Zen or Chan

Last update: 03 Oct 1994 12:03
First version: Before 13 March 1995

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Myths of the sect. Attitude towards the intellect. History of its lay following --- artists, literati, samurai. And authoritarianism. Introduction to the West and influence there. Origins of koans. And AI. Comparison to analytical philosophy (all those paradoxes, claims that things are pseudo-problems, etc.). Hu Shih once wrote a paper arguing that koans began as analytical paradoxes, which were intended to have logical (but perhaps counter-intuitive) answers; I don't know how well that idea has held up, but I like it.

I have a micro-collection of Zen documents.

To read:
• Wendi L. Adamek, The Mystique of Transmission: On an Early Chan History and Its Context
• Carl Bielefeldt, Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation
• Robert E. Buswell, , Jr., The Formation of Ch'an Ideology in China and Korea: The Vajrasamadhi-Sutra, a Buddhist Apocryphon
• Bret W. Davis, Zen Pathways: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of Zen Buddhism
• Bernard Faure
  • Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition
  • The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism
• Steven Heine
  • Like Cats and Dogs: Contesting the Mu Koan in Zen Buddhism
  • Opening a Mountain: Koans of the Zen Masters
  • White Collar Zen: Using Zen Principles to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Your Career Goals [!?!?]
  • Zen Skin, Zen Marrow: Will the Real Zen Buddhism Please Stand Up?
• Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright (eds.)
  • The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts
  • Zen Classics: Formative Texts in the History of Zen Buddhism
  • Zen Masters
• Peter D. Hershock, Chan Buddhism
• Victor Sogen Hori (ed. and trans.), Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Koan Practice
• John R. Mcrae, Seeing through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism
• Mario Poceski, The Records of Mazu and the Making of Classical Chan Literature
• Morten Schlutter, How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China
• Brian Victoria, Zen at War
• Albert Welter, Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism
• Duncan Ryuken Williams, The Other Side of Zen: A Social History of Soto Zen Buddhism in Tokugawa Japan
• Shoji Yamada, Shots in the Dark: Japan, Zen, and the West