Early Ch'an in China and Tibet

Early Ch'an in China and Tibet

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Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism was popularized in the West by writers such as D.T. Suzuki and Alan Watts as a kind of 'romantic abstraction' outside of history. The papers in this volume, originally presented at a unique conference sponsored by U.C. Berkeley and the San Francisco Zen Center, go a long way towards revealing the complex historical development of Ch'an theory and practice both in China and Tibet.
      The papers on China reveal Ch' an not as a single line of transmission from Bodhidharma, but as a complex of contending and even hostile factions. Furthermore, the view which sees Ch'an as the sinicization of Buddhism through Taoism is questioned through an examination of the Taoism that was actually prevalent during the establishment of Ch' an in China.
      The papers on Tibet take us to the heart of the controversies surrounding the origins of Buddhism in that country, based on exciting research into the Tunhuang materials, the indigenous rDzogs-chen system, and the 'Sudden vs. Gradual Enlightenment' controversy.
      Of particular note in this volume is the inclusion of several translations of papers by noted Japanese scholars who have led the way in this type of research, made available to the Western reader for the first time. (Source: inside jacket)

Citation	Lai, Whalen, and Lewis R. Lancaster, eds. Early Ch’an in China and Tibet. Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series 5. Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1983.

Contents

Foreword
Preface
Contributors
Abbreviations

I. CHINA

• a. State of Scholarship
• New Japanese Studies in Early Ch'an History1
  • • Philip Yampolsky

• b. Formative Period
• The Li-tai fa-pao chi and the Ch'an Doctrine of Sudden Awakening13
  • • Yanagida Seizan

• Seng-ch'ou's Method of Dhyāna51
  • • Jan Yiin-hua

• T'an-ch'ien and the Early Ch'an Tradition: Translation and Analysis of the Essay "Wangshih-fei-Iun"65
  • • Whalen W. Lai

• The Teachings of the Fourth Ch'an Patriarch Tao-hsin (580-651)89
  • • David W. Chappell

• The Concept of Ii nien ("being free from thinking") in the Northern Line of Ch'an Buddhism131
  • • Robert B. Zeuschner

• Early Hua-yen, Meditation, and Early Ch'an: Some Preliminary
  Considerations149
  • • Robert M. Gimello

• The Early Ch'an Monastic Rule: Ch'ing-kuei and the Shaping of Ch'an
  Community Life165
  • • Martin Collcutt

• c. The Developing Tradition
• The "Recorded Sayings" Texts of Chinese Ch'an Buddhism185
  • • Yanagida Seizan

• Lin-chi on "Language-Dependence," An Interpretive Analysis207
  • • Ronald L. Burr

• Sinitic Mandalas: The Wu-wei-t'u of Ts'aoshan229
  • • Whalen W. Lai

• d. Interaction
• The Ambiguity of the Buddha-nature Concept in India and China259
  • • Andrew Rawlinson

• The Problem of Desire and Emotions in Taoism and Ch'an281
  • • John Visvader and William C. Doub

• The Pure and the Impure: The Mencian Problematik in Chinese Buddhism299
  • • Whalen W. Lai

II. TIBET

• a. State of Scholarship
• The Study of Tibetan Ch'an Manuscripts Recovered from Tun-huang: A Review
  of the Field and its Prospects327
  • • Daishun Ueyama

• b. Tibetan Meditation Systems and Ch 'an
• 'Meditation' Trends in Early Tibet351
  • • Herbert V. Guenther

• 'The Great Perfection' in the Tradition of the Bonpos367
  • • Per Kvaerne

• Indian Materials on the Doctrine of Sudden Enlightenment393
  • • Luis O. Gomez

Index