Dogen

Dogen PDF Author: Steven Heine
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834843854
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 361

Get Book

Book Description
An essential introduction to the life, writings, and legacy of one of Japan's most prolific Buddhist masters. The founder of the Soto school of Zen in Japan, Eihei Dogen (1200–1253) is one of the most influential Buddhist teachers of all time. Although Dogen’s writings have reached wide prominence among contemporary Buddhists and philosophers, there is much that remains enigmatic about his life and writings. In Dogen: Japan’s Original Zen Teacher, respected Dogen scholar and translator Steven Heine offers a nuanced portrait of the master’s historical context, life, and work, paying special attention to issues such as: The nature of the “great doubt” that motivated Dogen’s religious quest The sociopolitical turmoil of Kamakura Japan that led to dynamic innovations in medieval Japanese Buddhism The challenges and transformations Dogen experienced during his pivotal time in China Key inflection points and unresolved questions regarding Dogen’s teaching career in Japan Ongoing controversies in the scholarly interpretations of Dogen’s biography and teachings Synthesizing a lifetime of research and reflection into an accessible narrative, this new addition to the Lives of the Masters series illuminates thought-provoking perspectives on Dogen’s character and teachings, as well as his relevance to contemporary practitioners.

Dogen

Dogen PDF Author: Steven Heine
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834843854
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 361

Get Book

Book Description
An essential introduction to the life, writings, and legacy of one of Japan's most prolific Buddhist masters. The founder of the Soto school of Zen in Japan, Eihei Dogen (1200–1253) is one of the most influential Buddhist teachers of all time. Although Dogen’s writings have reached wide prominence among contemporary Buddhists and philosophers, there is much that remains enigmatic about his life and writings. In Dogen: Japan’s Original Zen Teacher, respected Dogen scholar and translator Steven Heine offers a nuanced portrait of the master’s historical context, life, and work, paying special attention to issues such as: The nature of the “great doubt” that motivated Dogen’s religious quest The sociopolitical turmoil of Kamakura Japan that led to dynamic innovations in medieval Japanese Buddhism The challenges and transformations Dogen experienced during his pivotal time in China Key inflection points and unresolved questions regarding Dogen’s teaching career in Japan Ongoing controversies in the scholarly interpretations of Dogen’s biography and teachings Synthesizing a lifetime of research and reflection into an accessible narrative, this new addition to the Lives of the Masters series illuminates thought-provoking perspectives on Dogen’s character and teachings, as well as his relevance to contemporary practitioners.

The Koan

The Koan PDF Author: Steven Heine
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019802780X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 335

Get Book

Book Description
Koans are enigmatic spiritual formulas used for religious training in the Zen Buddhist tradition. Arguing that our understanding of the koan tradition has been severely limited, contributors to this collection examine previously unrecognized factors in the formation of this tradition, and highlight the rich complexity and diversity of koan practice and literature.

Silent Illumination

Silent Illumination PDF Author: Guo Gu
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834843498
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Get Book

Book Description
Our natural awakening—or buddha-nature—is inherent within all of us and waiting to be realized. Buddha-nature has the qualities of both silence and illumination, and by working with silent illumination meditation you can find your own awakening. Distinguished Chan Buddhist teacher Guo Gu introduces you to the significance and methods of this practice through in-depth explanations and guided instructions. To help establish a foundation for realizing silent illumination, he has translated twenty-five teachings from the influential master Hongzhi Zhengjue into English, accompanied by his personal commentary. This book will be an indispensable resource for meditators interested in beginning or deepening their silent illumination practice.

The Art of Chinese Poetry

The Art of Chinese Poetry PDF Author: James J. Y. Liu
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226486877
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Get Book

Book Description
This concise introduction to Chinese poetry serves as a primer for English-speakers eager to expand their understanding and enjoyment of Chinese culture. James J. Y. Liu first examines the Chinese language as a medium of poetic expression and, contrary to the usual focus on the visual qualities of Chinese script, emphasizes the auditory effects of Chinese verse. He provides a succinct survey of Chinese poetry theory and concludes with his own view of poetry, based upon traditional Chinese concepts. "[This] books should be read by all those interested in Chinese poetry."—Achilles Fang, Poetry "[This is] a significant contribution to the understanding and appreciation of Chinese poetry, lucidly presented in a way that will attract a wide audience, and offering an original synthesis of Chinese and Western views that will stimulate and inspire students of poetry everywhere."—Hans H. Frankel, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies "This is a book which can be recommended without reservation to anyone who wants to explore the world of Chinese poetry in translation."—James R. Hightower, Journal of Asian Studies

Buddhism in the Sung

Buddhism in the Sung PDF Author: Daniel A. Getz
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824826819
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 660

Get Book

Book Description
New paperback edition The Sung Dynasty (960–1279) has long been recognized as a major watershed in Chinese history. Although there are recent major monographs on Sung society, government, literature, Confucian thought, and popular religion, the contribution of Buddhism to Sung social and cultural life has been all but ignored. Indeed, the study of Buddhism during the Sung has lagged behind that of other periods of Chinese history. One reason for the neglect of this important aspect of Sung society is undoubtedly the tenacity of the view that the Sung marked the beginning of an inexorable decline of Buddhism in China that extended down through the remainder of the imperial era. As this book attests, however, new research suggests that, far from signaling a decline, the Sung was a period of great efflorescence in Buddhism. This volume is the first extended scholarly treatment of Buddhism in the Sung to be published in a Western language. It focuses largely on elite figures, elite traditions, and interactions among Buddhists and literati, although some of the book’s essays touch on ways in which elite traditions both responded to and helped shape more popular forms of lay practice and piety. All of the chapters in one way or another deal with the two most important elite traditions within Sung Buddhism: Ch’an and T’ien-t’ai. Whereas most previous discussions of Buddhism in the Sung have tended to concentrate on Ch’an, the present volume is notable for giving T’ien-t’ai its due. By presenting a broader and more contextualized picture of these two traditions as they developed in the Sung, this work amply reveals the vitality of Buddhism in the Sung as well as its embeddedness in the social and intellectual life of the time.

