Zen Buddhism Books

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis"This book has been a steadfast portal through which millions in the West have peered to catch at the very least a glimpse of Zen mind at play in all its thought-shattering dialogue, humor, joy, and wisdom."—Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You AreZen Flesh, Zen Bones offers a remarkable collection of primary sources which enable readers to experience the meaning of Zen directly for themselves. It includes: 101 Zen Stories, a collection of tales recounting the experiences of Chinese and Japanese Zen Buddhist teachers over a period of over five centuries The Gateless Gate, a famous collection of Zen koans Ten Bulls, a commentary on the stages of awareness leading to enlightenment Centering, an ancient text from India that many consider to provide the foundations for Zen Buddhism When Zen Flesh, Zen Bones was first published in 1957 it created an instant sensation with an entire generation of readers who were just beginning to discover Zen. Over the years it has inspired leading Zen teachers, students and practitioners around the world, and its popularity is as strong today as ever.Trade Review"It has stayed with me for the last 30 years, a classic portraying Zen mind to our linear thinking." --Phil Jackson, Head Coach of the Chicago Bulls and author of Sacred Hoops"This book was my introduction to Buddhism nearly thirty years ago. I am delighted to see this new edition of this wonderful classic." --Sylvia Boorstein, author of It's Easier Than You Think"This book has been a steadfast portal through which millions in the West have peered to catch at the very least a glimpse of Zen mind at play in all its thought-shattering dialogue, humor, joy, and wisdom." --Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are

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Book SynopsisNot Seeing Snow: Musō Soseki and Medieval Japanese Zen offers a detailed look at a crucial yet sorely neglected figure in medieval Japan. It clarifies Musō’s far-reaching significance as a Buddhist leader, waka poet, landscape designer, and political figure. In doing so, it sheds light on how elite Zen culture was formed through a complex interplay of politics, religious pedagogy and praxis, poetry, landscape design, and the concerns of institution building. The appendix contains the first complete English translation of Musō’s personal waka anthology, Shōgaku Kokushishū.Table of ContentsContents Prologue List of Figures Introduction: Zen in the Generations before Musō: The Growth of the Gozan System in Medieval Japan  1 The Life of Musō Soseki: A Critical Reading  2 Musō’s Early Life: A Turn to Zen  3 Practice and Enlightenment  5 Recluse and Abbot  6 Building a Line Under Emperor Godaigo  7 Association with the Ashikaga and the Northern Court  8 Death and Legacy 1 A Master Defined: Musō Soseki in Muchū mondōshū  1 Muchū Mondōshūand the Tradition of Kana Hōgoon Zen  2 Playing Teacher  3 A License to Critique  4 Calling Little Jade  5 Conclusion 2 Beneath the Ice: Musō Soseki and the Waka Tradition  1 Shōgaku Kokushishū: An Incomplete Textual History  2 Musō and the Way of Waka  3 Affirming the Arts: Musō Soseki and Buddhist Discourse on Waka  4 Ambivalence and Abstraction: Literal and Figurative Representations of Reclusion in SKS  5 New Takes on Old Tropes: Mind Over Lament  6 Rarefying the Pine Wind  7 Elegantly Unconfused  7 Conclusion 3 Blossoms before Moss: Medieval Views of Musō Soseki’s Saihōji  1 A Long and Sacred History in Saihōshōja Engi  2 The Temple and the Blossoms  3 Blooms After Death in Shōgaku Kokushishū  4 When the Shōgun was at Saihōji after the Blossoms had Fallen  5 Zen in Bloom in Musō’s Chronology  6 The Musō Renovations: Musō and Medieval Landscape Design  7 Saihōji as Musō Memorial  8 Harmonizing Pure Land and Zen at Saihōji  9 Conclusion 4 Changing Agendas at Musō Soseki’s Tenryūji  1 Tenryūji: From Imperial Residence to Commercial Center  2 Taiheiki’s Tenryūji: Appearance of an Onryō  3 Tenryūji in 1345: Reunification and the Rise of Buddhism  4 Multiple Reconciliations  5 Securing Imperial Support for Tenryūji  6 Enlightening Godaigo and Other Objectives  7 Tying Tenryūji to Ashikaga Takauji in  8 Conclusion Epilogue Appendix: Shōgaku Kokushishū Bibliography

