Huáyán yóu xīn fǎ jiè jì 華嚴遊心法界記

Notes on the Mind’s Roving in the Dharma-Realm of the Huáyán [Sūtra] by 法藏 (Fǎzàng, 撰)

About the work

The Yóuxīn fǎjiè jì 遊心法界記 in 1 fascicle is 法藏 Fǎzàng’s contemplative-philosophical treatise on the mind’s roving (yóuxīn 遊心) in the Avataṃsaka’s dharma-realm. The text combines doctrinal exposition with contemplative-meditative direction: the bodhisattva’s mind, taking refuge in the dharma-realm, traverses its boundlessness through ten stages of contemplative roving, each corresponding to a doctrinal articulation of the dharma-dhātu’s structure.

Prefaces

No formal preface.

Abstract

The work is conventionally datable to 法藏 Fǎzàng’s mature period, c. 670 – 712 CE. The bracket adopted here reflects this window. The yóuxīn genre — the contemplative-philosophical companion to the larger doctrinal commentary — is one of Fǎzàng’s distinctive literary innovations, paralleling the later [[KR6e0090|Huán yuán guān]] (T1876) but with a more philosophically-discursive cast.

The Taishō text (T1877) is established on the standard apparatus.

Translations and research

  • No complete Western-language translation located.
  • Cook, Francis H. Hua-yen Buddhism (1977).
  • Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).

Other points of interest

  • The yóuxīn metaphor — the mind “roving” through the dharma-realm — became a stock image in subsequent East Asian Buddhist contemplative literature, particularly in Sòng Chán-Huáyán synthesis and in Korean Hwaeom contemplative practice.