The Theory and Practice of Zen Buddhism

Charles Prebish held the Charles Redd Chair in Religious Studies at Utah State University from 2007 until 2010 and also served as Director of the Religious Studies Program. He came to Utah State University following more than 35 years on the faculty at Pennsylvania State University. He now has emeritus status in both universities. He has published two dozen books and nearly one hundred scholarly articles and chapters. His books Buddhist Monastic Discipline(1975) and Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America (1999) are considered classic volumes in Buddhist Studies. Dr. Prebish is the leading pioneer in the establishment of the study of Western Buddhism as a sub-discipline in Buddhist Studies. In 1994, he co-founded the Journal of Buddhist Ethics, which was the first online peer-reviewed journal in the field of Buddhist Studies; and in 1996, co-founded the Routledge “Critical Studies in Buddhism” series. In 2005, hewas honored with a Festschrift volume by his colleagues, titled Buddhist Studies from India to America: Essays in Honor of Charles S. Prebish. On-cho Ng is Professor of Asian Studies and Philosophy and former founding Head (2012-2021) of the Asian Studies Department at the Pennsylvania State University. Primarily a specialist in late imperial Chinese intellectual history, he has published extensively on a wide range of topics, such as Confucian hermeneutics, religiosity, ethics, and historiography. His books include Cheng-Zhu Confucianism in the Early Qing, Mirroring the Past, and The Imperative of Understanding. His dozens of articles have appeared in major outlets such as Journal of Chinese Religions, Dao, Philosophy East and West, Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Journal of World History, and the Journal of the History of Ideas. He is Co-Editor of the Book Series on Chinese intellectual history published by National Taiwan University and serves as Associate Editor ofthe Journal of Chinese Philosophy. He is also the Vice-President of the International Association for Yijing Studies (Beijing).

Part I: Zen Roots.- Chapter 1. Searching for the histrorical bodhidharma in goblet words (John A. Tucker).- Chapter 2. Chan and the routinazation of charisma in chinese buddhism (Mario Poceski).-Chapter 3. The platform sūtra and its role in chinese zen buddhism (Morten Schlütter).- Chapter 4. Eloquence and silence: how dōgen’s dharma match with vimalakīrti turns out (Dale S. Wright).-Chapter 5. A tale of two prefaces: the role of yang yi in the creation of song chan identity (Albert Welter).- Chapter 6. The relationship of dōgen’s vision of nature with his practice of devotion and faith (Taigen Dan Leighton).- Chapter 7. Theorizing the chan-confician encounter in late imperial china: the chinese cultural habitus and the buddhist doxa (On-Cho Ng).- Part II: Zen Branches.- Chapter 8. The zen explosion in america: from before the pre-boomers to after the zoomers (Charles S. Prebish).- Chapter 9. The role of zazen in D. T. Suzuki’s Zen (Richard M. Jaffe).- Chapter 10. Zen and the art of resistance (James Mark Shields).- Chapter 11. Sōtō zen women’s wisdom in practice (Paula K. R. Arai).- Chapter 12. “Can you hear the great sound of the holy footsteps?”A case study of the 650th death anniversary of Gasan Jōseki (Michaela Mross).- Chapter 13. To tame an ox or to catch a fish: a zen reading of the old man and the sea (Pamela D. Winfield).- Chapter 14. Steven heine on the religio-aestthetic dimension of zen buddhism (Steven Odin).- Chapter 15. Existential dimesions of zen buiddhism: steven heine on dōgen, heidigger, and bob dylan (Jin Y. Park).

“The book should ideally be used in upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses attempting to give an scholarly introduction to the field of Zen studies … . All contributions to this volume are pieces of top scholarship. … this is a major contribution to and overview of the field of Zen Buddhist Studies, demonstrating the methodological wealth and daring that the field has gained during the last 40 years and of which Steven Heine’s career is a vivid example.” (Ben Van Overmeire, Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. 50 (2), 2023)“This edited volume provides … insightful contributions to the study Chán/Zen Buddhism in areas ranging from textual approaches to qualitative research. In this sense, it is potentially of interest and warmly recommended to scholars in Buddhist studies, Religious studies, and East Asianstudies.” (Ugo Dessì, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 49 (1), March, 2023)