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Zen Pathways February 10, 2022 Bret W. Davis
Abstract: This chapter connects Zen’s teaching of wholehearted engagement in the duties of everyday life with the modern movement of Engaged Buddhism. It explains how Mahayana Buddhism stresses the spiritual significance of everyday life in the midst of society. This is exemplified in the Vimalakirti Sutra and also in the lessons that Zen master Dōgen received from two monastery cooks who were...
Zen Pathways February 10, 2022 Bret W. Davis
Abstract This chapter explains why Zen cannot be sufficiently understood in terms of “mysticism,” if one means by mystical experience a transcendent or otherworldly experience that transports one beyond the mundane world. The path of Zen leads, rather, to a wholehearted and fully mindful engagement in the ordinary activities of everyday life. Zen master Zhaozhou says that “Everyday Even Mind is...
Zen Pathways February 10, 2022 Bret W. Davis
Abstract This chapter provides instructions for practicing Zen meditation, zazen. It explains how to attend to place, body, breath, and mind. First, it explains how to set up a good space for meditation, and it discusses when, how often, and for how long one should meditate. Next, it explains in detail how the body should be positioned, either on a chair, in a cross-legged (Burmese, half-lotus,...
Zen Pathways February 10, 2022 Bret W. Davis
Abstract This chapter explains the importance of meditation for Zen in terms of what the Buddhist tradition calls the three levels of wisdom: received, intellectual, and experiential wisdom. As important as memorizing teachings and intellectually reflecting on them are, liberating wisdom can only be obtained experientially through holistic practice. Zen meditation is a non-discursive practice...
Routledge eBooks January 25, 2022 Christie Nelson 1 citation
Helping professionals who treat addiction will encounter clients from myriad religious and spiritual backgrounds. This chapter addresses the grief and related shame and guilt associated with loss due to addiction from a Buddhist perspective. Buddhist principles such as mindfulness have been integrated into many Western psychotherapeutic programs focused on the treatment of substance use...
Religions January 23, 2022 Jennifer Carmichael 1 citation
The human response to the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a concerning decline in empathy for each other and the planet. A dualistic conception of mind and body coupled with a capitalist society that requires belief in an inherent self to fuel consumerism both complicate our ability to empathize because these ideas reify our conventional self. This paper argues that an understanding of the...
Philosophia: International Journal of Philosophy January 22, 2022 Napoleon M. Mabaquiao 3 citations
Contemporary philosophy of mind is generally characterized by its project to naturalize the mind. Utilizing the findings of the different sciences involved in cognitive science, especially those of artificial intelligence and neuroscience, it continues to explore ways to explain the workings of the mind in purely scientific terms. But despite the rigor and sophistication of its methods, certain...
Zen Pathways January 20, 2022 Bret W. Davis
This chapter introduces Zen as an “investigation into the self.” It relates this to the emphasis on self-understanding and self-realization in other philosophical and religious traditions, especially to Socrates’s understanding of the maxim “Know thyself.” It explains why meditation is central to Zen’s method of investigating the self, and specifically how Zen meditation alleviates the...
January 20, 2022 Bret W. Davis
This book offers an in-depth introduction to the philosophy and practice of Zen Buddhism. The author is a philosophy professor who formally practiced Zen in Japan for more than a dozen years and is authorized to teach Zen. During his years studying and teaching philosophy in universities in Japan, he worked closely with the leading contemporary representatives of the Kyoto School. The book...
January 19, 2022 Bret W. Davis
Abstract This chapter explains the differences between the meditation methods of the Sōtō and Rinzai schools of Zen. It begins by tracing the methodological disputes between these two schools back to the twelfth century, when the Linji (Japanese: Rinzai) master Dahui, who advocated the use of kōans, criticized the “silent illumination” taught by Caodong (Japanese: Sōtō) masters such as Hongzhi....