Download or read book Zen Enlightenment written by Heinrich Dumoulin and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2007-12-11 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enlightenment, the cosmic experience of universal unity, is a notoriously elusive concept in Zen. Here, the renowned scholar Heinrich Dumoulin traces the development of Zen and the concept of enlightenment from its origins in India through its development in China to its fruition in Japan. Delineating the Buddhist origins, as well as the Taoist and yogic influences, he traces the historical path Zen has followed, with special emphasis given to the development of koan practice and the writings of the great Japanese Zen master Dogen (1200–1253). He then brings the experience to life by presenting, in his own words, the enlightenment experiences of a number of contemporary practitioners of Zen.
Download or read book Wild Ivy written by Hakuin Ekaku and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2010-07-13 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fiery and intensely dynamic Zen teacher and artist, Hakuin (1685–1768) is credited with almost single-handedly revitalizing Japanese Zen after three hundred years of decline. As a teacher, he placed special emphasis on koan practice, inventing many new koans himself, including the famous "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" This English translation of Hakuin’s intimate self-portrait includes reminiscences from his childhood, accounts of his Zen practice and enlightenment experiences, as well as practical advice for students.
Download or read book Complete Enlightenment written by Master Sheng-Yen and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 1999-01-26 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Complete Enlightenment is the first authoritative translation and commentary on The Sutra of Complete Enlightenment, a central text that shaped the development of East Asian Buddhism and Ch'an (Chinese Zen). The text is set in the form of a transcription of discussions between the Buddha and the twelve enlightened beings(bodhisattvas), who question him on all aspects of spiritual practice. This new translation preserves all the liveliness and nuance of the text in the original Chinese. The sutra's ancient wisdom is brought to life by the commentaries of Master Sheng Yen, one of the most revered living Buddhist masters in the Ch'an lineage. This is truly a manual for the spiritual journey toward complete enlightenment, providing the key to the deep, poetic, and practical meanings of the scripture.
Download or read book What Is Buddhist Enlightenment written by Dale S. Wright and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What kind of person should I strive to be? What ideals should I pursue in my life? These basic human questions and others like them are components of the overall question that guides this book: What is enlightenment? As Dale Wright argues, any serious practitioner of human life, religious or not, confronts the challenge of living an authentic life, of overcoming common human disabilities like greed, hatred, and delusion that give rise to excessive suffering. Why then, Wright asks, is this essential question often avoided, even discouraged among Buddhists? One reason frequently cited by Buddhists is that pondering a distant goal might be a waste of energy that would be better applied to practice: Quiet the flow of obsessive thinking, put yourself in a mindful state of presence, and let enlightenment take care of itself. In this book, however, Wright contends that pondering this question is meditative practice--that attentive inquiry of this kind is essential as the starting point and guide for any mindful practice of life. Meditative reflection on the meaning of enlightenment focuses us on our aim and direction in life. It guides us in shaping our practices, our ideals, and the kinds of lives we will live. Asking what enlightenment is as a basic form of meditation helps to activate our lives and get transformative practice underway. From Wright's perspective, there is no more important question to ask than this one. What is Buddhist Enlightenment? offers a wide-ranging exploration of issues that have a bearing on the contemporary meaning of enlightenment, including a concluding section with 10 theses that answer the title's question. Written by a leading scholar of Buddhism, the book balances deep learning and an accessible style, offering valuable insights for students, scholars, and practitioners alike. While he takes an examination of what enlightenment has been in past Buddhist traditions as his point of departure, Wright's historical considerations yield to the question that our lives press upon us--what kinds of lives should we aspire to live here, now, and into the future?
