The eccentric Bankei has long been an underground hero in the world of Zen. At a time when Zen was becoming overly formalized in Japan, he stressed its relevance to everyday life, insisting on the importance of naturalness and spontaneity.

This work provides a survey and critical investigation of the remarkable century that lasted from 1225 to 1325, during which the transformation of the Chinese Chan school of Buddhism into the Japanese Zen sect was successfully completed. The cycle of transfer began with a handful of Japanese pilgrims, including Eisai, Dogen and Enni, who traveled to China in order to discover authentic Buddhism. They quickly learned that Chan, with the strong support of the secular elite, was well organized in terms of the intricate teaching techniques of various temple lineages. After receiving Dharma transmission through face-to-face meetings with prominent Chinese teachers, the Japanese monks returned home with many spiritual resources. Foreign rituals and customs met with resistance, however, and by the end of the thirteenth century it was difficult to imagine the success Zen would soon achieve. Following the arrival of a series of emigre monks, who gained the strong support of the shoguns for their continental teachings, Zen became the mainstream religious tradition in Japan. The transmission culminated in the 1320s when prominent leaders Daito and Muso learned enough Chinese to overcome challenges from other sects with their Zen methods. The book examines the transcultural conundrum: How did this school of Buddhism, which started half a millennium earlier as a mystical utopian cult for reclusive monks, gain a broad following among influential lay followers in both China and Japan? It answers this question by a focusing on the mythical elements that contributed to the effectiveness of this transition, especially the Legend of Living Buddhas.

Denying Divinity examines the 'negative theologies' of Christianity and Zen Buddhism. Using classic texts of both traditions, it argues that 'negative theology' is a form of spirituality with powerful contemporary appeal, offering an integration of traditional religious practices with an openness to experience beyond the limits of doctrine and rational thought.

This book, first published in 1994, is a compendium of new translations of certain works regarded as fundamental texts in the Serene Reflection Buddhist Tradition (Soto Zen). All the texts were in Chinese, either as original works or as translations from Sanskrit. Several of them are central to the ceremonial not only of the Soto Zen Tradition but also of other Mahayana Buddhist traditions as well.

In this ground-breaking approach to golf instruction, Dr Joseph Parent, both a noted PGA Tour coach and a respected Buddhist teacher, draws on this natural connection to teach golfers how to play with more consistency and less frustration, and consequently how to lower their scores. 'When body and mind are synchronized, we can uncover our inherent dignity and confidence. The ultimate goal is not just to help people become better golfers, but better human beings.' Zen Golf offers a fresh perspective for golf and for life. Instead of focusing on what's wrong with us - what's broken, flawed or missing - we can take the attitude that there is something fundamentally, essentially right with us. In chapters such as 'How to Get from the Practice Tee to the First Tee', 'You Practice What You Fear', and 'How to Enjoy a Bad Round of Golf', author Joseph Parent shows how to make one's mind an ally rather than an enemy: how to stay calm, clear the interference that leads to bad shots, and eliminate bad habits and mental mistakes. Rather than an instruction manual that takes you through a systematic programme, it is a collection of brief chapters offering the wisdom of traditional Zen stories and teachings distilled from a lifetime of actual lessons with golfers, many of whom are PGA professionals. Continued success at golf (and any other endeavour) requires preparation, action and response - these form the framework for the instructions presented in Zen Golf. Applied correctly, they will help every reader of this unique book to achieve their peak performance.

In the midst of our busy activity, people often feel fragmented. We experience conflicting demands from our work, our personal relationships, our families, and our spiritual practice. In this book, the author, a practicing psychotherapist, explores the challenges and joys of making our life into a coherent whole.
Psychotherapy addresses a sense of fragmentation in an effort to help us be uniquely ourselves. Zen Buddhist practice insists we find ourselves on every moment of our lives; it speaks to the basic connectedness of all things. This book attempts to integrate the two. Each chapter examines some aspect of sewing together the practice of Zen with the realization of psychotherapy, and its implications for daily life. Though there is a logical progression to the chapters, each chapter can be read on its own if the reader is interested in how a particular text might inform their psychotherapy or life circumstances.
Through the stories of his clients' and his own difficulties anddiscoveries, the author invites each reader to actualize the fundamental point: to realize the joy and compassion that comes when we touch the basic ground of life, and put it into play in our everyday activity.

