Knowledge and Truth in the Thought of Jizang (549–623)
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Reading the Miraculous Powers of Japanese Poetry Spells, Truth Acts, and a Medieval Buddhist Poetics of the Supernatural
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 32/: –33 © 2005 Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture R. Keller Kimbrough Reading the Miraculous Powers of Japanese Poetry Spells, Truth Acts, and a Medieval Buddhist Poetics of the Supernatural The supernatural powers of Japanese poetry are widely documented in the lit- erature of Heian and medieval Japan. Twentieth-century scholars have tended to follow Orikuchi Shinobu in interpreting and discussing miraculous verses in terms of ancient (arguably pre-Buddhist and pre-historical) beliefs in koto- dama 言霊, “the magic spirit power of special words.” In this paper, I argue for the application of a more contemporaneous hermeneutical approach to the miraculous poem-stories of late-Heian and medieval Japan: thirteenth- century Japanese “dharani theory,” according to which Japanese poetry is capable of supernatural effects because, as the dharani of Japan, it contains “reason” or “truth” (kotowari) in a semantic superabundance. In the first sec- tion of this article I discuss “dharani theory” as it is articulated in a number of Kamakura- and Muromachi-period sources; in the second, I apply that the- ory to several Heian and medieval rainmaking poem-tales; and in the third, I argue for a possible connection between the magico-religious technology of Indian “Truth Acts” (saccakiriyā, satyakriyā), imported to Japan in various sutras and sutra commentaries, and some of the miraculous poems of the late- Heian and medieval periods. keywords: waka – dharani – kotodama – katoku setsuwa – rainmaking – Truth Act – saccakiriyā, satyakriyā R. Keller Kimbrough is an Assistant Professor of Japanese at Colby College. In the 2005– 2006 academic year, he will be a Visiting Research Fellow at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture. -
Contents Transcriptions Romanization Zen 1 Chinese Chán Sanskrit Name 1.1 Periodisation Sanskrit Dhyāna 1.2 Origins and Taoist Influences (C
7/11/2014 Zen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Zen From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism[note 1] that Zen developed in China during the 6th century as Chán. From China, Zen spread south to Vietnam, northeast to Korea and Chinese name east to Japan.[2] Simplified Chinese 禅 Traditional Chinese 禪 The word Zen is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the Middle Chinese word 禪 (dʑjen) (pinyin: Chán), which in Transcriptions turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna,[3] which can Mandarin be approximately translated as "absorption" or "meditative Hanyu Pinyin Chán state".[4] Cantonese Zen emphasizes insight into Buddha-nature and the personal Jyutping Sim4 expression of this insight in daily life, especially for the benefit Middle Chinese [5][6] of others. As such, it de-emphasizes mere knowledge of Middle Chinese dʑjen sutras and doctrine[7][8] and favors direct understanding Vietnamese name through zazen and interaction with an accomplished Vietnamese Thiền teacher.[9] Korean name The teachings of Zen include various sources of Mahāyāna Hangul 선 thought, especially Yogācāra, the Tathāgatagarbha Sutras and Huayan, with their emphasis on Buddha-nature, totality, Hanja 禪 and the Bodhisattva-ideal.[10][11] The Prajñāpāramitā Transcriptions literature[12] and, to a lesser extent, Madhyamaka have also Revised Romanization Seon been influential. Japanese name Kanji 禅 Contents Transcriptions Romanization Zen 1 Chinese Chán Sanskrit name 1.1 Periodisation Sanskrit dhyāna 1.2 Origins and Taoist influences (c. 200- 500) 1.3 Legendary or Proto-Chán - Six Patriarchs (c. 500-600) 1.4 Early Chán - Tang Dynasty (c. -
The Wisdom of the Unsayable in the Chinese Tradition Karl-Heinz Pohl