Download or read book Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism written by Jacqueline I. Stone and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2003-05-31 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Original enlightenment thought (hongaku shiso) dominated Buddhist intellectual circles throughout Japan’s medieval period. Enlightenment, this discourse claims, is neither a goal to be achieved nor a potential to be realized but the true status of all things. Every animate and inanimate object manifests the primordially enlightened Buddha just as it is. Seen in its true aspect, every activity of daily life—eating, sleeping, even one’s deluded thinking—is the Buddha’s conduct. Emerging from within the powerful Tendai School, ideas of original enlightenment were appropriated by a number of Buddhist traditions and influenced nascent theories about the kami (local deities) as well as medieval aesthetics and the literary and performing arts. Scholars and commentators have long recognized the historical importance of original enlightenment thought but differ heatedly over how it is to be understood. Some tout it as the pinnacle of the Buddhist philosophy of absolute non-dualism. Others claim to find in it the paradigmatic expression of a timeless Japanese spirituality. According other readings, it represents a dangerous anti-nomianism that undermined observance of moral precepts, precipitated a decline in Buddhist scholarship, and denied the need for religious discipline. Still others denounce it as an authoritarian ideology that, by sacralizing the given order, has in effect legitimized hierarchy and discriminative social practices. Often the acceptance or rejection of original enlightenment thought is seen as the fault line along which traditional Buddhist institutions are to be differentiated from the new Buddhist movements (Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren) that arose during Japan’s medieval period. Jacqueline Stone’s groundbreaking study moves beyond the treatment of the original enlightenment doctrine as abstract philosophy to explore its historical dimension. Drawing on a wealth of medieval primary sources and modern Japanese scholarship, it places this discourse in its ritual, institutional, and social contexts, illuminating its importance to the maintenance of traditions of lineage and the secret transmission of knowledge that characterized several medieval Japanese elite culture. It sheds new light on interpretive strategies employed in pre-modern Japanese Buddhist texts, an area that hitherto has received a little attention. Through these and other lines of investigation, Stone problematizes entrenched notions of “corruption” in the medieval Buddhist establishment. Using the examples of Tendai and Nichiren Buddhism and their interactions throughout the medieval period, she calls into question both overly facile distinctions between “old” and “new” Buddhism and the long-standing scholarly assumptions that have perpetuated them. This study marks a significant contribution to ongoing debates over definitions of Buddhism in the Kamakura era (1185–1333), long regarded as a formative period in Japanese religion and culture. Stone argues that “original enlightenment thought” represents a substantial rethinking of Buddhist enlightenment that cuts across the distinction between “old” and “new” institutions and was particularly characteristic of the medieval period.
Download or read book Zen Buddhism The Path to Enlightenment Special Edition Buddhist Verses Sutras Teachings written by Shawn Conners and published by Special Edition Books. This book was released on 2011-07 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Siddhartha Gautama, the Indian philosopher also known as Buddha Gautama, is believed to have attained Enlightenment sometime in the middle of the 5th century before the Common Era, while meditating under a Bodhi tree. From that time of enlightenment until his death, by which he entered Nirvana, he traveled by foot around the countryside of India, teaching others his philosophy of the Middle Path. The foundations of Buddhist tradition and practice are often called the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (teachings), and the Sangha (community). Presented in this modern special edition is a unique selection of the ancient texts which would follow the path of the Silk Road from India to China to Japan, and evolve into the school of thought known today as Zen Buddhism. This path follows the Indian Mahayana verses from the Dhammapada, to a collection of Buddhist sutras (or scriptures) transcribed from Chinese texts, and finally concludes with the Threefold Lotus, the three Pure Land sect sutras favored in Japan. Within the texts, the reader will find the Noble Eightfold Path, the 10 Major Precepts, the 48 Minor Precepts, the teachings of Ananda, the teachings of Bodhidharma, the Twin Verses of the Dhammapada, the Brahma Net Sutra and other basic tenets of Buddhism. The verses, sutras and texts stand on their own, as they have for centuries, to be interpreted by those who seek a deeper understanding of the world, and spiritual enlightenment.
Download or read book Enlightenment in Dispute written by Jiang Wu and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-12 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enlightenment in Dispute is the first comprehensive study of the revival of Chan Buddhism in seventeenth-century China. Focusing on the evolution of a series of controversies about Chan enlightenment, Jiang Wu describes the process by which Chan reemerged as the most prominent Buddhist establishment of the time. He investigates the development of Chan Buddhism in the seventeenth century, focusing on controversies involving issues such as correct practice and lines of lineage. In this way, he shows how the Chan revival reshaped Chinese Buddhism in late imperial China. Situating these controversies alongside major events of the fateful Ming-Qing transition, Wu shows how the rise and fall of Chan Buddhism was conditioned by social changes in the seventeenth century.
