Reimagining Zen in a Secular Age

André van der Braak, Ph.D. (2004), Radboud University Nijmegen, is Professor of Buddhist Philosophy in Dialogue with other World Views at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He published various monographs and articles including Nietzsche and Zen: Self-Overcoming without a Self (Lexington, 2011).

 AcknowledgementsXI



 Introduction

 1 Beyond Buddhist Modernism

 2 Reimagining Zen in the West

 3 Cross-cultural Hermeneutics

 4 A Secular Age

 5 Outline of This Book



Part 1: Zen and the Immanent Frame



1 Zen Transmissions and Reimaginings

 1 Reimagining Indian Buddhism as Chinese Chan

 1.1 Sudden Enlightenment versus Gradual Cultivation

 1.2 Beyond Language versus within Language

 1.3 Koan Practice versus Silent Illumination

 2 Reimagining Chinese Chan as Japanese Zen

 3 Zen Imaginings in the West

 4 Discussion



2 A Secular Age

 1 Introduction

 2 Fullness

 3 Beyond Subtraction Stories

 4 Disenchantment

 5 The Buffered Self

 6 The Immanent Frame

 7 A Three-Cornered Battle

 8 Discussion



3 Cross Pressures in the Immanent Frame

 1 The General Malaise of Immanence

 2 Enlightenment as a New Form of Fullness

 3 Disenchantment versus Re-enchantment

 4 Beyond Transcendence and Immanence

 5 Open versus Closed Zen Practice

 6 Discussion



Part 2: Zen Modernism



4 Universalization: Zen as Universal Mysticism

 1 The Birth of Buddhism as a World Religion

 2 Universal Zen

 3 Pure Experience

 4 Criticizing the Universality of Pure Experience

 5 Against Perennialism: Criticism of Universal Mysticism

 6 Zen as Non-mysticism

 7 Back to Language: Dōgen’s Mystical Hermeneutics

 8 Zen Meditation as Universal Dharma Practice

 9 Discussion



5 Psychologization: The Zen Experience

 1 Psychologization

 2 Disenchanting the Bodhisattvas

 3 Questioning the Zen Experience

 4 Beyond Religious Experience

 5 Going Beyond Excarnation and the Buffered Self

 6 Dōgen’s Embodied Realization

 7 Discussion



6 The Therapeutic Turn: Zen as Therapy

 1 From Conversion to Healing

 2 The Reaffirmation of Ordinary Life

 3 Zen and the Affirmation of Ordinary Life

 4 Dōgen on the Affirmation of Ordinary Life

 5 The Medicalization of the Moral

 6 Instrumentalization versus No Gain

 7 Discussion



7 The Rise of Expressive Individualism: Zen as Global Spirituality

 1 The Rise of Expressive Individualism

 2 Personal Spirituality versus Communal Religious Practice

 3 Religious Belonging

 4 Zen Belonging in the West

 5 Pure Zen versus Buddhist Zen

 6 Zen Ritual as Communal Practice

 7 Discussion



Part 3: Beyond Zen Modernism



8 Batchelor’s Secular Buddhism

 1 The Search for the Human Buddha

 2 Beyond Karma

 3 Reimagining Enlightenment

 4 Discussion



9 Reimagining Emptiness: Toward a Subtler Language of Fullness

 1 The Kyoto School

 2 Śūnyatā as Zen Fullness

 3 Nishitani and Śūnyatā201

 4 Hisamatsu and Oriental Nothingness

 5 Masao Abe

 6 David Loy’s New Buddhist Path

 7 Deconstructing Enlightenment: Beyond Transcendence and Immanence

 8 Evolution: A New Enchanted Buddhist Worldview

 9 Ethics: Reimagining the Bodhisattva Path

 10 Discussion



10 Engaging Dōgen’s Zen

 1 Back to Buddhist Scriptures

 2 An Enchanted Zen

 3 Zen Fullness as Ongoing Practice-Realization

 4 From Individual Pure Zen to Communal Bodhisattva Zen

 5 Dōgen’sShushōgi227

 6 Repenting and Eliminating Bad Karma

 7 Receiving Precepts and Joining the Ranks

 8 Making the Vow to Benefit Beings

 9 Discussion

 10 The Future of Zen



Literature

Index