Dogen on Meditation And Thinking: A Reflection on His View of Zen - Softcover

Kim, Hee-Jin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0791469263 ISBN 13: 9780791469262

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 2006

Synopsis

Looks at Dōgen's writings on meditation and thinking.

Thirty years after the publication of his classic work Dōgen Kigen-Mystical Realist, Hee-Jin Kim reframes and recasts his understanding of Dōgen's Zen methodology in this new book. Through meticulous textual analyses of and critical reflections on key passages primarily from Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō, Kim explicates hitherto underappreciated aspects of Dōgen's religion, such as the ambiguity of delusion and also of enlightenment, intricacies of negotiating the Way, the dynamic functions of emptiness, the realizational view of language, nonthinking as the essence of meditation, and a multifaceted conception of reason. Kim also responds to many recent developments in Zen studies that have arisen in both Asia and the West, especially Critical Buddhism. He brings Dōgen the meditator and Dōgen the thinker into relief. Kim's study clearly demonstrates that language, thinking, and reason constitute the essence of Dōgen's proposed Zen praxis, and that such a Zen opens up new possibilities for dialogue between Zen and contemporary thought. This fresh assessment of Dōgen's Zen represents a radical shift in our understanding of its place in the history of Buddhism.

About this title

About the Author

Hee-Jin Kim is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of Oregon and the author of Dōgen Kigen―Mystical Realist.

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791469263
• ISBN 13: 9780791469262
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 184