Download or read book How Zen Became Zen written by Morten Schlütter and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Zen Became Zen takes a novel approach to understanding one of the most crucial developments in Zen Buddhism: the dispute over the nature of enlightenment that erupted within the Chinese Chan (Zen) school in the twelfth century. The famous Linji (Rinzai) Chan master Dahui Zonggao (1089-1163) railed against "heretical silent illumination Chan" and strongly advocated kanhua (k?an) meditation as an antidote. In this fascinating study, Morten Schl?tter shows that Dahui's target was the Caodong (S?t?) Chan tradition that had been revived and reinvented in the early twelfth century, and that silent meditation was an approach to practice and enlightenment that originated within this "new" Chan tradition. Schl?tter has written a refreshingly accessible account of the intricacies of the dispute, which is still reverberating through modern Zen in both Asia and the West. Dahui and his opponents' arguments for their respective positions come across in this book in as earnest and relevant a manner as they must have seemed almost nine hundred years ago. Although much of the book is devoted to illuminating the doctrinal and soteriological issues behind the enlightenment dispute, Schl?tter makes the case that the dispute must be understood in the context of government policies toward Buddhism, economic factors, and social changes. He analyzes the remarkable ascent of Chan during the first centuries of the Song dynasty, when it became the dominant form of elite monastic Buddhism, and demonstrates that secular educated elites came to control the critical transmission from master to disciple ("procreation" as Schl?tter terms it) in the Chan School.
Download or read book Enlightenment Unfolds written by Kazuaki Tanahashi and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2000-06-06 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enlightenment Unfolds is a sequel to Kaz Tanahashi's previous collection, Moon in a Dewdrop, which has become a primary source on Dogen for Western Zen students. Dogen Zenji (1200–1253) is unquestionably the most significant religious figure in Japanese history. Founder of the Soto school of Zen (which emphasizes the practice of zazen or sitting meditation), he was a prolific writer whose works have remained popular for six hundred years. Enlightenment Unfolds presents even more of the incisive and inspiring writings of this seminal figure, focusing on essays from his great life work, Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, as well as poems, talks, and correspondence, much of which appears here in English for the first time. Tanahashi has brought together his own translations of Dogen with those of some of the most respected Zen teachers and writers of our own day, including Reb Anderson, Edward Espe Brown, Norman Fisher, Gil Fronsdal, Blanche Hartman, Jane Hirschfield, Daniel Leighton, Alan Senauke, Katherine Thanas, Mel Weitzman, and Michael Wenger.
Download or read book What is Buddhist Enlightenment written by Dale Stuart Wright and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What kind of person should I strive to be? What ideals should I pursue in my life? These basic human questions and others like them are components of the overall question that guides this book: What is enlightenment? As Dale Wright argues, any serious practitioner of human life, religious or not, confronts the challenge of living an authentic life, of overcoming common human disabilities like greed, hatred, and delusion that give rise to excessive suffering. Why then, Wright asks, is this essential question often avoided, even discouraged among Buddhists? One reason frequently cited by Buddhists is that pondering a distant goal might be a waste of energy that would be better applied to practice: Quiet the flow of obsessive thinking, put yourself in a mindful state of presence, and let enlightenment take care of itself. In this book, however, Wright contends that pondering this question is meditative practice--that attentive inquiry of this kind is essential as the starting point and guide for any mindful practice of life. Meditative reflection on the meaning of enlightenment focuses us on our aim and direction in life. It guides us in shaping our practices, our ideals, and the kinds of lives we will live. Asking what enlightenment is as a basic form of meditation helps to activate our lives and get transformative practice underway. From Wright's perspective, there is no more important question to ask than this one. What is Buddhist Enlightenment? offers a wide-ranging exploration of issues that have a bearing on the contemporary meaning of enlightenment, including a concluding section with 10 theses that answer the title's question. Written by a leading scholar of Buddhism, the book balances deep learning and an accessible style, offering valuable insights for students, scholars, and practitioners alike. While he takes an examination of what enlightenment has been in past Buddhist traditions as his point of departure, Wright's historical considerations yield to the question that our lives press upon us--what kinds of lives should we aspire to live here, now, and into the future?
