Preface to the First Edition

Acknowledgment to all readers
Thank you for taking the time to browse this book. I sincerely hope it helps you spiritually to eradicate all hindrances and start living a little. For those who seek, let them receive. I gratefully dedicate this Huayen Buddhist e-Dharma handbook to you.

All in One in All
With the exception perhaps of abstract mathematicians, the differentiating ordinary human intellect is accustomed to defining things or beings as units and individuals; such being the case, it is hard for man to see there is no contradiction in the book title, and so I am I, you are you and there is no way to comprehend a circle with no center. The Avatamsaka Buddhist totally reject this individualized cosmic view. To them One includes All and All include One. Hence the title of this book All in One in All.

For example, we are accustomed to counting from 1 to 10; then in the late 60's and early 70's when computers first hit the consumer market, we were taught different counting methods, i.e., from 0 to 9 in decimal, from 0 to F in hexadecimal, and from 0 to 1 in the binary system of computing. Human intelligence is not unlike computer intelligence, thinking in either 0 or 1; hence the identity of the self. The computer never asks you why and how you get from 0 to 1 and programmers don't, or don't bother to know.

This is why with over 2500 years of western civilisation since Socrates, philosophers, theologians, psychologists, and scientists still cannot explain two fundamental questions in life: 1) Why is every individual selfish? and 2) Why should every individual be good? Answers like God tells me so, or my parents tell me so will not satisfy the fundamental agnostic. The point is they don't know why and how to get from 0 to 1 and back from 1 to 0 and that 1 and 0 are not mutually exclusive but mutually inclusive. From 0 come 1 and 0 but 0 and 1 must come from 1.

Only an enlightened being or a Buddha knows this truth and the first Sutra that Buddha Shakyamuni spoke to the bodhisattvas and devas of all universes at all times and in all places was the Mahavaipulya Buddha Avatamsaka Sutra in which the very truth that all is in one and one is in all is thoroughly expounded. As long as every man is an island and every circle has its own center, conflicts and wars will continue to plague us.

Some may preach the Armageddon and salvation through Jesus, but Islam or other religions may preach otherwise. The Avatamsaka Buddhist will not argue with anyone for they know the answers to both the aforesaid questions and have been applying them to actualizing their own spiritual growth. May all readers of this book benefit from the insight of the post modern Avatamsaka Buddhist and may there be peace on Earth.

Purpose of this book
The purpose of writing the book is to help people in the western world understand the sublime principles, teachings and insights of the Buddha contained in the Avatamsaka Sutra (rendered in English as the Flower Ornament Scripture by Thomas Cleary) and other related sutras.

How to use this Huayen Buddhist e-Handbook
The Title of this volume is called All in One in All - The Huayen Buddhist e-Handbook. The acronym ABCBC stands for Avatamsaka Buddhist Community of British Columbia Canada. The web address of the book is http://allisoneisall.blogspot.com/2009/01/table-of-contents.html, if you want to always return to the Table of Contents page.

The Table of Contents page shows the links to each chapter in this e-Handbook in the order of importance. You may always browse the chapters at random by clicking the chapter of interest to you. To return to the Table of Contents no matter where you are, just click the title of the chapter you are reading. You may not jump from one chapter to another without first returning to the Table of Contents.

Adding Contents to Each Chapter
If this is meant to be an e-handbook, new information will be appended to the end of each chapter. Whether there are word limit to each chapter is yet to be determined. This way may not be agreeable to some readers who are always too busy and do not have the patience to read the whole chapter, much less the book. But the author has given much consideration to this and has chosen to write this e-Handbook in order to organise the information as it accumulates. If the reader prefers to quickly browse what is new, then just go read the new posts in the various blogs.

Language and Source of Information
The default language for this e-handbook shall be English in order to facilitate the propagation of the Avatamsaka teachings and insights to the English speaking public. If the information is in e-form and has an external link, such source will be hyperlinked to the relevant piece of information, as long as the reader understands that such hyperlinks will not be in effect forever and will not be surprised to encounter broken links.

Copyright
The information, ideas, and wisdom contained in this volume is not mine but are the fruits of the collective efforts of many Buddhist devotees and practitioners. With the most sincere and deepest gratitude, we dedicate this work to all sentient beings of the dharma realms in the ten directions. May they all benefit from this volume and know the way to live a happy and rewarding life, and through incessant and relentless practice, manifest and realise true enlightened wisdom. Any part or parcel of this volume may be copied and distributed for personal or public use without the prior permission of the author as long as such usage does not involve monetary gains for the copying party or parties, or requiring the recipient(s) of such information to suffer any financial loss.

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