ABSTRACT

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.

chapter 1|35 pages

Chan and Zen Studies

The state of the field(s)

chapter 4|28 pages

A Tang Dynasty Chan Mummy [Roushen] Anda Modern Case of Furta Sacra?

Investigating the contested bones of Shitou Xiqian

chapter 5|32 pages

Filling the Zen Shū

Notes on the Jisshū Yōdō Ki *

chapter 6|39 pages

Quand L'Habit Fait Le Moine

The symbolism of the kāṣāya in Sōtō Zen

chapter 7|16 pages

The Enlightenment of Kami and Ghosts

Spirit ordinations in Japanese Sōtō Zen

chapter 8|23 pages

How Dōshō's Medicine Saved Dōgen

Medicine, Dōshōan and Edo-period Dōgen biographies