Nick Jones
@nicholaos.bsky.social
Professor of Philosophy. Interests in Chinese Buddhism, systems sciences, metaphysics.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/metaphors-for-interdependence-9780197807194
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/metaphors-for-interdependence-9780197807194
In the conclusion, I discuss whether Fazang’s metaphysics is “syncretistic.” The best part there is the picture I use for illustration, which is some crochet my spouse made especially for the book. If nothing else, there’s a nice discussion of planned pooling…maybe the first for a philosophy book!
April 18, 2025 at 2:49 PM
In the conclusion, I discuss whether Fazang’s metaphysics is “syncretistic.” The best part there is the picture I use for illustration, which is some crochet my spouse made especially for the book. If nothing else, there’s a nice discussion of planned pooling…maybe the first for a philosophy book!
I also talk about the holiday movie Jack Frost (the RankinBass one from 1979). This is maybe my favorite holiday movie of all time. But in the book, I only discuss the villager’s ice money and Kubla Kraus’ hoarding of gold coins.
April 18, 2025 at 2:47 PM
I also talk about the holiday movie Jack Frost (the RankinBass one from 1979). This is maybe my favorite holiday movie of all time. But in the book, I only discuss the villager’s ice money and Kubla Kraus’ hoarding of gold coins.
There are other fun things in the book, too. Especially if you grew up in the 80s like me. I talk about He-Man, and the Power of Grayskull, to help explain Fazang’s conception of power and inclusion.
April 18, 2025 at 2:47 PM
There are other fun things in the book, too. Especially if you grew up in the 80s like me. I talk about He-Man, and the Power of Grayskull, to help explain Fazang’s conception of power and inclusion.
I discuss catoptrics, or theories of reflection, in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 covers techniques for casting metal, and for mindful breathing. There’s also a (good?) joke about money growing on trees….
April 18, 2025 at 2:46 PM
I discuss catoptrics, or theories of reflection, in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 covers techniques for casting metal, and for mindful breathing. There’s also a (good?) joke about money growing on trees….
Example 2: Fazang uses Indra’s net to explain how things include each other. His claims don’t quite make sense if objects cause their reflections in mirrors. They make more sense if mirrors cause their reflections. I argue that Fazang likely endorses the latter theory.
April 18, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Example 2: Fazang uses Indra’s net to explain how things include each other. His claims don’t quite make sense if objects cause their reflections in mirrors. They make more sense if mirrors cause their reflections. I argue that Fazang likely endorses the latter theory.
I talk about architecture in Chapter 8. The idea is that mortise & tenon joinery does a lot to illustrate why he thinks each part of the building depends on every other part. So Fazang isn’t a mereological essentialist. He’s just familiar with buildings that aren’t like the ones we have in the U.S.
April 18, 2025 at 2:41 PM
I talk about architecture in Chapter 8. The idea is that mortise & tenon joinery does a lot to illustrate why he thinks each part of the building depends on every other part. So Fazang isn’t a mereological essentialist. He’s just familiar with buildings that aren’t like the ones we have in the U.S.
example 2: Anaximenes says air is the source of things. Maybe that’s an effort to naturalize Orphic theogony, where ageless Chronos births Aether and Chasm, who birth things…if time is the measure of motion, that’s like the first manifestation of motion being a fiery air moving in a yawning gap.
April 18, 2025 at 2:38 PM
example 2: Anaximenes says air is the source of things. Maybe that’s an effort to naturalize Orphic theogony, where ageless Chronos births Aether and Chasm, who birth things…if time is the measure of motion, that’s like the first manifestation of motion being a fiery air moving in a yawning gap.
When I teach ancient Greek philosophy, I like to mention some potential mythological influences for the Milesian philosophers. Example: Thales says everything is water. Maybe that derives from Homer’s theogony, where Ocean and Tethys (Sea) give birth to all things.
April 18, 2025 at 2:36 PM
When I teach ancient Greek philosophy, I like to mention some potential mythological influences for the Milesian philosophers. Example: Thales says everything is water. Maybe that derives from Homer’s theogony, where Ocean and Tethys (Sea) give birth to all things.