3 The Wisdom of the Unsayable in the Chinese Tradition Karl-Heinz Pohl Concerning Eastern teachings such as Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, there is often widespread confusion about how these are to be classified—as religion or as philosophy. This problem, however, is culturally homemade: the distinction between religion and philosophy based on European cultural tradi- tions often does not apply when we leave our culture behind. Thus, the Eastern teachings, which are often referred to as “wisdom religions” (e.g. by Hans Küng), are either religion and philosophy or neither religion nor philosophy; whichever way you prefer ideologically. As is well known, there is a certain “family resemblance” (as Wittgenstein would put it) between Daoism and Buddhism. There is, however, very little that connects these Asian philosophies and religions with the European tradition emanating from Greco-Roman and Christian thought. This does not mean that their philosophemes would be fundamentally alien to the Europeans: at most they do not belong to the European mainstream. So the family resemblance could certainly be extended to certain European philoso- phers and schools: There is in Europe a tradition—from the pre-Socratics through the apophatic theology and mysticism of the Middle Ages to existen- tialism and philosophy of language of modernity—that has very much in common with Daoism and Buddhism. Hence, a blend of selected passages from Heraclitus (cf. Wohlfart 1998: 24–39), Neo-Pythagoreanism, Sextus Empiricus, Gnosticism, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Nicholas of Cusa, Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme, Montaigne, Hegel (cf. Wohlfart 1998: 24–39), Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Derrida, et al. -
Buddhist Print Culture in Early Republican China Gregory Adam Scott Submitted in Partial Fulfillment Of
Conversion by the Book: Buddhist Print Culture in Early Republican China Gregory Adam Scott Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 © 2013 Gregory Adam Scott All Rights Reserved This work may be used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For more information about that license, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. For other uses, please contact the author. ABSTRACT Conversion by the Book: Buddhist Print Culture in Early Republican China 經典佛化: 民國初期佛教出版文化 Gregory Adam Scott 史瑞戈 In this dissertation I argue that print culture acted as a catalyst for change among Buddhists in modern China. Through examining major publication institutions, publishing projects, and their managers and contributors from the late nineteenth century to the 1920s, I show that the expansion of the scope and variety of printed works, as well as new the social structures surrounding publishing, substantially impacted the activity of Chinese Buddhists. In doing so I hope to contribute to ongoing discussions of the ‘revival’ of Chinese Buddhism in the modern period, and demonstrate that publishing, propelled by new print technologies and new forms of social organization, was a key field of interaction and communication for religious actors during this era, one that helped make possible the introduction and adoption of new forms of religious thought and practice. 本論文的論點是出版文化在近代中國佛教人物之中,扮演了變化觸媒的角色. 通過研究從十 九世紀末到二十世紀二十年代的主要的出版機構, 種類, 及其主辦人物與提供貢獻者, 論文 說明佛教印刷的多元化 以及範圍的大量擴展, 再加上跟出版有關的社會結構, 對中國佛教 人物的活動都發生了顯著的影響. 此研究顯示在被新印刷技術與新形式的社會結構的推進 下的出版事業, 為該時代的宗教人物展開一種新的相互連結與構通的場域, 因而使新的宗教 思想與實踐的引入成為可能. 此論文試圖對現行關於近代中國佛教的所謂'復興'的討論提出 貢獻. Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables iii Acknowledgements v Abbreviations and Conventions ix Works Cited by Abbreviation x Maps of Principle Locations xi Introduction Print Culture and Religion in Modern China 1. -
Buddhism in China: a Historical Survey
B Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey Whalen LAI Buddhism occupies a central place in the history of integration while fully recognizing the emerging find- Chinese thought, as the system that attracted some of ings of Buddhologists. the best minds in the millennium between the Han and Certain paradigms describing the overall cultural the Song (second to twelfth centuries). However, inte- interaction are still in use. People still speak of initial grating Buddhist thought into Chinese philosophy Indianization and subsequent Sinicization; of Buddhist poses some problems, because Buddhists worked from conquest and Chinese transformation; of Indians as a different set of texts and spoke what seems to be a proverbially otherworldly and Chinese as, by inclina- different language. Christianity began as a hellenized tion, down-to-earth. Under scrutiny, such generaliza- biblical faith whose