Download or read book The Unharnessed World written by Cindy Gabrielle and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2015-06-18 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though New Zealand author Janet Frame (1924–2004) lived at a time of growing dissatisfaction with European cultural models, and though her (auto-)biography, fiction and letters all testify to the fact that a direct encounter between herself and Buddhism occurred, her work has, so far, never been examined from the vantage point of its indebtedness to Buddhism. It is of the utmost significance, however, that a Buddhist navigation of Frame’s texts should shed fresh light on large segments of the Framean corpus which have tended to remain obdurately mysterious. This includes passages centering on such themes as the existence of a non-dual world or a character’s sudden embrace of a non-ego-like self. Of equal significance is the conclusion one then draws that this unharnessed world which human beings are often unable to embrace has always been right under their nose, for, whenever the aspect of the intellect that filters perceptions into mutually excluding categories fails to function, he or she finds a place of subjective arrival in, and sees, this supposedly unknowable ‘beyond’. Thus, possibly against the grain of mainstream criticism, this study argues that Janet Frame constantly seeks ways through which the infinite and the Other can be approached, though not corrupted, by the perceiving self, and that she found in the Buddhist epistemology a pathway towards evoking such alterity.
Download or read book Zen written by Yamada Koun and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether a beginner or at the highest level of practice, learn Zen from one of the greatest masters of the twentieth century. Why practice Zen? What sets Zen apart from religion? What are its different practices? These questions, and more, are examined and answered by Zen Master Koun Yamada, whose Dharma heirs include Robert Aitken, Ruben Habito, and David Loy. Through compelling stories and a systematic approach, he guides the reader through creating and sustaining a lifelong practice. Warm and ecumenical in tone, Koun uses the insights of Zen to bring a deeper understanding of faith. Zen: The Authentic Gate is an easy-to-follow guide to creating an effortless and natural practice regardless of background, tradition, or religion.
Download or read book Sin and Zen written by S. W. Stribling and published by S. W. Stribling. This book was released on 2019-07-24 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Will Strief has just fallen from the sky… Literally. He is no angel. He is a parachutist for the infamous French Foreign Legion, or he was until one bad jump leaves him shattered: physically, mentally, and spiritually. After a life in the military, jumping out of planes, and living a hero’s tale, the twenty-three-year-old Will finds himself floating about in the social gutters of Marseille, France. Despite his limp, he is reveling in his sudden liberation and rock-star life: hilarious drug experiences, vicious drinking, and a delicious sex life that would gorge a lesser being. Yet, all he wants is to find some meaning in life. Is it found in romantic love? Silent meditation under the Bodhi Tree? Or climbing the Himalayas? Will must find the balance between ‘Sin’ and ‘Zen’. And through it all, he explores the idea of romance, lust, trust, friendship, and peace in a raw and realistic tone while living life at its ill-defined edge. It is a fast-paced transgressive fiction that delves into the mind of a restless man trying to navigate an unplanned, but ultimately revealing, journey. Just jump and hang on for the ride.
Download or read book Zen Existentialism written by Lit-sen Chang and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-07-21 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern man has found that material achievements are failing him, but in his escape from despair, he has become an easy prey for the deceptive cult of "Zen-Existentialism." There has emerged a mode of radical "New Humanism" with its emphasis on "human autonomy." In place of the God-man appears the "man-god." There is a search for the "world within," the "limitless inner space," the "expansion of consciousness", and the transcendental experience of "Satori." First published in 1969, this book prophetically anticipated the growth of New Age developments in the decades to follow. Lit-sen Chang directly spoke to the Hippie movement of his day, which was then seeking various means of transcendence through drugs and eastern mysticism. This book also reflects fifty years of bitter experiences of the author's spiritual pilgrimage and shows how he was miraculously delivered by the grace and power of God from his "cul-de-sac." Chang writes of the utter futility of the fantasy of the East, analyzes the root causes of the crises in the West, and points out the doom of auto-soterism after his careful diagnosis of the human problem in cultural, philosophical, religious, and theological terms.