Oxford UP is offering 30% off pre-orders for my book on Fazang's metaphysics of interdependence, with code AUFLY30 at global.oup.com/academic. By way of enticement, a thread. #philsky
April 18, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Oxford UP is offering 30% off pre-orders for my book on Fazang's metaphysics of interdependence, with code AUFLY30 at global.oup.com/academic. By way of enticement, a thread. #philsky
Oxford is also providing a 30% discount code: AUFLY30.
April 16, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Oxford is also providing a 30% discount code: AUFLY30.
Since the book is priced for institutional sales, Oxford is also providing a 30% discount code. The code is AUFLY30.
April 16, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Since the book is priced for institutional sales, Oxford is also providing a 30% discount code. The code is AUFLY30.
Just one month to go until the official release of -Metaphors for Interdependence-, the first academic book focusing on Fazang's metaphysics since Francis Cook's 1977 -Hua-yen Buddhism-! Oxford is graciously providing free access to Chapter 1 until May 21. Find it at academic.oup.com/book/59837/c...
April 16, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Just one month to go until the official release of -Metaphors for Interdependence-, the first academic book focusing on Fazang's metaphysics since Francis Cook's 1977 -Hua-yen Buddhism-! Oxford is graciously providing free access to Chapter 1 until May 21. Find it at academic.oup.com/book/59837/c...
Want to learn more about Huayan Buddhism, but can’t read Chinese? The current decade shows a drastic uptick of English-language books about Huayan. If you have an appetite for Huayan, this is a thread for you. (Image is an ivory sculpture of Samantabhadra from Song dynasty.)
December 2, 2024 at 6:14 PM
Want to learn more about Huayan Buddhism, but can’t read Chinese? The current decade shows a drastic uptick of English-language books about Huayan. If you have an appetite for Huayan, this is a thread for you. (Image is an ivory sculpture of Samantabhadra from Song dynasty.)
I'll be at the Eastern APA in January. I'll speak about "A Logic of Emptiness for Mahāyāna Buddhism," which presents many ideas from this thread in an analytic-style format. 3pm EST on January 8 at Sheraton Times Square in NYC, if you're in the vicinity. (Session 3G)
November 30, 2024 at 8:47 PM
I'll be at the Eastern APA in January. I'll speak about "A Logic of Emptiness for Mahāyāna Buddhism," which presents many ideas from this thread in an analytic-style format. 3pm EST on January 8 at Sheraton Times Square in NYC, if you're in the vicinity. (Session 3G)
The book itself is due out in May 2025. (I finished the first draft in 2019, substantial revisions in 2023). I'm hoping to be on sabbatical for all of next academic year. Very open to traveling to talk about Fazang/the book. Just need a place to stay and help with travel. Zoom also an option.
November 30, 2024 at 8:46 PM
The book itself is due out in May 2025. (I finished the first draft in 2019, substantial revisions in 2023). I'm hoping to be on sabbatical for all of next academic year. Very open to traveling to talk about Fazang/the book. Just need a place to stay and help with travel. Zoom also an option.
The cover for the book shows some architecture relevant to interpreting Fazang's building metaphor. The wooden pieces have mortises and tenons that help them fit into each other. My chapter on the metaphor shows how to interpret this as analogous to different things empowering each other.
November 30, 2024 at 8:46 PM
The cover for the book shows some architecture relevant to interpreting Fazang's building metaphor. The wooden pieces have mortises and tenons that help them fit into each other. My chapter on the metaphor shows how to interpret this as analogous to different things empowering each other.
My book has two main goals. One is finding precedents that help to interpret Fazang's dense theoretical remarks. The other is showing how to interpret his metaphors in a way that fits with those theoretical remarks.
November 30, 2024 at 8:45 PM
My book has two main goals. One is finding precedents that help to interpret Fazang's dense theoretical remarks. The other is showing how to interpret his metaphors in a way that fits with those theoretical remarks.
Fazang uses metaphors to convey all of this. They afford many interpretations. It is like interviewing for a job at a daycare. You ask, "How many children would I care for?" The manager answers, "You'll have a handful." Does this mean a few, or too many, or so rambunctious the number doesn't matter?
