The World of Shih & Li of Tung-Shan

Hakuin enso and Daruma source thezensite  The World of Shih & Li of Tung-Shan

from: Original Teachings of Ch’An Buddhism
Chang Chung-Yuan
Vintage Books

Fourfold Dharmadhatu of Hua-Yen 1.  The world of Shih (events) Five Relations Between Universality and Particularity of Tung-Shan           Particularity in Universality Subjectivity Universality in particularity Objectivity  When one stays in the centre of the market and is ready to engage in all kinds of work at any time, he is entitled to receive thirty blows, because he neglects the cultivation of li, or reality, or non-action.  (Wan-Ju T’ung-Che) Fourfold Dharmadhatu of Hua-Yen 2.  The world of Li (reality) Five Relations Between Universality and Particularity of Tung-Shan Enlightenment emerging from universality Non-action (from which action emerges) When one stays on top of the solitary peak and gazes at the sky, he may swallow all the Buddhas, past, present and future, in one gulp, but he will neglect the all-sentient beings.  He should also be given thirty blows because he neglects shi, or action. (Wan-Ju T’ung-Che)

Li & Shih - Fusedness

[... ] Dieser Zustand der Verschmolzenheit ist eine Art Denkbild und der ungewarnte Leser könnte glauben, hier seien zwei Dinge in eines verschmolzen und damit etwas Neues entstanden. Das wäre das Ergebnis, wenn man Li oder als eine andere Art von Shih (shiki oder Rupam oder Form) betrachtet.


Wenn aber der Hua-Yen-Buddhist auf ein Shih (oder shiki oder Form) blickt. Sieht er durch es hindurch, wie wenn es nicht existiert, und stellt fest, dass es Li eigentlich ist, das hier ein Form (shih) angenommen hat und in ihr erscheint.

Aber lassen sie mich wiederholen: er nimmt gleichzeitig wahr, dass Li nicht alles durchdringt gleich dem formlosen Raum, sondern, dass es diese Welt der Vielfältigkeiten ist.

Denjenigen, die nur in die Welt der Sinne leben, scheint Shih bloß aus individuellen Objekten zu bestehen.

Für Hu-Yen aber sind es individuelle Objekt, die in der Li Welt in einer Weise enthalten sind, dass Li Shih und Shih Li ist. [...]

This state of fusedness is a kind of mental image and the unwarned reader might think, here are two things merge into one and thereby created something new. That would be the result if one or Li as another type of Shih (shiki or Rupam or form) is considered.


But if the Hua-yen Buddhist looks on a Shih (or shiki, or form) looks. Does he see through it as if it does not exist, and notes that it is actually Li, which has assumed the form here (shih) and appears in it.

But let me repeat: he perceives the same time that Li is not the same all-pervading formless space, but that it is this world of  multiplicity.

Those who live only in the world of the senses seems to consist merely Shih individual objects.


For Hu-Yen but there are individual objects contained in the Li world in a way that Li Shih and Shih Li.

Li & Shih

Li & Shih
Ursprünglich hochgeladen von Silandi

Emptiness is Form and Form is Emptiness Li is Shih and Shih Li

[...] The fusedness says far more about the relationship between the individual things in the world of Shih and Li than on the myriad forms of this relationship, which may arise between the individual things in the world of Shih. Some of the most characteristic forms that belong here are:

1. simultaneous mutual identification 
2. simultaneous mutual in-transformation (gegenseitige Einverwandlung) 
3. Identity of the subject and the object of doing or an act 
4. Identity of the One and the Many 
5. Simultaneous sudden emergence.

All these have the purpose of formulation, the dynamic interaction of different types of Li to describe how they as Shih-shih are known Wu-ai in the world of Shih. Shih-shih means any individual details in the world of Shih and Wu-ai means "to be unhindered."

Each is individually Shih unhindered not only fused with Li, but also with each other every Shih, individually, each other and totalistic. So that when I lift a finger, the whole world of Shih is contained in it, separately and not only the world as such, but each individual reality severally.

Another consequence of Hua-yen terms, which we have referred here to make the mind-edifice of the Hua-yen to understand are: 

1. interfuse (pien) and embrace (yang ) 
2. take (something) into herself (she) and 
3. into something enter (je) 

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