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Disappearing Act: Calmness and Insight in Chinese Buddhism

Mario Poceski

Journal of Chinese Religions April 23, 2020 DOI: 10.1353/jcr.2020.0003 (opens in new tab)

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AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Historical analysis Peer reviewed
Topics Buddhism
Key points Argues that Chinese Buddhist meditation shifted from the classical pairing of calmness and insight to new models, especially within the Chan movement. Zhiyi and the Tiantai School paired the two approaches, Tang Chan reconfigured them, and by the Song period a new Chan model arose in which calmness and insight virtually disappeared from everyday Chinese Buddhist vocabulary.

Abstract

Abstract:The article explores major changes in the dominant models of meditation that came to characterize the practice of Chinese Buddhism during the first millennium of its growth and transformation. The main line of argument centers on key transformations of the classical model of Buddhist meditation, which postulates two main approaches to contemplative practice: calmness and insight. The main paradigm shifts examined in the article include the pairing of the two approaches in the writings of Zhiyi (538–597) and his Tiantai School, and the conceptual and soteriological reconfigurations that unfolded within the flourishing Chan movement during the Tang era. That is followed by an analysis of the development of a completely new model of Chan meditation during the Song period, which marked the virtual disappearance of calmness and insight from the everyday vocabulary of Chinese Buddhism.摘要:本文研究禪修模式的主要變化，這些變化展現了中國佛教在實踐上千年中的變更及成長。本文主要的論點提出止(定)和觀(慧)這兩種主要的禪觀方法，在佛教禪修中有關鍵性的轉變。文中所探討的主要轉變包括：智顗（538–597）與天台宗對止和觀的論述，以及唐代發展的禪宗在思想上和解脫道上的重構。本文也對宋代新的禪觀模式作全面的分析，指出了止和觀在日常中國佛教詞彙中消失。

Comparable studies

Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. 2006 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience 1995 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being 2005 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World 2017 Theoretical or philosophical paper
From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory 2016 Theoretical or philosophical paper

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Buddhism Meditation