Zen Skin, Zen Marrow: Will The Real Zen Buddhism Please Stand Up?

Book Summary

Zen Skin, Zen Marrow examines the conflict between two competing perspectives on Zen Buddhism. Two warring camps have collided on several major issues. The traditionalists propagate a self-definition based on notions of ineffability, nonduality, and social harmony. Recent reformers, however, undertake historical and cultural criticism that challenges the traditional claims of the meaning of Zen. In Zen skin, Zen Marrow, Steven Heine argues that a neutral approach is possible and lays the groundwork for a constructive compromise based an balanced, nonevaluative methodology. This approach allows for a juxtaposition of competing views that can contribute to and benefit one another, avoiding the stagnant polarization that characterizes most encounters involving traditionalists and critics. Heine focuses on three main areas of debate. He Investigates that claims to be "outside words and letters, "yet has produced voluminous texts including koan record and historical narratives. He examine the function of rituals and other mediating elements of religious practice such as objects of worship, which are used to gain worldly benefits in a tradition supposedly founded on unmediated experience attained in an iconoclastic environment. He measures how a tradition that espouses peace and harmony has influenced social issues such as class and gender discrimination, as well as nationalism and imperialism in modern Japan. With new insight into both the Traditional and Critical Zen views, Heine offers each side a realistic and balanced middle road. While total agreement may not be probable, this work sig-

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