BUDDHISM IN CENTRAL ASIA AND CHINA 195sumptions of the first category-the existence of a self taking rebirth-by an-
alyzing the self into impersonal dharmas. This overturns the stages of defile-
ment and attachment to self. (3) The Fa-hsiang/Yogacara teachings of the
three natures then serve to correct an assumption of the Hinayana teachings-
that dharmas exist in an ultimate sense-by showing that they are simply pro-
jections of the alaya-vijfiaJ:?-a. This overturns the stages of perceived subject,
perceived objects, and attachment to dharmas. (4) The emptiness teachings
then show that the projecting alaya-vijfiaJ:?-a is just as unreal as the projected
subject/ object dichotomy. Although this stage succeeds in establishing that the
alaya-vijfiaJ:?-a is not the ultimate reality, it does not show what that reality is.
Thus the need for the fifth class of teachings: (5) the revelation of the (Bud-
dha) nature in such texts as The Awakening cif Faith, the Avata1J1saka Siitra, and
the Lotus Sutra.
Tsung-mi maintains that classes (2) to (4) express their teachings in nega-
tive terms in order to rid the mind of its attachment to concepts. Only when
the mind has completed its training in these classes is it ready for the positive
language of class (5), which-following Shen-hui-he says is ultimately ex-
pressed in a single word: awareness. Thus a full return to the awareness that
constitutes the tathagata-garbha can be attained only after a complete course
of gradual cultivation, including training in morality and formal meditation.
Tsung-mi treats the interpenetration of phenomena as little more than a foot-
note to the teaching of awareness, showing that he regarded it as an inappro-
priate teaching for people in lower stages of the Path and as ultimately
irrelevant as a guide even to the advanced stage. The person who fathoms
awareness on his/her own will realize this aspect of reality without having to
be told.
In this way, Tsung-mi was able to preserve the components of the tradi-
tional Buddhist Path even in the light of the doctrine of sudden Awakening.
However, he left a few of the basic difficulties in the doctrine of the tathagata-
garbha untouched. To borrow the image of the ocean and the wind: If every-
thing is initially ocean, where does the wind come from? And if it is possible
for initial Awakening to become defiled, what is to prevent the Awakening at-
tained at the end of the Path from becoming defiled again? Unfortunately the
creative dialogue on these issues in China ended with Tsung-mi, largely be-
cause of the general turmoil of the latter ninth century, so we can only guess
as to how the dialogue might have addressed these issues had it been allowed
to continue.
The events of 845 effectively put an end to the Hua-yen school, destroy-
ing its texts and dispersing its followers. The Korean monk Uich'on (see Sec-
tion 9.4.1) brought Hua-yen texts from Korea in the eleventh century, and a
number of Ch'an monks wrote commentaries on them during the Sung and
later dynasties. The lineage of patriarchs, however, was never revived. Hua-
yen played a more influential role in Japan and Korea. In Japan, Fa-tsang's
thought survived both in the Kegon school (see Section 10.3), which was a
direct offshoot of Hua-yen, and in the more important Shingon sect, which
combined Hua-yen theory with the practice of Yoga Tantras (see Section