Zen Lessons (eBook)

eBook Download: EPUB

2004 | 1. Auflage
168 Seiten
Shambhala (Verlag)
978-0-8348-2582-6 (ISBN)

Infos

Thisguide to enlightened conduct for people in positions of authority is based onthe teachings of several great Chinese Zen masters. Drawing on private records,letters, and long-lost documents of the Song dynasty (tenth to thirteenthcenturies), ZenLessonsconsists of short excerpts written in language that is accessible to the readerwithout any background in Eastern philosophy. This book serves as a guide torecognizing the qualities of a genuine Zen teacher, it also serves as a studyof the character and conduct necessary for the mastery of any position of powerand authority—whether religious, social, political, or organizational.

Textauszug

Translator'sIntroduction ZenLessons isa collection of political, social, and psychological teachings of Chinese Zen(Chan)adepts of the Song dynasty, from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries. Ifthe Tang dynasty, from the early seventh through the ninth centuries, may hecalled the classical period of Chinese Zen, the Song dynasty may be called itsbaroque period, characterized by complexity of form and ingenious imagery withmultiple meaning. Incontrast to the relatively plain and straightforward Zen literature of the Tangdynasty, Song dynasty Zen literature is convoluted and artful. This is notregarded, in Zen terms, as a development in Zen, but as a response to a morecomplex and pressured society and individual. The Zen adepts of Song times didnot regard the reality of Zen as any different in its essence from that ofclassical times, but considered the function of Zen to have become complicatedby the complexity of the contemporary mind and the rampant spread of artificialZen based on imitations of a few Zen practices. Theproliferation of false Zen was stimulated by the enormous impact of real Zen onAsian civilization. After the Tang dynasty, there is hardly anywhere one canturn in Chinese culture without seeing the influence of the Zen charisma. Theill effects of the resulting influx of insincere followers into public Zeninstitutions are already noted in the works of great masters of the latter Tangdynasty, and these Zen Lessons. The inner dimension of the outward history ofZen, during which it first breathed life into a new Buddhism and later revivedother philosophies when that Buddhism grew aged and ill, is hardly observed bythose who think in political terms, but nevertheless it is consistentlyemphasized by the Zen adepts themselves. TheseZenLessons illustratethe art of combining ultimate and ordinary truths, using society and conduct asa way into Zen enlightenment, by the practice of constructive criticism andhigher education. This was one of the original tools of Buddhism, but in manyschools it had lost its edge through excessive formalization by the time theZen Buddhists revived its original open flexibility. Amongthese schools may be counted even the Complete Reality schools of Taoism andthe Inner Design schools of Confucianism. The results of Zen methods applied toTaoist and Confucian classics, these schools had as profound an impact onChinese culture as had the original Chan schools. Theclassical period of Chinese Zen is usually said to have been the Tang dynasty,from the seventh through the ninth centuries. The first large Zen commune wasestablished in the mid-seventh century under the fourth founding teacher ofZen, and countless people were said to have been awakened by the public talksof the sixth founding teacher who was founder of the so-called southerntradition. The fourth, fifth, and sixth founding teachers were all invited tobe imperial teachers, and many of their spiritual descendants became teachersof leaders of Chinese society at all levels of organization, from local toimperial. Duringthe Tang period some of the most influential men and women on earth studied Zenon a par with some of the humblest and most obscure men and women on earth. Zenintroduced a revolution in social practice that maintained its energy throughcenturies of opposition and corruption, and provided one of the only historicalforums for unbiased social understanding as well as spiritual understanding.Zen also influenced painting and poetry, two of the most important of Chinesearts, traditionally used for emotional education and therefore of great...

Produkt-Details

• Übersetzer: Thomas Cleary
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Esoterik / Spiritualität
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Buddhismus
• ISBN-10: 0-8348-2582-1 / 0834825821
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8348-2582-6 / 9780834825826