Download or read book Zen in Brazil written by Cristina Rocha and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2005-12-31 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Widely perceived as an overwhelmingly Catholic nation, Brazil has experienced in recent years a growth in the popularity of Buddhism among the urban, cosmopolitan upper classes. In the 1990s Buddhism in general and Zen in particular were adopted by national elites, the media, and popular culture as a set of humanistic values to counter the rampant violence and crime in Brazilian society. Despite national media attention, the rapidly expanding Brazilian market for Buddhist books and events, and general interest in the globalization of Buddhism, the Brazilian case has received little scholarly attention. Cristina Rocha addresses that shortcoming in Zen in Brazil. Drawing on fieldwork in Japan and Brazil, she examines Brazilian history, culture, and literature to uncover the mainly Catholic, Spiritist, and Afro-Brazilian religious matrices responsible for this particular indigenization of Buddhism. In her analysis of Japanese immigration and the adoption and creolization of the Sôtôshû school of Zen Buddhism in Brazil, she offers the fascinating insight that the latter is part of a process of "cannibalizing" the modern other to become modern oneself. She shows, moreover, that in practicing Zen, the Brazilian intellectual elites from the 1950s onward have been driven by a desire to acquire and accumulate cultural capital both locally and overseas. Their consumption of Zen, Rocha contends, has been an expression of their desire to distinguish themselves from popular taste at home while at the same time associating themselves with overseas cultural elites.
Download or read book The Zen Impulse and the Psychoanalytic Encounter written by Paul C. Cooper and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-04-27 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism derive from theoretical and philosophical assumptions worlds apart, both experientially-based traditions share at their heart a desire for the understanding, development, and growth of the human experience. Paul Cooper utilizes detailed clinical vignettes to contextualize the implications of Zen Buddhism in the therapeutic setting to demonstrate how its practices and beliefs inform, relate to, and enhance transformative psychoanalytic practice. The basic concepts of Zen, such as the identity of the relative and the absolute and the foundational principles of emptiness and dependent-arising, are given special attention as they relate to the psychoanalytic concepts of the unconscious and its processes, transference and countertransference, formulations of self, and more. In addition, through an analysis of apophasis, a unique style of discourse that serves as a basic structure for mystical languages, he provides insight into the structure of the seemingly irrational Zen koan in order to demonstrate its function as a pedagogical and psychological tool. Though mindful of their differences, Cooper’s intent throughout is to illustrate how the practices of both Zen and psychoanalysis become internalized by the individual who engages in them and can, in turn, inform one another in mutually beneficial ways in an effort to comprehend the ramifications of an individual or collective expanding vision.
Download or read book A New Zen for Women written by Perle Besserman and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2007-04-03 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perle Besserman's adventures in a Japanese Zen monastery provide the groundwork for this lively, heartwarming narrative of a woman's life in Zen. Engaging in cross-cultural dialogues with nuns and laywomen in India, China, Japan, and more, Besserman dispels the notion that women had nothing to do with the founding and sustaining of Zen. She shows how women continue to transform traditional Zen in new and creative ways, integrating the practice of meditation into their lives. Both informative and entertaining, A New Zen for Women offers a new look at Western women encountering Zen.
Download or read book The Complete Idiot s Guide to Zen Living written by Gary R. McClain and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2000-11-01 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains what Zen is and how it came to America, how to practice Zen and incorporate it into daily living, and the Zen approach to the world.
Download or read book Zen Way Jesus Way written by Tucker N. Callaway and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2013-01-08 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking book successfully fuses the two overlapping traditions of Zen Buddhism and Christianity. Very few Christians who are interested in Zen Buddhism understand the fundamentals of the religion itself. Most of the books which are available on Zen are superficial and fraught with caricatures and erroneous generalizations - concentrating more on meditation than on the real essence of Zen. Now the Christian who has been waiting for a clear and thorough explanation of Zen in terms he can understand has been provided with Zen Way--Jesus Way--a unique inside look at Christianity and Zen Buddhism by Dr. Tucker N. Callaway, a committed Christian missionary who for twenty years has practiced zazen in Japanese temples in an effort to reach the heart of the faith. Calloway has a knack for making philosophical concepts clear to the general reader and begins Zen Way--Jesus Way by presenting the fundamental presuppositions of Zen and several of the concepts which are logically deduced from them. Next he relates some of his experiences in Buddhist temples, while explaining the practical applications of Zen philosophy. Finally he interprets the Jesus Way in a manner that makes possible a genuine comparison with the Zen way.
Download or read book The Spirit of Zen written by Sam van Schaik and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An engaging introduction to Zen Buddhism, featuring a new English translation of one of the earliest Zen texts Leading Buddhist scholar Sam van Schaik explores the history and essence of Zen, based on a new translation of one of the earliest surviving collections of teachings by Zen masters. These teachings, titled The Masters and Students of the Lanka, were discovered in a sealed cave on the old Silk Road, in modern Gansu, China, in the early twentieth century. All more than a thousand years old, the manuscripts have sometimes been called the Buddhist Dead Sea Scrolls, and their translation has opened a new window onto the history of Buddhism. Both accessible and illuminating, this book explores the continuities between the ways in which Zen was practiced in ancient times, and how it is practiced today in East Asian countries such as Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam, as well as in the emerging Western Zen tradition.
