2021/10/24

The Spirit of Zen by Sam Van Schaik | PDF | Zen | Śūnyatā

The Spirit of Zen by Sam Van Schaik | PDF | Zen | Śūnyatā

An engaging introduction to Zen Buddhism, featuring a new English translation of one of the earliest Zen texts

Leading Buddhist scholar Sam van Schaik explores the history and essence of Zen, based on a new translation of one of the earliest surviving collections of teachings by Zen masters. These teachings, titled The Masters and Students of the Lanka, were discovered in a sealed cave on the old Silk Road, in modern Gansu, China, in the early twentieth century. All more than a thousand years old, the manuscripts have sometimes been called the Buddhist Dead Sea Scrolls, and their translation has opened a new window onto the history of Buddhism.
 
Both accessible and illuminating, this book explores the continuities between the ways in which Zen was practiced in ancient times, and how it is practiced today in East Asian countries such as Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam, as well as in the emerging Western Zen tradition.

The Spirit of Zen

(The Spirit of ...)

 3.60  ·   Rating details ·  43 ratings  ·  8 reviews
An engaging introduction to Zen Buddhism, featuring a new English translation of one of the earliest Zen texts

Leading Buddhist scholar Sam van Schaik explores the history and essence of Zen, based on a new translation of one of the earliest surviving collections of teachings by Zen masters. These teachings, titled The Masters and Students of the Lanka, were discovered in a sealed cave on the old Silk Road, in modern Gansu, China, in the early twentieth century. All more than a thousand years old, the manuscripts have sometimes been called the Buddhist Dead Sea Scrolls, and their translation has opened a new window onto the history of Buddhism.
 
Both accessible and illuminating, this book explores the continuities between the ways in which Zen was practiced in ancient times, and how it is practiced today in East Asian countries such as Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam, as well as in the emerging Western Zen tradition.
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 Average rating3.60  · 
 ·  43 ratings  ·  8 reviews



Gabrielle
Sam Van Schaik approaches the topic of Zen from a historic perspective in "The Spirit of Zen", and maybe I am nerd, but I found it to be a very interesting read.

I really appreciate that he makes clear distinctions between the various uses of the word "enlightenment", because it is a confusing word, that people use to describe a wide variety of experiences and one must be very careful using it because it's a lot more nuanced than one might think.

The chapter on the Westernization of Zen is also full of good food for thought: especially about the removing of zazen from the religious aspect of Zen Buddhism and the arguing about whether or not Zen is in fact a religion.

The section on the history of Buddhism and how it migrated all over Asia, and eventually the world, is very informative. I appreciate that he brings up the fact that like any other religion, the veracity of Buddhist scripture might not be historically accurate, and would have been used for political purposes at the time they were written - but that ultimately, their historical veracity doesn't matter as much as what they mean to practitioners. His argument for a balance of historical basis and greater symbolic importance is an important point that should, in my humble opinion, be applicable to all religions.

The truly unique part of this book is the section dedicated to the so-called "lost" Zen texts that we discovered in the early 20th century, after having been sealed i a cave for several centuries. Now the very idea of a Zen archaeological mystery gets my brain all tingly, and the various theories concerning the cave, its content and the reasons it was sealed up are discussed in details. He then presents new translations of some of these documents.

The style is both scholarly and accessible: if you've never read a book about Zen before, this one won't confuse you. I think this book will appeal more to people who already study and practice Zen, or to people looking for in-depth and clear information about it. This is really more a scholarly work, and not a manual for practice. But I think that anyone serious about Zen will find it very educational, clear and well-written. Highly recommended.




I got my copy at one of my favorite indie bookstores, Talking Leaves, In Buffalo, NY: https://www.tleavesbooks.com/ If you are ever in Elmwood Village, go say hello, they are amazing!
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Amer Cuco
Feb 17, 2019rated it it was amazing
Still reading it, but so far it seems like a good book. The part I read is about history of Zen and it has a somewhat critical approach to it, which is always a plus. There are things mentioned related to the history of Zen that I didn't know before, thought I could say that I read a fair amount of books related to that particular part of history. It's a book about scriptures found in Dunhuang cave in China sometime in the 19th century. Knowing how much damage Islamic invasions had done to Buddhism, the cave was sealed to protect the scriptures form the imminent danger of incoming Islamic troops. Later the cave was most likely forgotten, and then accidently discovered by a Taoist monk who sold some of the scriptures to Western researchers. The scriptures paint a different picture of the early Zen practises. It's detailed but not too much. Will update the review later after reading more.