Download or read book Ens written by Audrey Yoshiko Seo and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The enso, or "Zen circle", is one of the most prevalent images of Zen art, and has become a symbol of the clean and strong Zen aesthetic. This books containts examples of traditional enso art from the seventeenth century to the present.
Download or read book Zen Koan as a Means of Attaining Enlightenment written by Dai Z. Suzuki and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2011-10-21 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zen Koan as a Means of Attaining Enlightenment Presents the history and application of the koan exercise—the means for realizing enlightenment—with depth and clarity. The koan system has effected a special development in Zen Buddhism, and is a unique contribution to the history of religious consciousness. When the importance of the koan is understood, it may be said that more than half of Zen is understood.
Download or read book Pure Heart Enlightened Mind written by Maura O'Halloran and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-04-17 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1979, 24-year-old Maura O'Halloran left her waitressing job in Boston and began her study of Zen in Japan. Today she is revered as a Buddhist saint, and a statue in her honor stands at the monastery where she lived. This is the story of her journey.
Download or read book Lust for Enlightenment written by John Stevens and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 1990-12-08 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the centuries, Buddhism has responded to sexuality in a variety of fascinating ways, sometimes suppressing the sexual urge, sometimes sublimating it, sometimes cultivating it, and, on the highest levels, transforming it. This book reveals how Buddhists, beginning with Shakyamuni Buddha himself, relate to the "inner fire" that drives humankind. Included are chapters on the Buddha’s love life before his enlightenment and his later relationships with women; the tantric approach to sex among Buddhists of ancient India, Tibet, China, and Japan; Zen in the art of love; and a positive discussion of women and Buddhism.
Download or read book How Zen Became Zen written by Morten Schlutter and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2010-04-30 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Zen Became Zen takes a novel approach to understanding one of the most crucial developments in Zen Buddhism: the dispute over the nature of enlightenment that erupted within the Chinese Chan (Zen) school in the twelfth century. The famous Linji (Rinzai) Chan master Dahui Zonggao (1089–1163) railed against "heretical silent illumination Chan" and strongly advocated kanhua (koan) meditation as an antidote. In this fascinating study, Morten Schlütter shows that Dahui’s target was the Caodong (Soto) Chan tradition that had been revived and reinvented in the early twelfth century, and that silent meditation was an approach to practice and enlightenment that originated within this "new" Chan tradition. Schlütter has written a refreshingly accessible account of the intricacies of the dispute, which is still reverberating through modern Zen in both Asia and the West. Dahui and his opponents’ arguments for their respective positions come across in this book in as earnest and relevant a manner as they must have seemed almost nine hundred years ago. Although much of the book is devoted to illuminating the doctrinal and soteriological issues behind the enlightenment dispute, Schlütter makes the case that the dispute must be understood in the context of government policies toward Buddhism, economic factors, and social changes. He analyzes the remarkable ascent of Chan during the first centuries of the Song dynasty, when it became the dominant form of elite monastic Buddhism, and demonstrates that secular educated elites came to control the critical transmission from master to disciple ("procreation" as Schlütter terms it) in the Chan School.
Download or read book Dreaming Me written by Jan Willis and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-10 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jan Willis is not Baptist or Buddhist. She is simply both. Dreaming Me is the story of her life, from growing up a Baptist in the segregated South, dealing with racism in an Ivy League college, and becoming involved with the Black Panther Party to traveling to a Tibetan Buddhist monastery. It was upon meeting the great teacher Lama Yeshe that she found a way to understand both herself and the complicated world around her, a way to find peace. Willis went on to become a professor of religion at Wesleyan and is also an internationally recognized educator and innovator. Dreaming Me is the inspiring story of her spiritual journey of transformation.
Download or read book Wanting Enlightenment Is a Big Mistake written by Zen Master Seung Sahn and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2006-08-08 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major figure in the transmission of Zen to the West, Zen Master Seung Sahn was known for his powerful teaching style, which was direct, surprising, and often humorous. He taught that Zen is not about achieving a goal, but about acting spontaneously from “don’t-know mind.” It is from this “before-thinking” nature, he taught, that true compassion and the desire to serve others naturally arises. This collection of teaching stories, talks, and spontaneous dialogues with students offers readers a fresh and immediate encounter with one of the great Zen masters of the twentieth century.
