Download or read book Chan Rhetoric of Uncertainty in the Blue Cliff Record written by Steven Heine and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-28 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an in-depth textual and literary analysis of the Blue Cliff Record (Chinese Biyanlu, Japanese Hekiganroku), a seminal Chan/Zen Buddhist collection of commentaries on one hundred gongan/koan cases, considered in light of historical, cultural, and intellectual trends from the Song dynasty (960-1279). Compiled by the disciples of Yuanwu Keqin in 1128, the Blue Cliff Record is considered a classic of East Asian literature for its creative integration of prose and verse as well as hybrid or capping-phrase interpretations of perplexing cases.The collection employs a variety of rhetorical devices culled from both classic and vernacular literary sources and styles and is particularly notable for its use of indirection, allusiveness, irony, paradox, and wordplay, all characteristic of the approach of literary or lettered Chan. However, as instrumental and influential as it is considered to be, the Blue Cliff Record has long been shrouded in controversy. The collection is probably best known today for having been destroyed in the 1130s at the dawn of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) by Dahui Zonggao, Yuanwu's main disciple and harshest critic. It was out of circulation for nearly two centuries before being revived and partially reconstructed in the early 1300s. In this book, Steven Heine examines the diverse ideological connections and disconnections behind subsequent commentaries and translations of the Blue Cliff Record, thereby shedding light on the broad range of gongan literature produced in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries and beyond.
Download or read book Chan Rhetoric of Uncertainty in the Blue Cliff Record written by Steven Heine and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book provides an innovative, critical textual and literary analysis, in light of Song dynasty (960-11279) Chinese cultural and intellectual historical trends, of the Blue Cliff Record, the seminal Chan/Zen Buddhist collection of commentaries on one hundred gongan/koan cases long celebrated for its intricate and articulate interpretative methods"--
Download or read book Approaches to Chan S n and Zen Studies written by Albert Welter and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2022-11-01 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume focuses on Chinese Chan Buddhism and its spread across East Asia, with special attention to its impacts on Korean Sŏn and Japanese Zen. Zen enthralled the scholarly world throughout much of the twentieth century, and Zen Studies became a major academic discipline in its wake. Interpreted through the lens of Japanese Zen and its reaction to events in the modern world, Zen Studies incorporated a broad range of Zen-related movements in the East Asian Buddhist world. As broad as the scope of Zen Studies was, however, it was clearly rooted in a Japanese context, and aspects of the "Zen experience" that did not fit modern Japanese Zen aspirations tended to be marginalized and ignored. Approaches to Chan, Sŏn, and Zen Studies acknowledges the move beyond Zen Studies to recognize the changing and growing parameters of the field. The volume also examines the modern dynamics in each of these traditions.
Download or read book Xuedous 100 Odes to Old Cases written by Xuedou and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book is a complete translation with my interpretative comments of the eloquent yet enigmatic verses commenting on one hundred cases composed in 1038 by the master Xuedou Chongxian (980-1052). A representative of the Yunmen branch of Chan that he helped revive and bring to prominence during the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), before its impact declined with the fall of the capital in Kaifeng, Xuedou demonstrates a unique literary flair for explicating gong'an that is evident in numerous writings included in his recorded sayings. In particular, Xuedou's 100 Odes to Old Cases (,C. Xuedou baize songgu, J. Setchō hyakusoku juko) is recognized as the seminal discourse that has greatly influenced the way stories of former teachers (guze) have been appreciated and appropriated for the past thousand years. This text, which became the basis for the Blue Cliff Record that is also cited in my translations, continues to exert a profound impact on the overall legacy of East Asian Buddhist intellectual history and religious literature. Xuedou's verses reflect the author's unique capacity for taming through elegance the undisciplined and deluded minds of followers struggling with self-imposed obstacles to discern reality and thereby discover inner peace. He cites extensively multiple Chan sources, uses extensively irregular meter to disrupt the reader's expectations, and evokes unusual allusions to Chinese lore while often interjecting personal comments or lyrical imagery that goes beyond a reliance on doctrine"--
Download or read book The Theory and Practice of Zen Buddhism written by Charles S. Prebish and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together an impressive group of scholars to critically engage with a wide-ranging and broad perspective on the historical and contemporary phenomenon of Zen. The structure of the work is organized to reflect the root and branches of Zen, with the root referring to important episodes in Chan/Zen history within the Asian context, and the branches referring to more recent development in the West. In collating what has transpired in the last several decades of Chan/Zen scholarship, the collection recognizes and honors the scholarly accomplishments and influences of Steven Heine, arguably the most important Zen scholar in the past three decades. As it looks back at the intellectual horizons that this towering figure in Zen/Chan studies has pioneered and developed, it seeks to build on the grounds that were broken and subsequently established by Heine, thereby engendering new works within this enormously important religio-cultural scholarly tradition. This curated Festschrift is a tribute, both retrospective and prospective, acknowledging the foundational work that Heine has forged, and generates research that is both complementary and highly original. This academic ritual of assembling a liber amicorum is based on the presumption that sterling scholarship should be honored by conscientious scholarship. In the festive spirit of a Festschrift, this anthology consists of the resounding voices of Heine and his colleagues. It is an indispensable collection for students and scholars interested in Japanese religion and Chinese culture, and for those researching Zen Buddhist history and philosophy.
