Translating Totality in Parts

Chengguans Commentaries and Subcommentaries to the Avatamska Sutra

By (author) Guo Cheen

Publication date:

25 March 2014

Length of book:

162 pages

Publisher

University Press of America

Dimensions:

236x161mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780761863090

Translating Totality in Parts offers an annotated translation of two of preeminent Chinese Tang dynasty monk Chengguan’s most revered masterpieces. With this book, Chengguan’s Commentaries to the Avatamsaka Sutra and The Meanings Proclaimed in the Subcommentaries Accompanying the Commentaries to the Avatamsaka Sutra are finally brought to contemporary Western audiences. Translating Totality in Parts allows Western readers to experience Chengguan’s important contributions to the religious and philosophical theory of the Huayan and Buddhism in China.

Introduction
Background
Chengguan’s Doctrinal Contributions
An Analysis of the Translation
The Annotated Translation
Appendix A: Fascicle Nine of A Compilation of the Commentaries and Subcommentaries to the Avataṃsaka Sūtra
Appendix B: Outline to the Commentaries to the Avataṃsaka Sūtra
Appendix C: Chengguan’s Commentaries to the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, Fascicle One
Bibliography
Index

In this study . . . Guo Cheen has made a substantial contribution to contemporary Buddhist Studies. Chengguan's commentaries on the Avatamsaka/Huayan Sutra were among the most important endeavors in Chinese Buddhist philosophy. Having them now available in English translation extends our realization that the philosophy of ‘interrelatedness’ is one of the greatest gifts from the Buddhist tradition to our moment in time.