Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism

ISBN-13: 9780521590105 / Angielski / Twarda / 1998 / 244 str.

Los Angeles) Dale S. Wright (Occidental College

Opis

This book is the first to engage Zen Buddhism philosophically on crucial issues from a perspective that is informed by the traditions of Western philosophy and religion. It focuses on one renowned Zen master, Huang Po, whose recorded sayings exemplify the spirit of the "golden age" of Zen in medieval China, and on the transmission of these writings to the West. While deeply sympathetic to the Zen tradition, it raises serious questions about the kinds of claims that can be made on its behalf.

Recenzje

'How much should we use sophisticated hermeneutical approaches to challenge the Zen tradition's self-understanding? And how much can we use Buddhist insight and meditative techniques to challenge the 'objectivity' of contemporary Buddhist Studies …? Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism addresses these questions more directly, and answers them more successfully, than anything else I have read on the topic … Wright's meditations … show that Zen students need not be afraid of postmodernism, for by dispelling our romanticist preconceptions it can make Zen practice more liberative. Instead of corrosively dismissing old claims about Zen which are no longer tenable … this book goes far in determining what of a de-mythologized Zen tradition remains alive and important for us today.' David Loy, Asian Philosophy

Spis treści

1. Textuality: the 'dependent origination' of Huang Po; 2. Reading: the practice of insight; 3. Understanding: the context of enlightenment; 4. Language: the sphere of immediacy; 5. Rhetoric: the instrument of meditation; 6. History: the genealogy of mind; 7. Freedom: the practice of constraint; 8. Transcendence: 'going beyond' Huang Po; 9. Mind: the 'Great Matter'of Zen; 10. Enlightenment: the awakening of mind; Conclusion: Zen in theory and practice.