It's definitely worth reading. It gives some important insight in the tradition of Chan though it's not beginner-friendly. If you wanna learn about the basics skip this one but do come back to it once the right time comes.
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Mark Bahnisch
Dec 29, 2018rated it it was amazing
I really enjoyed Sam Van Schaik's Spirit of Zen.

It's grounded in sound and recent scholarship, and by way of introducing the fascinating texts in The Masters and Students of Lanka, recovered from the Dunhuang caves on the Silk Road, provides probably the best introduction to Zen Buddhism I have read in the English language. Strictly speaking, the texts are really foundational to Chan, but sadly, that's a battle that has been lost in Western discourse. Van Schaik, however, resists the urge to polemicise against the sorts of orientalist mystification of Zen far too common in the West, and in fact his writing in and of itself forms an act of dāna (generosity).

I can't speak to the quality of the translation of the texts from Classical Chinese, but in English their clarity and luminosity is admirable, as is the elegance and straightforward nature of Van Schaik's writing.

It's a refreshingly non-sectarian take on Zen/Chan, and in passing, makes it clearer to me why Thai Ajahns like Luang Por Buddhadāsa and Luang Por Chah found resonances in Chan, particularly in insights about Buddha nature. I also felt that I better understood the tradition in which Thích Nhất Hạnh writes.

If you are looking for a primer on Chan/Zen that is both easy to read and scholarly, this is the book for you. And as a bonus, it can also be read as a Dhamma Book with great benefit!
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Risto J
Sep 17, 2019rated it it was ok
Fallen into a classic trap of all dogmas: one should let go of the attachment to opinions and beliefs (emptiness, not-self) and on the next page clings to the attachment to opinions and beliefs (rebirth, karma).

“Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.”
- Lao Tsu, Tao Teh Ching

Casey Hughes
Dec 30, 2020rated it it was ok
This book was a bit disappointing. I didn’t get a lot out of it. I feel like the title is misleading as well as the back of it which advertises it as an “engaging introduction to Zen Buddhism.” Sure the start of it gives a good introduction of Zen Buddhism, however the bulk of the book is about the history of it and details about the lives of these Zen masters of Lanka from the specific text ‘Masters of Lanka.’ I was expecting a look at the heart of Zen, the core concepts and practices. Maybe it’s my bad for not doing enough research on what this book was about before I got it.
I didn’t care for the historical details, I was here for the philosophical ideas, principles and practice of Zen Buddhism. I would have preferred if I had just got the direct translation of the Master of Lanka without the sections of commentary because it ended up being really repetitive. The author summarises the sections on each of the Zen masters, then before actually giving us the translation of the text he includes a section going into and summarising the the text again (including quotes from it). So that when you finally read the translation it just feels like Déjà vu all the time and like I’m not actually covering new ground. That I found particularly disappointing.

It’s not that I didn’t get at least something out of it, the beginning was a good refresher on some of the ideas of Zen that I was already loosely familiar with and the teachings from the Masters of Lanka had some good insights on Zen thoughts on language, meditation, and emptiness. So overall an okay book.
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Matthew Noe
Oct 29, 2019rated it liked it
A solid historical grounding for Zen - though I do think it would have been more suitable to have the first half, that historical grounding as one book and the translation of the 'Masters of the Lanka' as a separate book. (less)
Joanne McKinnon
Feb 19, 2020rated it it was amazing
Reading about the history of Zen dispelled a lot of misconceptions. It is rooted far in the past. The wisdom that comes with meditation is something we all need.