Look around you - what do you see? You may discover to your surprise that the people who are most at peace with money are the ones who walk nimbly between having too little and having too much. They have found a balance between indulgence and austerity; between success and happiness; between motivation and inspiration; and between any number of other poles we tend to think of as either/or choices, but which in reality are simply posts on either side of a doorway through which we must pass. For many of us the subject of money is unavoidably stressful. Managing our personal finances is complicated, time consuming and often, particularly in the slow countdown to pay day, dispiriting. The good news is that in Japan - where a Zen approach to life is more widely practiced - a pathway to a better relationship with money is being carved, by Ken Honda. This beautifully written book will reinvent the way you see your personal finances. You will come to understand that money flows like water and arrives like a guest. You'll rethink your own attitudes and examine the way they were shaped by beliefs about money you were taught as a child. When we heal the fear and anxiety we have about money, we successfully achieve prosperity and peace. Take the zen path to financial security and happiness.

"Anyone whose life needs a course correction would be fortunate to be guided by "The Wisdom of Insecurity." My life still is, some thirty years later." --Deepak Chopra, from the Introduction
Alan W. Watts's "message for an age of anxiety" is as powerful today as it was when this modern classic was first published.
We spend too much time trying to anticipate and plan for the future; too much time lamenting the past. We often miss the pleasures of the moment in our anxious efforts to ensure the next moment is as enjoyable. Drawing from Eastern philosophy and religion, Watts argues that it is only by acknowledging what we do not and cannot know, that we can find something truly worth knowing. In order to lead a fulfilling life, one must embrace the present--live fully in the now.
Elegantly reasoned and lucidly written, this philosophical achievement contains all the wisdom and spirit that distinguished Watts's long career and resonates with us still.

This book explains a distinctive pluralist account of truth, jointly-rooted perspectivism ('JRP' for short). This explanation unifies various representative while philosophically interesting truth-concern approaches in early Chinese philosophy on the basis of people's pre-theoretic "way-things-are-capturing" understanding of truth. It explains how JRP provides effective interpretative resources to identify and explain one unifying line that runs through those distinct truth-concern approaches and how they can thus talk with and complement each other and contribute to the contemporary study of the issue of truth. In so doing, the book also engages with some distinct treatments in the modern study of Chinese philosophy. Through testing its explanatory power in effectively interpreting those representative truth-concern approaches in the Yi-Jing philosophy, Gongsun Long's philosophy, Later Mohist philosophy, classical Confucianism and classical Daoism, JRP is also further justified and strengthened. Mou defends JRP as an original unifying pluralist account in the context of cross-tradition philosophical engagement, which can also effectively engage with other accounts of truth (including other types of pluralist accounts) in contemporary philosophy. The purpose of this book is dual: (1) it is to enhance our understanding and treatment of the truth concern as one strategic foundation of various movements of thought in classical Chinese philosophy that are intended to capture "how things are"; (2) on the other hand, it is to explore how the relevant resources in Chinese philosophy can contribute to the contemporary exploration of the philosophical issue of truth in philosophically interesting and engaging way.

This book, first published as two volumes in 1977 and 1978, was published purely for the purpose of showing how Buddhist training was done by the Reverend Jiyu-Kennett in the Far East. The material for the book was taken from diaries covering eight years spent by the author in Far Eastern temples, and describe her religious training and her growth of a Zen priest into a teacher, running her own temple.

