The Rhetoric of Immediacy

The Rhetoric of Immediacy

Book

Book

 Search online

Through a highly sensitive exploration of key concepts and metaphors, Bernard Faure guides Western readers in appreciating some of the more elusive aspects of the Chinese tradition of Chan Buddhism and its outgrowth, Japanese Zen. He focuses on Chan’s insistence on “immediacy” — its denial of all traditional mediations, including scripture, ritual, good works — and yet shows how these mediations have always been present in Chan. Given this apparent duplicity in its discourse, Faure reveals how Chan structures its practice and doctrine on such mental paradigms as mediacy/immediacy, sudden/gradual, and center/margins. (Source: Princeton University Press)

Citation	Faure, Bernard. The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Contents

• Acknowledgmentsxi
• Abbreviationsxiii
• Prologue3
  • FROM MARGINS TO MEDITATION7
  • METHODOLOGIGAL POLYTHEISM7

• Chapter One: The Differential Tradition11
  • • Six patriarchs in search of a tradition12
  • THE SECOND ORDER16
    • An alienating tradition?21
    • Tradition as kinship23
    • Making a difference26

• Chapter Two. Sudden/Gradual: A Loose Paradigm32
  • THE SEMANTIC FIELD33
  • THE IDEOLOGICAL (DIS)CONTENT37
  • PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS41
    • Point de fruite? Variations on subitism44
    • The gradual perspective47

• Chapter Three. The Twofold Truth of Immediacy53
  • • Double trouble57
  • THE "NATURALIST HERESY"59
  • SKILLFUL MEANS63
  • THE MEANS AND THE ENDS65
    • The Chan denial of hierarchy66
    • The intermediary world70

• Chapter Four. Chan/Zen and Popular Religion(s)79
  • A THEORETICAL PARENTHESIS79
    • Popular religion and its correlatives84
  • THE EAST ASIAN CONTEXT87
    • From Primitives to Zen, and conversely93

• Chapter Five. The Thaumaturge and Its Avatars (I)96
  • THE THAUMATURGE TRADITION IN CHINA96
    • Démons et merveilles: Early Chan thaumaturges98
    • The vanishing mediator100
    • The Buddhist ambivalence toward thaumaturges102
  • THE DOMESICATION OF THE THAUMATURGE111

• Chapter Six: The Thaumaturge and Its Avatars (II)115
  • THE EMERGENCE OF THE TRICKSTER115
    • A bittersweet friendship119
    • On the margins of Chan121
    • Of madness as one of the fine arts122
  • THE BODHISATTVA IDEAL125
  • THE RETURN OF THE THAUMATURGE129

• Chapter Seven. Metamorphoses of the Double (I): Relics132
  • THE CULT OF ŚARĪRA137
  • THE ICONOCLASTIC REACTION143

• Chapter Eight. Metamorphoses of the Double (II): "Sublime Corpses" and Icons148
  • CHAN "FLESH-BODIES"150
  • THE SEMANTIC EVOLUTION156
  • BONES OF CONTENTION160
    • Huineng's two bodies162
    • Dissemination of charisma and sectarianism165
  • ICONS AND CHINSÖ169
    • Transmission or diffusion?174
    • Figures of the double176

• Chapter Nine. The Ritualization of Death179
  • THE CHAN DENIAL OF DEATH AND THE AFTERLIFE179
    • The funeral paradox183
  • THE RITUAL DOMESTICATION OF DEATH184
    • Preliminaries184
    • The liminal stage: Chan funerary ritual191
  • FROM DEFILEMENT TO PURITY203

• Chapter Ten. Dreams Within a Dream209
  • METHODOLOGICAL CAVEAT209
  • ASIAN DREAMS212
    • The dream metaphor212
  • DREAMING IN CHAN/ZEN215
    • Dreams and hagiography220
  • DREAMING PRACTICE221
    • Myōe's Record of Dreams222
    • A realistic dreamer224
    • Dreams of ascent and voices of dissent226

• Chapter Eleven. Digression: The Limits of Transgression231
  • TALES OF MONASTIC DERELICTION234
  • CHAN/ZEN ATTITUDES TOWARD SEXUALITY237
  • IMAGES OF WOMEN239
    • The rhetoric of equality242
    • Remarkable women245
    • Ikkyū and women247
  • SODOM AND GOMORH248
    • The sword and the chrysanthemum250

• Chapter Twelve. The Return of the Gods258
  • MILITANT SYNCRETISM260
  • CHAN/ZEN MYTHOLOGICAL IMAGERY261
  • THE CULT OF THE ARHATS266
  • ZEN AND THE KAMI272
    • Gods, ghosts, and ancestors280

• Chapter Thirteen, Ritual Antiritualism284
  • ANOTHER RITE CONTROVERSY285
    • The Chan critique of ritualism287
  • CHAN/ZEN LITURGY292
    • Incantatory Zen293
  • RITUAL OMNIPRESENT294
    • Meditation as ritual295
    • The ritualization of life297
  • RITUAL AS IDEOLOGY299
  • RITUAL MEDITATION301

• Epilogue304
  • DICHOTOMIES IN QUESTION(S)310
  • THE PARADOXES OF MEDITATION314

• Glossary321
• Bibliography331
  • PRIMARY SOURCES331
  • SECONDARY SOURCES340
• INDEX393