Popular understanding of Zen Buddhism typically involves a
stereotyped image of isolated individuals in meditation,
contemplating nothingness. This book presents the "other side of
Zen," by examining the movement's explosive growth during the
Tokugawa period (1600-1867) in Japan and by shedding light on the
broader Japanese religious landscape during the era. Using
newly-discovered manuscripts, Duncan Ryuken Williams argues that
the success of Soto Zen was due neither to what is most often
associated with the sect, Zen meditation, nor to the teachings of
its medieval founder Dogen, but rather to the social benefits it
conveyed.
Zen Buddhism promised followers many tangible and attractive
rewards, including the bestowal of such perquisites as healing,
rain-making, and fire protection, as well as "funerary Zen" rites
that assured salvation in the next world. Zen temples also provided
for the orderly registration of the entire Japanese populace, as
ordered by the Tokugawa government, which led to stable parish
membership.
Williams investigates both the sect's distinctive religious and
ritual practices and its nonsectarian participation in broader
currents of Japanese life. While much previous work on the subject
has consisted of passages on great medieval Zen masters and their
thoughts strung together and then published as "the history of
Zen," Williams' work is based on care ul examination of archival
sources including temple logbooks, prayer and funerary manuals,
death registries, miracle tales of popular Buddhist deities, secret
initiation papers, villagers' diaries, and fund-raising donor
lists.
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