible in the phenomenal world. Buddhist intellectuals in Silla from the seventh century onward increasingly understood the scripture as unassailable, being at once the initial and consummate Buddhist teaching. Differences are overcome in this sūtra and shown to be integral parts of a transcendent whole. When the scripture was deployed ritually and institutionally, its emphasis on the ultimate interdependence and interfusion of all things was useful in producing politico-religious symbolism that could be systematized by the Silla royalty, aristocracy, and Buddhist intellectuals to promote a vision of unity amid diversity in order to protect and maintain the Silla state. The whole of the preexisting Buddhist intellectual tradition, Mahāyāna and non-Mahāyāna, was subsumed into one stratified and inclusive system just as the Silla elites hoped to incorporate the subjugated peoples of Paekche and Koguryŏ into their sociopolitical order. In Silla from the eighth century onward, adherence to the Avataṃsaka Sūtra’s conceptualization of the Buddhist universe gradually replaced the earlier promotion of individual cults of buddhas and bodhisattvas by providing a system in which all the earlier cult figures could be venerated. This The Rise of Hwaŏm Buddhism in Silla  and the next chapter will describe this gradual process by emphasizing developments in what we may call provisionally the Hwaŏm tradition of Silla, which assimilated preexisting cults of buddhas and bodhisattvas and synthesized new cultic practices. The tradition combined and unified Buddhist doctrines and cultic practices into one coherent whole that could be deployed by the Silla state to promote its purposes and protect the privileges of its elites. Previously, scholars have examined aspects of the rise of what they call “Hwaŏm faith” (Hwaŏmsinang), which comprises various cultic developments: reverence for the AvataṃsakaSūtra, a cult of the Divine Assembly described in the sūtra, veneration of the abodes of bodhisattvas depicted in the scripture, the development of Hwaŏm communities, the worship of the founder of the Hwaŏm school in Silla, and special dharma assemblies associated with the Avataṃsaka Sūtra.1 In this chapter, for the sake of context, I review the basic contours of the tradition in China and Japan. The bulk of the chapter is devoted to describing the literary and material evidence of the growing interest in Hwaŏm Buddhism among Buddhist intellectuals and the royalty of Silla, the formation of a Hwaŏm tradition in Silla focused on Ŭisang but popularized by his disciples, and the observances of Hwaŏm societies. The East Asian Context to the Rise of Hwaŏm in Silla The Hwaŏm/Huayan tradition (Hwaŏmjong) was one of several Buddhist movements that began to develop during the Sui-Tang period in medieval China. Among the other movements arising at this time, the most influential were Tiantai, Chinese Yogācāra (Ch. Faxiang, Weishi, or Cien after the name of Kuiji [632–682]), Chan, and tantric Buddhism.2 The received tradition of Chinese Huayan Buddhism traces its origins to the monk Dushun (557–640, officially called Fashun). Dushun is said to have built upon the foundations laid by the masters of the Daśabhūmika Śāstra (Treatise on the SūtraontheTenStages, Ch. Shidijinglun; usually simply Dilun), which was a commentary describing the ten stages of a bodhisattva. The Daśabhūmika itself became roll eight of Buddhabhadra’s translation of the AvataṃsakaSūtra in sixty rolls (trans. 418–420). As a youth Dushun joined the service battalions of the army, performing such menial labor as carrying water and gathering firewood. At...