November 30, 2024 at 8:45 PM
Fazang uses metaphors to convey all of this. They afford many interpretations. It is like interviewing for a job at a daycare. You ask, "How many children would I care for?" The manager answers, "You'll have a handful." Does this mean a few, or too many, or so rambunctious the number doesn't matter?
Because mind that lacks attachment can shift focus to anything, Fazang arrives at the view that everything empowers everything else—albeit sequentially, not simultaneously. This is his doctrine of mutual inclusion.
November 30, 2024 at 8:45 PM
Because mind that lacks attachment can shift focus to anything, Fazang arrives at the view that everything empowers everything else—albeit sequentially, not simultaneously. This is his doctrine of mutual inclusion.
There's a twist. When one empowers others, Fazang denies that it empowers itself. This would make it self-natured and not empty. Does this mean nothing empowers things that centered in attention? No! For Fazang, it means that mind needs to shift focus. This is how mind avoids attachment.
November 30, 2024 at 8:44 PM
There's a twist. When one empowers others, Fazang denies that it empowers itself. This would make it self-natured and not empty. Does this mean nothing empowers things that centered in attention? No! For Fazang, it means that mind needs to shift focus. This is how mind avoids attachment.
For Fazang, in the realm of Samantabhadra, mind conceptualizes anything central to attention as empowering all others to enact their directionality (and so "includes" the others in its range of power), and it conceptualizes everything else (relegated to peripheral attention) as lacking power.
![quotation from section 3 of the tenth chapter of Fazang's –Treatise on the Five Teachings of Huayan-. "Because [one] has complete power, it is able to take in others. Because the others completely lack power, they can enter into [the one]. Understand by contrast others having power and [one] lacking power."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:clqwtogh5wbwxvu6l6eju26s/bafkreiaizlqwhxnpgzax7v7tckj7svwnvaicthxx4tmrcmdy5fcdizcp6m@jpeg)
November 30, 2024 at 8:44 PM
For Fazang, in the realm of Samantabhadra, mind conceptualizes anything central to attention as empowering all others to enact their directionality (and so "includes" the others in its range of power), and it conceptualizes everything else (relegated to peripheral attention) as lacking power.
Fazang interprets the -Flower Adornment Sūtra- as teaching that there's a way to eliminate attachment without turning off the conceptualizing mind. He calls this experiencing the realm of Samantabhadra. It requires conceptualizing the powers of things in a particular way.
November 30, 2024 at 8:44 PM
Fazang interprets the -Flower Adornment Sūtra- as teaching that there's a way to eliminate attachment without turning off the conceptualizing mind. He calls this experiencing the realm of Samantabhadra. It requires conceptualizing the powers of things in a particular way.
One way to achieve cessation of duḥkha is to stop mind from conceptualizing things. When we do this, we might describe our experience as –such-. There's no basis for attachment, but also no basis for experiencing difference or dependent arising. Fazang calls this the realm of Mañjuśrī.
November 30, 2024 at 8:43 PM
One way to achieve cessation of duḥkha is to stop mind from conceptualizing things. When we do this, we might describe our experience as –such-. There's no basis for attachment, but also no basis for experiencing difference or dependent arising. Fazang calls this the realm of Mañjuśrī.
For Fazang, those with attachments to things invest them with power to enact their own directionality. This explains why there is erroneous awareness of things as self-natured (or not empty.) It's the metaphysical basis for duḥkha and the realm of saṃsāra.
November 30, 2024 at 8:43 PM
For Fazang, those with attachments to things invest them with power to enact their own directionality. This explains why there is erroneous awareness of things as self-natured (or not empty.) It's the metaphysical basis for duḥkha and the realm of saṃsāra.
You might ask: Where do things get power to empower others? Fazang's answer: From the workings of mind. This is how he accommodates some idealism-sounding ideas from -Awakening of Mahāyāna Faith- and other tathāgatagarbha texts. It's also why he characterizes things as illusory (apparent) existents.
November 30, 2024 at 8:42 PM
You might ask: Where do things get power to empower others? Fazang's answer: From the workings of mind. This is how he accommodates some idealism-sounding ideas from -Awakening of Mahāyāna Faith- and other tathāgatagarbha texts. It's also why he characterizes things as illusory (apparent) existents.