Download or read book Buddhist Philosophy written by Steven M. Emmanuel and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-08-07 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buddhist Philosophy: A Comparative Approach presents a series of readings that examine the prominent thinkers and texts of the Buddhist tradition in the round, introducing contemporary readers to major theories and debates at the intersection of Buddhist and Western thought. Takes a comparative, rather than oppositional, approach to Buddhist philosophy, exploring key theories and debates at the intersection of Eastern and Western thought Addresses a variety of topics that represent important points of convergence between the Buddhist and Western philosophical traditions Features contributions from a wide array of acclaimed international scholars in the discipline Provides a much-needed cross-cultural treatment of Buddhist philosophy appropriate for undergraduate students and specialists alike
Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Chan Buddhism written by Youru Wang and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-06-27 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The popular name for Chan Buddhism, in the West, is Zen Buddhism, as it was Japanese scholars who first introduced Chan Buddhism to the West with this translation. Indeed, chan is a shortened form of the Chinese word channa, rendered from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which denotes practices of the concentration of the mind through meditation or contemplation. Although rooted in the Indian tradition of yoga, which aims at the unification of the individual with the divine, meditative concentration became integrated into the Buddhist path to enlightenment as one of the three learnings (sanxue) of Buddhism. Early Buddhist (or the so-called Hinayana Buddhist) scriptures include the teachings on four stages of meditation, four divine abodes, four formless meditations, the tranquility (samatha) and insight (vipassanā) meditations, and so on. Early Buddhist communities commonly practiced these meditations, along with the moral disciplines and the study of the scriptures and doctrines. Mahayana Buddhism, in India and East Asia, continued the practice of meditation as one of the six perfections (or virtues) of the bodhisattva path. In this general context, some eminent monks might have composed scriptures/treatises for the training of meditation or have become more famed with meditation. However, the school of Chan is more than just a group of meditation practitioners. As one of the Chinese Buddhist schools, it involves its own ideology, its own community, and its own genealogical history, serving to establish its own identity. The Historical Dictionary of Chan Buddhism contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, schools, texts, vocabularies, doctrines, rituals, temples, events, and other practices. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Chan Buddhism.
Download or read book Reimagining Zen in a Secular Age written by André van der Braak and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-08-03 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Reimagining Zen in a Secular Age André van der Braak uses Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age to describe the encounter between Japanese Zen Buddhism and Western modernity. He proposes how Dōgen’s thought offers resources for a reimagining of Zen.
Download or read book Buddhist Literature as Philosophy Buddhist Philosophy as Literature written by Rafal K. Stepien and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2020-11-01 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can literature reveal reality? Is philosophical truth a literary artifice? How does the way we think affect what we can know? Buddhism has been grappling with these questions for centuries, and this book attempts to answer them by exploring the relationship between literature and philosophy across the classical and contemporary Buddhist worlds of India, Tibet, China, Japan, Korea, and North America. Written by leading scholars, the book examines literary texts composed over two millennia, ranging in form from lyric verse, narrative poetry, panegyric, hymn, and koan, to novel, hagiography, (secret) autobiography, autofiction, treatise, and sutra, all in sustained conversation with topics in metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, and the philosophies of mind, language, literature, and religion. Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural, this book deliberately works across and against the boundaries separating three mainstays of humanistic pursuit—literature, philosophy, and religion—by focusing on the multiple relationships at play between content and form in works drawn from a truly diverse range of philosophical schools, literary genres, religious cultures, and historical eras. Overall, the book calls into question the very ways in which we do philosophy, study literature, and think about religious texts. It shows that Buddhist thought provides sophisticated responses to some of the perennial problems regarding how we find, create, and apply meaning—on the page, in the mind, and throughout our lives.