The sword has played an important role in the Japanese consciousness since ancient times. The earliest swords, made of bronze or stone, were clearly, by their design and form, used for ritualistic purposes rather than as weapons. Later, swords were associated only with the warrior class, and lack of physical strength and battle experience was compensated for by handling the sword in a way that was technically expert. Besides this sacred and artistic status, swordsmanship also acquired a philosophical reinforcement, which ultimately made it one of the Zen 'ways'. Zen Buddhism related the correct practice of swordsmanship to exercises for attaining enlightenment and selfishness, while Confucianism, emphasizing the ethical meaning, equated it to service to the state. This classic text, first published in English in 1978, includes a history of the development and an interpretation of Japanese swordsmanship, now esteemed as an art and honoured as a national heritage. It describes in detail the long, intensive and specialized training and etiquette involved, emphasizing and explaining the importance of both Zen and Confucian ideas and beliefs.

A succinct, uncompromising study of what it means to help other people, this book, first published in 1978, examines the helping process in the light of the principles of Zen Buddhism. Emphasizing the Zen precepts of true compassion, newness and Taoistic change, it explains how a helper can break down the artificial barriers that serve to separate people and hinder the helping process. As the teachings of Zen demonstrate, real compassion involves a selflessness and respect that can bring helper and helped together.

This book, first published as Selling Water by the River in 1972, is a practical and inspirational manual for all who wish to practice Zen. Roshi P.T.N.H. Jiyu-Kennett, the founder and former abbess of Shasta Abbey, expertly combines an introduction to the basic tenets of Buddhism with original translations of the teachings of Zen Masters Dogen and Keizan.

This book, first published in 1964, concerns the practice of Zen Buddhism. The practice is a particular form of meditation. In Japan, the only country in which it is any longer seriously pursued, the practice is called zazen. The author directs attention to zazen because it is being overlooked in the current interest in Zen.

Shoma (Masatake) Morita, M.D. (1874-1938) was a Japanese psychiatrist-professor who developed a unique four stage therapy process. He challenged psychoanalysts who sanctioned an unconscious or unconsciousness (collective or otherwise) that resides inside the mind. Significantly, he advanced a phenomenal connection between existentialism, Zen, Nature and the therapeutic role of serendipity. Morita is a forerunner of eco-psychology and he equalised the strength between human-to-human attachment and human-to-Nature bonds. This book chronicles Morita's theory of "peripheral consciousness", his paradoxical method, his design of a natural therapeutic setting, and his progressive-four stage therapy. It explores how this therapy can be beneficial for clients outside of Japan using, for the first time, non-Japanese case studies. The author's personal material about training in Japan and subsequent practice of Morita's ecological and phenomenological therapy in Australia and the United States enhance this book. LeVine's coining of "cruelty-based trauma" generates a rich discussion on the need for therapy inclusive of ecological settings. As a medical anthropologist, clinical psychologist and genocide scholar, LeVine shows how the four progressive stages are essential to the classic method and the key importance of the first "rest" stage in outcomes for clients who have been embossed by trauma. Since cognitive science took hold in the 1970s, complex consciousness theories have lost footing in psychology and medical science. This book reinstates "consciousness" as the dynamic core of Morita therapy. The case material illustrates the use of Morita therapy for clients struggling with the aftermath of trauma and how to live creatively and responsively inside the uncertainty of existence. The never before published archival biographic notes and photos of psychoanalyst Karen Horney, Fritz Perls, Eric Fromm and other renowned scholars who took an interest in Morita in the 1950s and 60s provide a dense historical backdrop.

This book is about how Western social psychology interfaces with an Eastern Zen Buddhist perspective. It is neither a purely Zen Buddhist critique of the former, nor is it merely a social psychological interpretation of Zen. Rather, it is an attempt to create common ground between each through the systematic comparison of certain shared fundamental concepts and ideas. Anglo-American social psychology is not much more than a century old despite having its roots in a broad philosophical tradition. Alternately, the Zen version of Buddhism can trace its historical origins to roughly 1,500 years ago in China. Even though the two arose at different times and at first glance appear stridently antithetical, the authors show that they share considerable areas of overlap. The logic of Zen contemplates the consequences of the taken-for-granted tyranny created by personal memories and culture. These traits, common to every culture, include hubris, greed, self-centeredness, distrust, prejudice, hatred, fear, anxiety, and violence. Social psychology leans more toward a "nurture" rather than "nature" explanation for behavior. Both areas of research are firmly rooted within the domain of sociological social psychology; the processes are also sometimes referred to as learning or conditioning. Zen challenges in radical terms key assumptions of both sociology and psychology concerning individual identity, human nature, and human motivation. This stimulating volume will provoke new thoughts about an old tradition and a newer area of scholarly work.

