Dogen and Soto Zen

Description

Dogen and Soto Zen builds upon and further refines a continuing wave of enthusiastic popular interest and scholarly developments in Western appropriations of Zen. In the last few decades, research in English and European languages on Dogen and Soto Zen has grown, aided by an increasing awareness on both sides of the Pacific of the important influence of the religious movement and its founder. The school has flourished throughout the medieval and early modern periods of Japanese history, and it is still spreading and reshaping itself in the current age of globalization. This volume continues the work of Steven Heine's recently published collection, Dogen: Textual and Historical Studies, featuring some of the same outstanding authors as well as some new experts who explore diverse aspects of the life and teachings of Zen master Dogen (1200-1253), the founder of the Soto Zen sect (or Sotoshu) in early Kamakura-era Japan. The contributors examine the ritual and institutional history of the Soto school, including the role of the Eiheji monastery established by Dogen as well as rites and precepts performed there and at other temples. Content: Dogen's use of Rujing's 'just sit' (shikan taza) and other Koans / T. Griffith Foulk -- 'Raihaitokuzui' and Dogen's views of gender and women : a reconsideration / Miriam Levering -- Dogen, a medieval Japanese monk well-versed in Chinese poetry : what he did and did not compose / Steven Heine -- Negotiating the divide of death in Japanese Buddhism : Dogen's difference / John C. Maraldo -- 'When all dharmas are the Buddha-dharma' : Dogen as comparative philosopher / Gereon Kopf -- Keizan's Denkoroku : a textual and contextual overview / William M. Bodiford -- Are Soto Zen precepts for ethical guidance or ceremonial transformation? Menzan's attempted reforms and contemporary practices / David Riggs -- Vocalizing the remembrance of Dogen : a study of the Shinpen hoon koshiki / Michaela Mross -- Interpreting the material heritage of the 'elephant trunk robe' in Soto zen / Diane Riggs -- Embodying Soto Zen : institutional identity and ideal body-image at Daihonzan Eiheiji / Pamela D. Winfield.