Zen Dust

Zen Dust PDF Author: Isshu Miura
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781922169129
Category : Koan
Languages : en
Pages : 551

Get Book

Book Description
Originally published in Kyoto in 1966 by the First Zen Institute of America in Japan, and by Harcourt, Brace & World in New York in 1967, "Zen Dust: The History of the Koan and Koan Study in Rinzai (Linji) Zen" quickly established itself as the only major resource into Zen koan study available in any Western language. Long since out of print, this Quirin Pinyin Updated Editions (QPUE) Revised Edition offers the full original text with the following features: Older Wade-Giles transliteration fully updated and revised to the current Pinyin standard. Fully re-typeset and proofed for typographical errors and inconsistencies. A fully searchable E-book edition of this title will be made available in PDF format. Not to be confused with the earlier title by the same authors on the Zen koan, which is a much shorter preliminary version of the present volume, Zen Dust: The History of the Koan and Koan Study in Rinzai (Linji) Zen is divided into five main sections: Part One is an extensive essay by Ruth Fuller Sasaki on the history of the koan in Chinese and Japanese Rinzai Zen and how it developed into a unique technique to aid the monk in quest of enlightenment. Part Two is a translation of a series of lectures on koan study given by the Zen master Issh Miura R shi Part Three offers a selection of Zen phrases or capping phrases that were used as commentary and annotations to the often enigmatic koans. The notes to the first two sections of Zen Dust offer a veritable treasure trove of background information on the monks and masters that forged the koan-study tradition of Rinzai Zen in China and Japan. This is followed by an extensively descriptive bibliography that teases out the vast literature of Zen in particular and Buddhism in general by giving considerable background material not only on the content of the works but also the context in which they came to be put together. Along with the appendices, which include genealogical charts of Zen lines, and the extensive index, it is these last sections (totaling nearly 400 pages) that make Zen Dust an invaluable companion not only for students and Zen adepts seeking to delve in the unique spiritual training that koan study entails, but also for scholars and researchers of Zen Buddhism. Keywords: Koan. Zen Buddhism. Rinzai Size: Paperback xx + 531 pages 6 x 9 in. / 234 x 156 mm. 1.8 lb /816 gm For details and updates, including occasional extracts and special offers, visit our website quirinpress.com and follow us Twitter @QuirinPress"

Ordinary Mind as the Way

Ordinary Mind as the Way PDF Author: Mario Poceski
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198043201
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book

Book Description
Under the leadership of Mazu Daoyi (709-788) and his numerous disciples, the Hongzhou School emerged as the dominant tradition of Chan (Zen) Buddhism in China during the middle part of the Tang dynasty(618-907). Mario Poceski offers a systematic examination of the Hongzhou School's momentous growth and rise to preeminence as the bearer of Chan orthodoxy, and analyzes its doctrines against the backdrop of the intellectual and religious milieus of Tang China. Poceski demonstrates that the Hongzhou School represented the first emergence of an empire-wide Chan tradition that had strongholds throughout China and replaced the various fragmented Schools of early Chan with an inclusive orthodoxy. Poceski's study is based on the earliest strata of permanent sources, rather than on the later apocryphal "encounter dialogue" stories regularly used to construe widely-accepted but historically unwarranted interpretations about the nature of Chan in the Tang dynasty. He challenges the traditional and popularly-accepted view of the Hongzhou School as a revolutionary movement that rejected mainstream mores and teachings, charting a new path for Chan's independent growth as a unique Buddhist tradition. This view, he argues, rests on a misreading of key elements of the Hongzhou School's history. Rather than acting as an unorthodox movement, the Hongzhou School's success was actually based largely on its ability to mediate tensions between traditionalist and iconoclastic tendencies. Going beyond conventional romanticized interpretations that highlight the radical character of the Hongzhou School, Poceski shows that there was much greater continuity between early and classical Chan-and between the Hongzhou School and the rest of Tang Buddhism-than previously thought.

Buddhism in China

Buddhism in China PDF Author: Kenneth Kuan Sheng Ch'en
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691216053
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 574

Get Book

Book Description
CONTENTS: Preface. Table of Chinese Dynasties. Maps of Dynasties. Introduction, Growth and Domestication. Maturity and Acceptance. Decline. Conclusion. Glossary. Chinese Names and Titles. Bibliography. Index.

Early Chinese Literature

Early Chinese Literature PDF Author: Burton Watson
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231086714
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Get Book

Book Description
Watson's account of Chinese writing from the time of the Chou dynasty (1100--249 B.C.) to the Latter Han (25-220) is accompanied by a chronology, biographical information, and a selected list of translations.

How Zen Became Zen

How Zen Became Zen PDF Author: Morten Schlutter
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824835085
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Get Book

Book Description
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.