Steven Heine

Tragedy and Salvation in the Floating World: Chikamatsu's Double Suicide Drama as Millenarian Discourse

A distinctive feature of japanese society is its apparent eagerness to embrace various forms of voluntary death or suicide as legitimate, even positive, behavior with a potentially redemptive value. These forms include the samurais ritualistic disembowelment ( seppuku or harakiri ), remonstration suicide ( kanshi ) in protest against a corrupt superior, and suicide out of devotion to a lord or superior ( junsbi ), all of which are surrounded by “a heroic, romantic, aesthetic, and moral aura” (Lebra 1976:190). Suicide is, of course, an extraordinary act in Japan as elsewhere in the world (Lifton 1979:24). Though it is not common, it is widely revered by Japanese if committed on the basis of authentic moral intentions in relation to societal pressure—that is, to exorcise shame (haji) and to highlight honor, dignity, and integrity. In a culture that esteems the tragic hero who embodies the “nobility of failure” (Morris 1975), and which regards voluntary death as an experiential transcendence for participants and observers alike, perhaps the most extreme and intriguing example of taking ones own life is the double suicide or love suicide ( shinjū ).

A Critical Survey of Works on Zen since Yampolsky

The year 1967 was indeed a very good year in the development of Zen Buddhist studies on both sides of the Pacific, as evidenced by the publication of two monu mental works that forever changed the course of scholarly approaches to the history of Zen. In Japan, Yanagida Seizan issued what has remained the single most impor tant book on the formation of early Zen writings in China, cast in a social-historical context, Shoki Zensh? shisho no kenky? (Study of the historical writings of the early Chan school). This work lifted studies by Japanese scholars out of the traditional sec tarian approach to Zen scholarship and into the arena of contemporary critical theo retical studies by challenging many of the myths and fabrications as well as high lighting the sheer creativity and inventiveness that characterized the self-definitions of the early Zen school. Meanwhile, in America, Philip Yampolsky, who worked with Yanagida on translation projects?and, along with his Japanese colleague as well as Masatoshi Nagatomi and Stanley Weinstein, among others, helped train a generation of Western scholars?produced a translation with a substantial historical introduction and handy bilingual critical edition of one of the main Zen texts, the Platform Sutra by sixth patriarch Hui-neng. While by no means the first solid Western piece of academic work on Zen in an era still dominated by the popular writings of D. T. Suzuki, Alan Watts, and Eugen Herrigel, as well as European scholarship by Demi?ville, Gernet, and Z?rcher, Yampolsky set a new standard for what a translation and book-length study in the field should accomplish. His work has for years been widely read and consulted by specialists and nonspecialists alike. It was in 1967 that the page was turned, and mature Zen Buddhist studies was born.

Dogen and the Koan Tradition: A Tale of Two Shobogenzo Texts@@@Master Dogen's Shobogenzo, Book I

Nao’s time were strictly circumscribed except insofar as mediumship was concerned, and the prevailing presumptions concerning soteriological eligibility certainly favored men over women. Ooms presents a fascinating discussion of how Nao rede3ned certain Buddhist terms in order to explain what to her was a gender anomaly: that she, an insigni3cant person and—worse yet—a woman, had become Ushitora’s chosen vehicle to announce to the world its impending renewal. In resolving this anomaly, Nao envisioned a society in which gender would not disqualify women from enjoying the bene3ts of virtue either in this world or in the afterlife. Reading Ooms convinces me that the creative resources of women like Nao have indeed exerted a powerful inμuence on the contemporary character of the Japanese New Religions. There is, moreover, something truly appealing about this stern and longsuffering individual that makes one heartily regret her preemption in Õmotokyõ by Onisaburõ during the little-known last decade of her life.

When there are no more Cats to Argue About: Chan Buddhist Views of Animals in Relation to Universal Buddha-Nature: No More Cats

PUBLICATIONS (book reviews received are listed on p. 15) Monographs From Chinese Chan to Japanese Zen: A Remarkable Century (1225-1325) of Transitions and Transformations (proposal under review).

The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism ed. by Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr. (review)

617

Ideal Time and Utopian Space in the Chan Pivot Experience

Chan Buddhist philosophy as expressed in the Blue Cliff Record and related gongan case commentarial literature is primarily based on the notion of the instantaneous pivot moment, in which a master creates a profound turnaround experience reflecting his own liberation so as to reveal the deficient tendencies of his dialogue partner in a way that leads both parties to enhance their spiritual awareness. What are the implications of the pivot experience for understanding the overall Chan view of time and space? From the standpoint of temporality, Chan emphasizes the unity of momentary experience and continuity unbound yet not oblivious to sequential limitations. In terms of spatiality, the Chan pivot is a universal experience but is realized in particular manifestations of natural phenomena as perceived by an awakened observer.

Does Even a Rat Have Buddha‐Nature? Analyzing Key‐Phrase (Huatou) Rhetoric for the Wu Gongan

The Wu Gongan is primarily known for its minimalist expression based on Zhaozhou’s “No” (Wu) response to a monk’s question of whether a dog has Buddha-nature. Crucial for the key-phrase (huatou) method of meditation of Dahui Zonggao, the term Wu is not to be analyzed through logic or poetry. However, an overemphasis on the nondiscursive quality overlooks sophisticated rhetoric through metaphors used for the anxiety of doubt caused by Wu undermining conventional assumptions that is compared to a cornered rat; and the experience of enlightenment generated by the power of Wu likened to a sword cutting through all delusions. I. The Function of Rhetoric in Wu Gongan Discourse

Bonds of the Dead: Temples, Burial, and the Transformation of Contemporary Japanese Buddhism (review)

production of texts in scroll format to that of the codex (i.e., bound book). In the end, it seems that the very format of the scroll was associated with sacrality (although this does not account directly for the failure to shift to the codex for secular texts). The main goal of the chapter is to explore the concept of circularity or circular movement (called here circumambulation) in connection with sutras, examining specifi cally the production and use of rotating sutra cabinets for votive purposes in medieval times and, fi nally and en passant, the digital hard-disk drive in our own. This last chapter is followed by a thoughtful glossary (selected terms defi ned and Chinese characters provided, as appropriate; its inclusion is consonant with an admirable broader strategy to increase access for nonspecialists), list of works cited, and index. I found hardly any outright errors. The scholarship appears to be quite reliable—which is no small feat—and the author has read widely and deeply in diverse areas, including medieval European culture, critical theory, and textual studies; she seems equally comfortable in the oceanic fi elds of Buddhism and premodern Japanese literature. In terms of style, this is probably the best-written monograph in the fi eld that I have read (including my own) during the past ten years or so. It was a pleasure to read. Richly insightful, Miracles of Book and Body is an engaging and solid piece of scholarship, and that is a combination that is itself rare, if not miraculous, in this latter age of the Dharma.

Voyager from Xanadu: Rabban Sauma and the First Journey from China to the West. By Morris Rossabi

Voyager from Xanadu: Rabban Sauma and the First Journey from China to the West. By Morris Rossabi (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2010), xxiii +219 pp.

Dōgen’s Appropriation of Chinese Chán Sources: Sectarian and Non-Sectarian Rhetorical Perspectives

16.95 paper. This book is a r...