Turning our conventional understanding of power on its head, world-renowned Zen master, spiritual leader, and national bestselling author Thich Nhat Hanh reveals how true power comes from within. What we seek, we already have. Whether we want it or not, power remains one of the central issues in all of our lives. Every day, each of us exercises power in many ways, and our every act subtly affects the world we live in. This struggle for control and authority permeates every aspect of our private and public lives, preventing us from attaining true happiness. The me-first mentality in our culture seeps unnoticed into our decisions and choices. Our bottom-line approach to getting ahead may be most visible in the business world, but the stress, fear, and anxiety it causes are being felt by people in all walks of life. Thich Nhat Hanh illustrates how the current understanding of power leads us on a never-ending search for external markers like job title or salary. "The Art of Power" boldly challenges our assumptions and teaches each of us how to access the true power that is within our grasp.

Cyber Zen ethnographically explores Buddhist practices in the online virtual world of Second Life. Does typing at a keyboard and moving avatars around the screen, however, count as real Buddhism? If authentic practices must mimic the actual world, then Second Life Buddhism does not. In fact, a critical investigation reveals that online Buddhist practices have at best only a family resemblance to canonical Asian traditions and owe much of their methods to the late twentieth-century field of cybernetics. If, however, they are judged existentially, by how they enable users to respond to the suffering generated by living in a highly mediated consumer society, then Second Life Buddhism consists of authentic spiritual practices. Cyber Zen explores how Second Life Buddhist enthusiasts form communities, identities, locations, and practices that are both products of and authentic responses to contemporary Network Consumer Society. Gregory Price Grieve illustrates that to some extent all religion has always been virtual and gives a glimpse of possible future alternative forms of religion.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the relative calm world of Japanese Buddhist scholarship was thrown into chaos with the publication of several works by Buddhist scholars Hakamaya Noriaki and Matsumoto Shiro, dedicated to the promotion of something they called Critical Buddhism (hihan bukkyo). In their quest to re-establish a "true" - rational, ethical and humanist - form of East Asian Buddhism, the Critical Buddhists undertook a radical deconstruction of historical and contemporary East Asian Buddhism, particularly Zen. While their controversial work has received some attention in English-language scholarship, this is the first book-length treatment of Critical Buddhism as both a philosophical and religious movement, where the lines between scholarship and practice blur. Providing a critical and constructive analysis of Critical Buddhism, particularly the epistemological categories of critica and topica, this book examines contemporary theories of knowledge and ethics in order to situate Critical Buddhism within modern Japanese and Buddhist thought as well as in relation to current trends in contemporary Western thought.

The sword has played an important role in the Japanese consciousness since ancient times. The earliest swords, made of bronze or stone, were clearly, by their design and form, used for ritualistic purposes rather than as weapons. Later, swords were associated only with the warrior class, and lack of physical strength and battle experience was compensated for by handling the sword in a way that was technically expert. Besides this sacred and artistic status, swordsmanship also acquired a philosophical reinforcement, which ultimately made it one of the Zen 'ways'. Zen Buddhism related the correct practice of swordsmanship to exercises for attaining enlightenment and selfishness, while Confucianism, emphasizing the ethical meaning, equated it to service to the state. This classic text, first published in English in 1978, includes a history of the development and an interpretation of Japanese swordsmanship, now esteemed as an art and honoured as a national heritage. It describes in detail the long, intensive and specialized training and etiquette involved, emphasizing and explaining the importance of both Zen and Confucian ideas and beliefs.

Applies Dogen Kigen's religious philosophy and the philosophy of Nishida Kitaro to the philosophical problem of personal identity, probing the applicability of the concept of non-self to the philosophical problems of selfhood, otherness, and temporality which culminate in the conundrum of personal identity.