Huayan, or the Flower Garland school, was a Chinese sect of Buddhist thought founded by Fazang in the 7th century AD. The Flower Garland school believes in a very complex and obscure interpretation of the universe, taken from the Flower Garland sutra. The Flower Garland School emphasizes the equality, connectivity, and dependence of all things on everything, sometimes described in terms of "Indra's Net," an imaginary spider web network connecting all things, wherein everything is a "jewel" that reflects everything else. Also part of this school is the belief in "universal causality," in which everything in the universe was created simultaneously from itself.
Empress Wu was a member of this school, and believed in its "Tower of Vairocana" ideal which interconnects all Buddhas. This is a significant school to Buddhism for its historical and political impact, and for the (re-)introduction of the belief that "everything is everything."