Download or read book The Alpine Zen written by Mary Daheim and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The picturesque town of Alpine in the foothills of Washington state’s Cascade Mountains—home to Emma Lord and her weekly newspaper The Alpine Advocate—has long charmed and enthralled mystery lovers. Now, with The Alpine Zen, Mary Daheim has at last reached the anticipated letter of Z. Her legion of avid armchair sleuths will relish this deliciously gripping novel. As an early summer heat wave beats down on Alpine, Emma and her staff are treading very lightly. For unfathomable reasons, the paper’s House & Home editor, Vida Runkel, is in a major snit, refusing to speak to her colleagues, or even her boss. So when a peculiar young woman walks in claiming her parents have been murdered, and that she’s in mortal danger, too, it fits right in with the rest of the craziness. Then, to the utter bafflement of her colleagues, Vida vanishes without a word to anyone. And just when Emma and her husband, Sheriff Milo Dodge, start to unsnarl these tangles, a male body, dead too long to identify, surfaces at the town dump—making what seemed merely weird feel downright sinister. Has the hot weather driven everyone nuts, or are cold-blooded forces committing deadly misdeeds? The Alpine Zen tingles with all the mystery and allure that only Mary Daheim’s brand of small-town life can provide. Gossip, love affairs, feuding, and plenty of dirty secrets make for an intriguing adventure every Alpine fan will want to read all about. Praise for The Alpine Zen “A complex plot and a cast of vivid characters will keep readers turning pages.”—Publishers Weekly “Lively and satisfying.”—Library Journal Praise for Mary Daheim and her Emma Lord mysteries “Always entertaining.”—The Seattle Times “Mary Daheim writes with wit, wisdom, and a big heart. I love her books.”—Carolyn Hart “Daheim writes . . . with dry wit, a butter-smooth style, and obvious wicked enjoyment.”—The Oregonian “The characters are great, and the plots always attention-getting.”—King Features Syndicate “Even the most seasoned mystery fans are caught off-guard by [Daheim’s] clever plot twists.”—BookLoons “Witty one-liners and amusing characterizations.”—Publishers Weekly
Download or read book Living Zen written by Robert Linssen and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Living Zen is that rare achievement, both a survey of the rich history of Zen Buddhism and a guide to the practice of this most demanding and effortless art of being. The distinguished Belgian Scholar Robert Linssen offers a sage corrective to the idea that the Zen way is available only to those prepared to sit life out under the Bhodi-Tree. Gently but insistently he undermines this typically Western View, inviting and enabling us, as Christmas Humphreys puts it in his preface, to take 'the leap from thought to No-thought, from the ultimate duality of Illusion/Reality to a burst of laughter and a cup of tea.'
Download or read book Zen Women written by Grace Schireson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-10-27 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This landmark presentation at last makes heard the centuries of Zen's female voices. Through exploring the teachings and history of Zen's female ancestors, from the time of the Buddha to ancient and modern female masters in China, Korea, and Japan, Grace Schireson offers us a view of a more balanced Dharma practice, one that is especially applicable to our complex lives, embedded as they are in webs of family relations and responsibilities, and the challenges of love and work. Part I of this book describes female practitioners as they are portrayed in the classic literature of "Patriarchs' Zen"--often as "tea-ladies," bit players in the drama of male students' enlightenments; as "iron maidens," tough-as-nails women always jousting with their male counterparts; or women who themselves become "macho masters," teaching the same Patriarchs' Zen as the men do. Part II of this book presents a different view--a view of how women Zen masters entered Zen practice and how they embodied and taught Zen uniquely as women. This section examines many urgent and illuminating questions about our Zen grandmothers: How did it affect them to be taught by men? What did they feel as they trying to fit into this male practice environment, and how did their Zen training help them with their feelings? How did their lives and relationships differ from that of their male teachers? How did they express the Dharma in their own way for other female students? How was their teaching consistently different from that of male ancestors? And then part III explores how women's practice provides flexible and pragmatic solutions to issues arising in contemporary Western Zen centers.
Download or read book Venice written by Theodor Gsell-Fels and published by . This book was released on 1895 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Shifting Shape Shaping Text written by Steven Heine and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annotation Shifting Shape, Shaping Text examines the fox koan in relation to philosophical and institutional issues facing the Ch'an/Zen tradition in both Sung China and medieval and contemporary Japan.
Download or read book Caribbean Zen written by Philip Dickenson Peters and published by Zagada Markets. This book was released on 2003-08 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peters use an island setting as a motif and the awareness of a feminine soul as stepping stones for exploring the path to self-discovery and personal enlightenment.
