Chan Buddhism in Ritual Context

by Bernard Faure (Editor)

Overview

The essays in this volume attempt to place the Chan and Zen tradition in their ritual and cultural contexts, looking at various aspects heretofore largely (and unduly) ignored. In particular, they show the extent to which these traditions, despite their claim to uniqueness, were indebted to larger trends in East Asian Buddhism, such as the cults of icons, relics and the monastic robe.
The book emphasises the importance of ritual for a proper understanding of this allegedly anti-ritualistic form of Buddhism. In doing so, it deconstructs the Chan/Zen 'rhetoric of immediacy' and its ideological underpinnings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134431168
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/27/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Bernard Faure is a Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University and Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies. His publications include The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism (1991), Chan Insights and Oversights: A Phenomenological Critique of the Chan/Zen Tradition (1993), Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval Japanese Buddhism (1996) and The Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism (1997).

Table of Contents

1. Bernard Faure Chan and Zen Studies: The State of the Field(s)2. Wendi Adamek Imagining the Portrait of a Chan Master3. T Griffith Foulk and Robert H. Sharf On the Ritual Use of Chan Portraiture4. James Robson A Tang Dynasty Chan Mummy [ roushen ] and a Modern Case of furta sacra ? Investigating the Contested Bones of Shitou Xiqian5. Carl Bielefeldt Filling the Zen shu: Notes on the Jissh D%u yõdõ ki6. Bernard Faure Quand l'habit fait le moine: The Symbolism of the kasãya in S D%ot D%o Zen7. Duncan Ry D%uken Williams: How D D%osh D%o's Medicine Saved D D%ogen: D D%osh D%o'an, and Edo-Period D D%ogen Biographies

Editorial Reviews

'It offers a probing, detailed and ultimately surprisingly revealing account of an important era of religious thought made all the more interesting by the variety of forms of accommodation to novelty reflected therein.' - Social Anthropology

Review in Acta Orientalia vol. 57 no.3

From the Publisher