theology combined theos and tions often seem simplistic; but at some macrocosmic logos from the start; by contrast, long before Buddhism level they remain useful heuristic devices, and for cer- found its way into China there was an extensive history tain ends they can even lend overall clarity. The same of reflection by Indians on the Buddhist dharma—so can be said of several periodization schemes. They all that Chinese Buddhists had to think through an inher- depict a rise, growth, and decline of Buddhism—that ited tradition before they could embark on their own is, looking at it from the outside. For adherents of the Sinitic reading. As a result, much of the convoluted faith, and for others who still perceive its vitality, the scholastic detail in Buddhism remains alien to most story is one of seeding, flowering, and continual ten- Chinese. -
Contested Identities in Chan/Zen Buddhism: the “Lost” Fragments of Mazu Daoyi in the Zongjing Lu Albert Welter
20 Contested Identities in Chan/Zen Buddhism: The “Lost” Fragments of Mazu Daoyi in the Zongjing lu Albert Welter IntroduCtion: Mazu Daoyi and the Hongzhou FaCtion Mazu Daoyi , the founder of the Hongzhou faction is a major figure in the Chinese Chan, Korean Seon and Japanese Zen traditions.i He is especially credited with the unique Chan innovation known as “encounter dialogue.” Encounter dialogues (jiyuan wenda ) constitute one of the unique features of Chan yulu , and served as a defining feature of the Chan movement.ii Until recently, it was commonly assumed that yulu and encounter dialogue were the products of a unique Tang Chan culture, initiated by masters hailing form Chan’s so-called golden age.iii Recent work on the Linji lu exposed how dialogue records attributed to Linji were shaped over time into typical encounter dialogue events that did not reach mature form until the early Song.iv Regarding Mazu, Mario Poceski has shown how his reputation as an i Many of the prevailing assumptions regarding Mazu and the Hongzhou school have been challenged by the work of Mario Poceski, Everyday Mind as the Way: The Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), and Jia Jinhua. The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2006). ii It is important to note that the term jiyuan wenda to describe the phenomena known in English as “encounter dialogue” is a modern expedient devised by Yanagida Seizan , without precedent in original Chan sources. -
Contradiction and Recursion in Buddhist Philosophy: from Catuṣkoṭi to Kōan
adrian Kreutz (university of aMsterdaM) CONTRADICTION AND RECURSION IN BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY: FROM CATUṢKOṬI TO KŌAN Introduction Everything is real and is not real, A Monk asked: Both real and not real, “What is Buddha?” Neither real nor not real. The Zen Teacher answered: This is Lord Buddha’s teaching. “Three pounds of fax” MMK (18:8) Wúmén Guān: (18) Prima facie, MMK (18:8) on the left, and Wúmén Guān (18) (Ch. 無門關) on the right don’t have a lot in common—but they do.1 Both are, and this is the main hypothesis of this essay, a schema for upāya (Skt. उपाय): skilful means of teaching the path to enlightenment. Wúmén Guān: (18) is a Kōan (Ch. 公案), which features predominantly in the Chinese Chan and the Japanese Zen tradition. The focus of §4 will be on the Kōan. The subsequent section, §2, will be concerned with the argument from MMK (18:8) above which goes under the name catuṣkoṭi (Skt. चतुष्कोटि), which literally means “four corners.” In its simplest from, the catuṣkoti is the view that any claim can be true, false, both true and false or neither true nor false. Those are, metaphorically, the four corners (kotis). The origins of the catuṣkoṭi and the origin of Buddhism are concomitant. In fact, as 1 I am indebted to the audience at the Asian Philosophical Texts conference at the Centre for East Asian Studies (EASt), Université Libre de Bruxelles in November 2018. Special thanks go to Takeshi Morisato. Furthermore, I would like to express my gratitude for helpful comments by two anonymous referees which have improved the quality of this essay and also to Jan Westerhoff for a translational remark. -
Zen Questions: Zazen, Dogen, and the Spirit of Creative Inquiry