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The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy by Bret W. Davis PDF | PDF | Japanese Philosophy | Shintoism

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The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy by Bret W. Davis PDF

Japanese philosophy is now a flourishing field with thriving societies, journals, and conferences dedicated to it around the world, made possible by an ever-increasing library of translations, books, and articles. The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy is a foundation-laying reference work that covers, in detail and depth, the entire span of this philosophical tradition, from ancient times to the present. It introduces and examines the most important topics, figures, schools, and texts from the history of philosophical thinking in premodern and modern Japan. Each chapter, written by a leading scholar in the field, clearly elucidates and critically engages with its topic in a manner that demonstrates its contemporary philosophical relevance.

The Handbook opens with an extensive introductory chapter that addresses the multifaceted question, "What is Japanese Philosophy?" The first fourteen chapters cover the premodern history of Japanese philosophy, with sections dedicated to Shinto and the Synthetic Nature of Japanese Philosophical Thought, Philosophies of Japanese Buddhism, and Philosophies of Japanese Confucianism and Bushido. Next, seventeen chapters are devoted to Modern Japanese Philosophies. After a chapter on the initial encounter with and appropriation of Western philosophy in the late nineteenth-century, this large section is divided into one subsection on the most well-known group of twentieth-century Japanese philosophers, The Kyoto School, and a second subsection on the no less significant array of Other Modern Japanese Philosophies. Rounding out the volume is a section on Pervasive Topics in Japanese Philosophical Thought, which covers areas such as philosophy of language, philosophy of nature, ethics, and aesthetics, spanning a range of schools and time periods. This volume will be an invaluable resource specifically to students and scholars of Japanese philosophy, as well as more generally to those interested in Asian and comparative philosophy and East Asian studies.

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Product description
Review
For researchers and enthusiasts of Japanese philosophy, religious or otherwise, this book will certainly prove to be one of the most valuable works of reference for years to come. ― Lehel Balogh, Hokkaido University, Religious Studies Review --This text refers to the hardcover edition.
About the Author
Bret W. Davis is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Maryland. He attained a PhD in philosophy from Vanderbilt University and has spent more than a dozen years in Japan, during which time he studied Buddhist thought at Otani University, completed the coursework for a second PhD in Japanese philosophy at Kyoto University, and trained as a lay practitioner at Sh?kokuji, a Rinzai Zen monastery in Kyoto. In addition to publishing more than sixty articles in English and in Japanese on various topics in Japanese, continental, and cross-cultural philosophy, he is the author of Heidegger and the Will: On the Way to Gelassenheit (2007); editor of Martin Heidegger: Key Concepts (2014); and coeditor of Sekai no naka no Nihon no tetsugaku [Japanese philosophy in the world] (2005), Japanese and Continental Philosophy: Conversations with the Kyoto School (2011), and Engaging Dogen's Zen: The Philosophy of Practice as Awakening (2017). His translations from German and Japanese include Martin Heidegger's Country Path Conversations (2010), Dogen's "Genjokoan: The Presencing of Truth" (2009), and Ueda Shizuteru's "Language in a Twofold World" (2011). He serves on the editorial board of several journals and is coeditor of Indiana University Press's book series in World Philosophies. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.
From the Publisher
Bret W. Davis is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Maryland. He attained a PhD in philosophy from Vanderbilt University and has spent more than a dozen years in Japan, during which time he studied Buddhist thought at Otani University, completed the coursework for a second PhD in Japanese philosophy at Kyoto University, and trained as a lay practitioner at Sh?kokuji, a Rinzai Zen monastery in Kyoto. In addition to publishing more than sixty articles in English and in Japanese on various topics in Japanese, continental, and cross-cultural philosophy, he is the author of Heidegger and the Will: On the Way to Gelassenheit (2007); editor of Martin Heidegger: Key Concepts (2014); and coeditor of Sekai no naka no Nihon no tetsugaku [Japanese philosophy in the world] (2005), Japanese and Continental Philosophy: Conversations with the Kyoto School (2011), and Engaging Dogen's Zen: The Philosophy of Practice as Awakening (2017). His translations from German and Japanese include Martin Heidegger's Country Path Conversations (2010), Dogen's "Genjokoan: The Presencing of Truth" (2009), and Ueda Shizuteru's "Language in a Twofold World" (2011). He serves on the editorial board of several journals and is coeditor of Indiana University Press's book series in World Philosophies. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.
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Product details
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07WK44XTF
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; Illustrated edition (19 August 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English