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Book SynopsisIn Reimagining Zen in a Secular Age André van der Braak offers an account of the exciting but also problematic encounter between enchanted Japanese Zen Buddhism and secular Western modernity over the past century, using Charles Taylor’s magnum opus A Secular Age as an interpretative lens. As the tenuous compromises of various forms of “Zen modernism” are breaking down today, new imaginings of Zen are urgently needed that go beyond both a Romantic mystical Zen and a secular “mindfulness” Zen. As a Zen scholar-practitioner, André van der Braak shows that the Zen philosophy of the 13th century Zen master Dōgen offers much resources for new hermeneutical, embodied, non-instrumental and communal approaches to contemporary Zen theory and practice in the West.Table of Contents AcknowledgementsXI  Introduction  1 Beyond Buddhist Modernism  2 Reimagining Zen in the West  3 Cross-cultural Hermeneutics  4 A Secular Age  5 Outline of This Book Part 1: Zen and the Immanent Frame 1 Zen Transmissions and Reimaginings  1 Reimagining Indian Buddhism as Chinese Chan  1.1 Sudden Enlightenment versus Gradual Cultivation  1.2 Beyond Language versus within Language  1.3 Koan Practice versus Silent Illumination  2 Reimagining Chinese Chan as Japanese Zen  3 Zen Imaginings in the West  4 Discussion 2 A Secular Age  1 Introduction  2 Fullness  3 Beyond Subtraction Stories  4 Disenchantment  5 The Buffered Self  6 The Immanent Frame  7 A Three-Cornered Battle  8 Discussion 3 Cross Pressures in the Immanent Frame  1 The General Malaise of Immanence  2 Enlightenment as a New Form of Fullness  3 Disenchantment versus Re-enchantment  4 Beyond Transcendence and Immanence  5 Open versus Closed Zen Practice  6 Discussion Part 2: Zen Modernism 4 Universalization: Zen as Universal Mysticism  1 The Birth of Buddhism as a World Religion  2 Universal Zen  3 Pure Experience  4 Criticizing the Universality of Pure Experience  5 Against Perennialism: Criticism of Universal Mysticism  6 Zen as Non-mysticism  7 Back to Language: Dōgen’s Mystical Hermeneutics  8 Zen Meditation as Universal Dharma Practice  9 Discussion 5 Psychologization: The Zen Experience  1 Psychologization  2 Disenchanting the Bodhisattvas  3 Questioning the Zen Experience  4 Beyond Religious Experience  5 Going Beyond Excarnation and the Buffered Self  6 Dōgen’s Embodied Realization  7 Discussion 6 The Therapeutic Turn: Zen as Therapy  1 From Conversion to Healing  2 The Reaffirmation of Ordinary Life  3 Zen and the Affirmation of Ordinary Life  4 Dōgen on the Affirmation of Ordinary Life  5 The Medicalization of the Moral  6 Instrumentalization versus No Gain  7 Discussion 7 The Rise of Expressive Individualism: Zen as Global Spirituality  1 The Rise of Expressive Individualism  2 Personal Spirituality versus Communal Religious Practice  3 Religious Belonging  4 Zen Belonging in the West  5 Pure Zen versus Buddhist Zen  6 Zen Ritual as Communal Practice  7 Discussion Part 3: Beyond Zen Modernism 8 Batchelor’s Secular Buddhism  1 The Search for the Human Buddha  2 Beyond Karma  3 Reimagining Enlightenment  4 Discussion 9 Reimagining Emptiness: Toward a Subtler Language of Fullness  1 The Kyoto School  2 Śūnyatā as Zen Fullness  3 Nishitani and Śūnyatā201  4 Hisamatsu and Oriental Nothingness  5 Masao Abe  6 David Loy’s New Buddhist Path  7 Deconstructing Enlightenment: Beyond Transcendence and Immanence  8 Evolution: A New Enchanted Buddhist Worldview  9 Ethics: Reimagining the Bodhisattva Path  10 Discussion 10 Engaging Dōgen’s Zen  1 Back to Buddhist Scriptures  2 An Enchanted Zen  3 Zen Fullness as Ongoing Practice-Realization  4 From Individual Pure Zen to Communal Bodhisattva Zen  5 Dōgen’sShushōgi227  6 Repenting and Eliminating Bad Karma  7 Receiving Precepts and Joining the Ranks  8 Making the Vow to Benefit Beings  9 Discussion  10 The Future of Zen Literature Index

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Book SynopsisWhen a Zen teacher tells you to point at your mind, which part of your body do you point at? According to the Japanese master Chikotsu Daie (1229–1312), you should point at the fistful of meat that is your heart. Esoteric Zen demonstrates that far from an outlier, Daie's understanding reflects the medieval Buddhist mainstream, in which tantric teachings and Zen were closely entwined movements that often developed within the same circles of thinkers and texts. ,br/> Drawing on newly discovered manuscript materials, it shows how medieval practitioners constructed a unique form of Zen by drawing on tantric doctrinal discourses.

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