Download or read book From Chinese Chan to Japanese Zen written by Steven Heine and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Chinese Chan to Japanese Zen investigates the remarkable century that lasted from 1225 to 1325, during which the transformation of the Chinese Chan school of Buddhism into the Japanese Zen sect was successfully completed. Steven Heine reveals how this school of Buddhism, which started half a millennium earlier as a mystical utopian cult for reclusive monks, gained a broad following among influential lay followers in both China and Japan.
Download or read book Readings of D gen s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye written by Steven Heine and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shōbōgenzō) is the masterwork of Dōgen (1200–1253), founder of the Sōtō Zen Buddhist sect in Kamakura-era Japan. It is one of the most important Zen Buddhist collections, composed during a period of remarkable religious diversity and experimentation. The text is complex and compelling, famed for its eloquent yet perplexing manner of expressing the core precepts of Zen teachings and practice. This book is a comprehensive introduction to this essential Zen text, offering a textual, historical, literary, and philosophical examination of Dōgen’s treatise. Steven Heine explores the religious and cultural context in which the Treasury was composed and provides a detailed study of the various versions of the medieval text that have been compiled over the centuries. He includes nuanced readings of Dōgen’s use of inventive rhetorical flourishes and the range of East Asian Buddhist textual and cultural influences that shaped the work. Heine explicates the philosophical implications of Dōgen’s views on contemplative experience and attaining and sustaining enlightenment, showing the depth of his distinctive understanding of spiritual awakening. Readings of Dōgen’s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye will give students and other readers a full understanding of this fundamental work of world religious literature.
Download or read book Zen Koans Paradoxical Awakening written by Norman McClelland and published by Outskirts Press. This book was released on 2021-04-25 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What comes to mind when you hear the word “koan”? You probably know koans as paradoxes, and you may believe that they are therefore illogical or intellectually inscrutable—and therefore not useful to the average person. Zen Koans: Paradoxical Awakenings is the tool you need to correct your perceptions of koans and become aware of the benefits of koan practice. Embracing the paradox of the koan can give deeper meaning to life, as well as leading to the Buddhist awakening to your real, non-dual nature. With an experienced Zen teacher as your guide, you can enter more deeply into the three essentials of Zen: great faith, great doubt, and great determination.
Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Applied Linguistics written by Chu-Ren Huang and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-11 with total page 963 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Applied Linguistics is written for those wanting to acquire comprehensive knowledge of China, the diaspora and the Sino-sphere communities through Chinese language. It examines how Chinese language is used in different contexts, and how the use of Chinese language affects culture, society, expression of self and persuasion of others; as well as how neurophysiological aspects of language disorder affect how we function and how the advance of technology changes the way the Chinese language is used and perceived. The Handbook concentrates on the cultural, societal and communicative characteristics of the Chinese language environment. Focusing on language use in action, in context and in vivo, this book intends to lay empirical grounds for collaboration and synergy among different fields.
Download or read book Zen and Material Culture written by Pamela D. Winfield and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-07 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The stereotype of Zen Buddhism as a minimalistic or even immaterial meditative tradition persists in the Euro-American cultural imagination. This volume calls attention to the vast range of "stuff" in Zen by highlighting the material abundance and iconic range of the Soto, Rinzai, and Obaku sects in Japan. Chapters on beads, bowls, buildings, staffs, statues, rags, robes, and even retail commodities in America all shed new light on overlooked items of lay and monastic practice in both historical and contemporary perspectives. Nine authors from the cognate fields of art history, religious studies, and the history of material culture analyze these "Zen matters" in all four senses of the phrase: the interdisciplinary study of Zen's matters (objects and images) ultimately speaks to larger Zen matters (ideas, ideals) that matter (in the predicate sense) to both male and female practitioners, often because such matters (economic considerations) help to ensure the cultural and institutional survival of the tradition. Zen and Material Culture expands the study of Japanese Zen Buddhism to include material inquiry as an important complement to mainly textual, institutional, or ritual studies. It also broadens the traditional purview of art history by incorporating the visual culture of everyday Zen objects and images into the canon of recognized masterpieces by elite artists. Finally, the volume extends Japanese material and visual cultural studies into new research territory by taking up Zen's rich trove of materia liturgica and supplementing the largely secular approach to studying Japanese popular culture. This groundbreaking volume will be a resource for anyone whose interests lie at the intersection of Zen art, architecture, history, ritual, tea ceremony, women's studies, and the fine line between Buddhist materiality and materialism.
