For many people attracted to Eastern religions (particularly Zen Buddhism), Asia seems the source of all wisdom. As Bernard Faure examines the study of Chan/Zen from the standpoint of postmodern human sciences and literary criticism, he challenges this inversion of traditional "Orientalist" discourse: whether the Other is caricatured or idealized, ethnocentric premises marginalize important parts of Chan thought. Questioning the assumptions of "Easterners" as well, including those of the charismatic D. T. Suzuki, Faure demonstrates how both West and East have (...) come to overlook significant components of a complex and elusive tradition. Throughout the book Faure reveals surprising hidden agendas in the modern enterprise of Chan studies and in Chan itself. After describing how Jesuit missionaries brought Chan to the West, he shows how the prejudices they engendered were influenced by the sectarian constraints of Sino-Japanese discourse. He then assesses structural, hermeneutical, and performative ways of looking at Chan, analyzes the relationship of Chan and local religion, and discusses Chan concepts of temporality, language, writing, and the self. Read alone or with its companion volume, The Rhetoric of Immediacy, this work offers a critical introduction not only to Chinese and Japanese Buddhism but also to "theory" in the human sciences. (shrink)

Four different instances of philosophical and religious practices in the East and in the West are presented within their own intellectual and cultural frames and then juxtaposed with discourses within and outside their traditions: Hegel's understanding of Buddhism--in his philosophy of religion--exemplifies the European rationalist metaphysical framing of the East and is re-evaluated in deconstructive terms. Pojo Chinul's hwadu meditation is situated within the development of his thought and reconsidered in the light of Soren Kierkegaard's notion of anxiety, Maurice Merleau-Ponty's (...) concept of interrogation, and Julia Kristeva's theory of the semiotic and the symbolic. Chinul's Hwaom theory and its relation to hwadu is reinterpreted in connection with Jean-Francois Lyotard's account of modernity and the postmodern. Modern Buddhist reform agendas are juxtaposed with the role and limitations of traditional Son Buddhist thought and practice. ;By placing the concept of framing in the foreground and juxtaposing different discourses from Asia and Europe, this dissertation offers a "practice" of deconstruction and serves as "evidence" of how Western grand narratives are nearing endgame. Through its totalitarian vision of modernism, the West has assumed a privileged position in various attempts at an East-West dialogue. A new form of a dialogue in the postmodern era should reveal "differences" in perspectives, and these "differences" would not be preconditioned by value judgments from one side or the other. (shrink)

Carl Olson is Professor of Religious Studies at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. His previous books include The Indian Renouncer and Postmodern Poison: A Cross-Cultural Encounter and The Theology and Philosophy of Eliade: A Search for the Centre.

The dissertation involves a study of the evolution of a meditation technique unique to Ch'an --k'an-hua Ch'an of the kung-an )--as practiced in the Chinese Lin-chi school during the Sung period . By focusing on the life and thought of the Lin-chi Ch'an master Yuan-wu K'o-ch'in , I wish to provide a clearer idea of how Sung Lin-chi monks reconciled the dichotomy between Ch'an's rhetoric and meditative praxis in regard to kung-an practice. ;Chapter one of this dissertation is an introduction (...) to why I believe this research to be important and a survey of previous scholarly views on the kung-an. Chapter two is a survey of Yuan-wu's life; references are drawn from various Buddhist biographical sources collected in the Taisho shinshu daizokyo and the Hsu-tsang ching, and also some non-Buddhist materials as well. Detailed information about Yuan-wu's works will also be provided there. ;Chapter three deals with the ontology that Yuan-wu adopted to support his soteriological system. My attempt there is mainly to elucidate Yuan-wu's viewpoints toward the relationship between cultivation and enlightenment in the context of the larger Ch'an tradition, and to understand how Yuan-wu tried hard to support the idea of subitism in Ch'an praxis while repairing some soteriological deficiencies in that idea as perceived by people within and outside Ch'an. ;Chapter four is an analysis of Yuan-wu's kung-an anthology, the Pi-yen lu . The purpose of this chapter is to explore Yuan-wu's motives for producing this kung-an text and his response to the internal crisis engendered by the so-called wen-tzu Ch'an movement of his time. ;Chapter five focuses on Yuan-wu's approach to kung-an investigation. Through examining Yuan-wu's sayings and writings, I will demonstrate that Yuan-wu played a crucial transitional role in the evolution from wen-tzu Ch'an to k'an-hua Ch'an. ;Chapter six is a summary of the development of Sung k'an-hua Ch'an, which, I suggest, may be classified as "literati Buddhism," since its target lay audience was members of the Sung literati and its motives were mainly to accommodate and respond to that social and intellectual class. Thus a study of Yuan-wu's instructions on kung-an investigation and his teachings on Ch'an cultivation may further yield vital information about the mutual influence between Ch'an Buddhism and Sung Confucianism. (shrink)

Introduction IN RECENT YEARS there has developed in the West considerable interest in the philosophy of Hua-yen Buddhism, a holistic, Unitarian approach to ...

Explores relationships between classical and contemporary approaches to rhetoric and their connection to the underlying assumptions at work in Zen Buddhism.