Zen Questions Cover v2:Layout 1 10/19/11 4:22 PM Page 1 Zen continuously questions— not merely looking for answers but rather remaining present Zen Questions and upright in the middle of creative inquiry. “Zen Questions does not have the answers—which is just as it should be because it captures the very process of constructive questioning at its best. Yet in a deeper sense, this book does have answers, as thoughtful readers may discover and match their questions to this brilliant text.” - Z e n —Steven Heine, author of Did Dogen Go to China? “Zen Questions is a series of lucid, held-open investigations into something very simple, but also subtle and complex: the fundamental question of how we inhabit this particular moment of human awareness, in this very body and mind, in this very world. The Zen awareness presented here reaches in many directions—Leighton shows how the understandings of Zen teachers over thirteen hundred years glimmer also in a line by Bob Dylan, a phrase from a poem by Wallace Stevens. Sometimes scholarly and historical, sometimes engaged with the most contemporary of our shared societal dilemmas, Zen Questions equally introduces and expands our American understanding of Buddhist teachings, and of the many possibilities in navigating our own lives.” —Jane Hirshfield, author of Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry Q u e s t i o n s “A brave book, bringing the fierce spirit of Zen into the questions that all of us face today.” —Roshi Joan Halifax, author of Being with Dying “Taigen Leighton has long been writing about Do-gen with clarity and depth—yet here he Z D also includes his wide-ranging perspectives on Dharma, society, and Bob Dylan to boot. -
Approach on Buddhist Ethics: Wŏnhyo on the Doctrinal Problem of the Buddha-Nature and the Icchantika
“Middle Way” Approach on Buddhist Ethics: Wŏnhyo on the Doctrinal Problem of the Buddha-nature and the Icchantika Lee Sumi Acta Koreana, Volume 22, Number 2, December 2019, pp. 231-248 (Article) Published by Keimyung University, Academia Koreana For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/756404 [ Access provided at 27 Sep 2021 12:36 GMT with no institutional affiliation ] ACTA KOREANA Vol. 22, No. 2, December 2019: 231–248 doi:10.18399/acta.2019.22.2.002 “Middle Way” Approach on Buddhist Ethics: Wŏnhyo on the Doctrinal Problem of the Buddha-nature and the Icchantika LEE SUMI The Buddhist ethical concept of kuśala (C. shan 善), which is usually rendered as “wholesome” or “skillful,” has drawn significant scholarly attention. Although scholars have not reached a consensus on how to approach Buddhist ethical systems, it seems to be commonly acknowledged that the wholesome dharmas in early Buddhism are divided into two types: the wholesome dharmas on the mundane level and the wholesome dharmas on the supramundane level. According to the typical account of Buddhist soteriology, a practitioner should cultivate these two types of wholesome dharmas in order to reach the final goal of nirvāṇa. However, in Mahāyāna Buddhism, in which the division between the mundane and the supramundane sphere was ultimately denied, the distinction between the wholesome dharmas on the mundane and supramundane levels was often seen as being problematic. As a result, a philosophical problem arose concerning how to explain the doctrinal contrast between the ultimate universality and the concrete particularities. In ancient East Asia this problem emerged centering on the two conflicting notions of the Buddha-nature (Skt. -
28 BUDDHISM in CHINESE PHILOSOPHY Whalen Lai
28 BUDDHISM IN CHINESE PHILOSOPHY Whalen Lai INTRODUCTION: BUDDHIST MIND AND BUDDHIST REALITY Within the larger context of the history of Chinese philosophy, the major contribution of Chinese Buddhism can be said to be its insight into the working of the human psyche and the structure of ultimate reality, in short, psychology and metaphysics. Chinese understanding of these two areas has not been the same since the medieval Buddhist period. As the Qing scholars charged, the Neo-Confucian philosophers of the Song and Ming period (which came after the Buddhist era) had been so heavily influenced by Buddhism in their inner cultivation and in their metaphysics as to be crypto-Buddhists. Before Buddhism came to China, the two dominant traditions were Confucianism and Daoism. In Confucianism, man sees himself as a social being tied from birth to family and state; to