Download or read book Critique Subversion and Chinese Philosophy written by Hans-Georg Moeller and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-11-12 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together a number of case studies, this book shows how from early on Chinese philosophical discourses unfolded through innovation and the subversion of dominant forms of thinking. Narrowing in on the commonplace Chinese motto that “the three teachings” of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism “are joined into one”, as if there had never been any substantial differences between or within these schools of thought, a team of esteemed contributors challenge established views. They explain how the Daoist tradition provided a variety of alternatives to prevailing Confucian master narratives, reveal why the long history of Confucianism is itself full of ambiguities, disputes, and competing ideas and discuss how in Buddhist theory and practice, the subversion of unquestioned beliefs and attitudes has been a prime methodological and therapeutic device. By drawing attention to unorthodox voices and subversion as a method, this exciting collection reveals that for too long the traditional division into “three teachings” has failed to do justice to the diversity and subtlety found in the numerous discourses constituting the history of Chinese philosophy. Critique, Subversion and Chinese Philosophy finally makes such innovative disruptions visible.
Download or read book Flowers Blooming on a Withered Tree written by Steven Heine and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-14 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a translation and critical bilingual edition on the Verse Comments on the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. The Verse Comments by Giun (1253-1333), the fifth abbot of Eiheiji temple, is an important early medieval Japanese commentary on the 60-chapter edition of the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shobogenzo), one of the main versions of the masterwork written by Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), the founder of the Soto Zen sect in Japan who established Eiheiji in the mid-1240s. Giun's Verse Comments was one of only two commentaries of the Treasury written during the Kamakura era, with the other being a prose analysis of the 75-chapter edition, called Prose Comments on the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, often abbreviated to Distinguished Comments (Gosho). While Distinguished Comments fell into disuse rather quickly and was only revived nearly three hundred years later, the Verse Comments was circulated widely from the time of its composition and read by many Soto monks over the next couple of centuries. Offering poems and cryptic expressions that seek to capture the spiritual flavor and essential meaning of Dogen's thought as suggested in each chapter, the Verse Comments is crucial for understanding how Dogen's Treasury was received and appropriated in the religious and literary context of medieval Japan. In this book, Steven Heine's careful interpretations, historical investigations, and theoretical reflections demonstrate the significance of Giun's writings in light of the history of pre-modern and modern commentaries on Dogen's masterwork, the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye.
Download or read book The Record of Empty Hall written by and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh translation and commentary on a classic collection of 100 koans from thirteenth-century China. The Record of Empty Hall was written by Xutang Zhiyu (1185-1269), an important figure in Chinese Linji Chan (Japanese Rinzai Zen) Buddhism and in its transmission to Japan. Although previously little-known in the West, Xutang's work is on par with the other great koan collections of the era, such as The Blue Cliff Record and Book of Serenity. Translated by Zen teacher Dosho Port from the original Chinese, The Record of Empty Hall opens new paths into the earthiness, humor, mystery, and multiplicity of meaning that are at the heart of koan inquiry. Inspired by the pithy, frank tone of Xutang's originals, Port also offers his own commentaries on the koans, helping readers to see the modern and relatable applications of these thirteenth-century encounter stories. Readers familiar with koans will recognize key figures, such as Bodhidharma, Nanquan, and Zhaozhou and will also be introduced to teaching icons not found in other koan collections. Through his commentaries, as well as a glossary of major figures and an appendix detailing the cases, Port not only opens up these remarkable koans but also illuminates their place in ancient Chinese, Japanese, and contemporary Zen practice.