be human is to be son of one’s father and subject to one’s lord and king. In Daoism, man sees himself as part of nature; to be true to nature, it is sometimes necessary to renounce the artificiality of human culture, even to reject society and return to the hills. In the Han Confucian synthesis of these two traditions under the rubric of so-called Yin- Yang Confucianism, the ideal was to integrate man into the family, the family into the state, and the state into the cosmos under the guidance of the emperor, the Son of Heaven who binds heaven, earth and man together. There was no need then to look for a very subtle self like the Chan (Japanese Zen) idea of ‘your original face before you were born’ or to seek an escape from both society and nature to some acosmic Beyond higher than the limit of heaven itself. -
Linguistic Strategies in Daoist Zhuangzi and Chan
1111 2 3 4 5111 LINGUISTIC STRATEGIES IN 6 7 DAOIST ZHUANGZI AND 8 CHAN BUDDHISM 9 10 11 2 3111 As the first systematic attempt to probe the linguistic strategies of 4 Daoist Zhuangzi and Chan Buddhism, this book investigates three 5 areas: deconstructive strategy, liminology of language, and indirect 6 communication. It bases these investigations on the critical examin- 7 ation of original texts, placing them strictly within soteriological 8 contexts. 9 While focusing on language use, the study also reveals some import- 20111 ant truths about the two traditions, and challenges many conven- 1 tional understandings of them. Responding to recent critiques of 2 Daoist and Chan Buddhist thought, it brings these traditions into 3 a constructive dialogue with contemporary philosophical reflection. 4 It “discovers” Zhuangzian and Chan perspectives and sheds light 5 on issues such as the relationship between philosophy and non- 6 philosophy, de-reification of words, relativizing of the limit of 7 language, structure of indirect communication, and use of double 8 negation, paradox, tautology, irony, and poetic language. 9 30111 Youru Wang teaches Asian thought in the Philosophy and Religion 1 Department at Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey. His area 2 of speciality is Chinese Buddhist thought and early Daoist thought. 3 His articles have appeared in journals such as International Philosophical 4 Quarterly, Philosophy East and West, Asian Philosophy, and Journal of Chinese 5 Philosophy. 6 7 8 9 40111 1 21111 folio 1111 2 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 10 11 -
Contemplation of Mutual Identity Theory in Chinese Buddhism*
Contemplation of Mutual Identity Theory in Chinese Buddhism* Ae Soon Chang (Ven. Kye Hwan)1 Abstract While many scholars consider pratītyasamutpādavāda (緣起論, The theory of Dependent Arising) as the basic thought of Buddhism, it is possible to say that Ji (卽) is the main logic which is necessarily derived from this pratītyasamutpādavāda thought. Meanwhile, in order to construct logic of Ji, the inconsistency which stands on the basis of śūnyatā (空, emptiness) must be resolved first. Besides this, the reason why Huayan’s Ji gets involved with others (相卽相入) in the Dharma Realm of non-obstruction of particular-phenomena and particular-phenomena (事事無碍法界) is that it tides over (超克) being functioned by the negative catalyst of śūnyatā. Ae Soon Chang is a professor of Department of Buddhist studies at Dongguk Univ. (Seoul), Korea. ([email protected]) * This study is supported by Brain Korea 21 Buddhist Studies in a Global Era, Dongguk Univ. This article is a abridged version of “Contemplation on ‘Mutual Ji Theory’ in Chinese Buddhism” listed in the Hanguk Bulgyohak: Journal of Korean Association for Buddhist Studies, vol. 30, pp. 51‒72. (Seoul: 2001) International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culturer February 2012, vol. 18, pp. 25‒46. ⓒ 2012 International Association for Buddhist Thought & Culture The day of submission: 2011.12.12 / Completion of review: 2012.1.4 / Final decision for acceptance: 2012.1.15 26 Ae Soon Chang (Ven. Kye Hwan): Contemplation of Mutual Identity Theory in Chinese Buddhism So firstly, from this point of view, I intend to find an example of how Ji (卽) is translated and investigate what aspect of previous logics it criticizes through Jizang’s Mutual Identity Theory of the Absolute Truth and Conventional Truth (二諦相卽論, Erdixiangjilun).