) 470-484 ! The Author(s)

Abstract Modern exponents of mindfulness meditation promote the therapeutic effects of "bare attention"-a sort of non-judgmental, non-discursive attending to the moment-tomoment flow of consciousness. This approach to Buddhist meditation can be traced to Burmese Buddhist reform movements of the first half of the 20th century, and is arguably at odds with more traditional Theravāda Buddhist doctrine and meditative practices. But the cultivation of present-centered awareness is not without precedent in Buddhist history; similar innovations arose in medieval Chinese Zen (Chan) and Tibetan Dzogchen. These movements have several things in common. In each case the reforms were, in part, attempts to render Buddhist practice and insight accessible to laypersons unfamiliar with Buddhist philosophy and/or unwilling to adopt a renunciatory lifestyle. In addition, these movements all promised astonishingly quick results. And finally, the innovations in practice were met with suspicion and criticism from traditional Buddhist quarters. Those interested in the therapeutic effects of mindfulness and bare attention are often not aware of the existence, much less the content, of the controversies surrounding these practices in Asian Buddhist history

Is mindfulness Buddhist? (and why it matters).

Modern exponents of mindfulness meditation promote the therapeutic effects of "bare attention"--a sort of non-judgmental, non-discursive attending to the moment-to-moment flow of consciousness. This approach to Buddhist meditation can be traced to Burmese Buddhist reform movements of the first half of the 20th century, and is arguably at odds with more traditional Theravāda Buddhist doctrine and meditative practices. But the cultivation of present-centered awareness is not without precedent in Buddhist history; similar innovations arose in medieval Chinese Zen (Chan) and Tibetan Dzogchen. These movements have several things in common. In each case the reforms were, in part, attempts to render Buddhist practice and insight accessible to laypersons unfamiliar with Buddhist philosophy and/or unwilling to adopt a renunciatory lifestyle. In addition, these movements all promised astonishingly quick results. And finally, the innovations in practice were met with suspicion and criticism from traditional Buddhist quarters. Those interested in the therapeutic effects of mindfulness and bare attention are often not aware of the existence, much less the content, of the controversies surrounding these practices in Asian Buddhist history

Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience

The category “experience” has played a cardinal role in modern studies of buddhism. Few scholars seem to question the notion that Buddhist monastic practice, particularly meditation, is intended first and foremost to inculcate specific religious or “mystical” experiences in the minds of practitioners. Accordingly, a wide variety of Buddhist technical terms pertaining to the “stages on the path” are subject to a phenomenological hermeneutic—they are interpreted as if they designated discrete “states of consciousness” experienced by historical individuals in the course of their meditative practice.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43810/1/11076_1995_Article_1568527952598549.pd

The Treasure Store Treatise (Pao-tsang lun) and the sinification of Buddhism in eighth century China.

This dissertation is centered around a study of the Pao-tsang lun (Treasure Store Treatise), a Chinese Buddhist treatise influential in Ch'an literary circles in the medieval period. In the course of trying to understand this difficult text of uncertain origin, I come to question some of the assumptions and interpretative categories which condition our perception and study of the Chinese Buddhist tradition. The study begins with questions of date, authorship, and literary provenance. The Pao-tsang lun is traditionally attributed to the Madhyamika exegete Seng-chao (374-414), but modern scholars have argued that the text was actually composed in the eight century in an environment influenced by Ch'an ideology. Chapter 1 examines the evidence for a connection between the Pao-tsang lun, the Ch'an lineage known as Niut'ou (Ox-head Ch'an), and the Taoist exegetical tradition known as Ch'ung-hsuan (Twofold Mystery). In the process, I address the nature of Buddhist-Taoist interaction in the T'ang, and the evolution of an gentry Taoism in competition with gentry Buddhism. The dissertation then turns to broader methodological issues in the study of medieval Chinese Buddhism. I argue that Chinese Buddhism has been seriously misconstrued by the uncritical use of terms such as syncretism, and by a hermeneutically naive conception of the process of sinification. As a result, scholars in the field have failed to appreciate the degree to which early Chinese cosmological principles such as kan-ying (sympathetic resonance) continued to shape the Chinese apprehension of Buddhist doctrine well into the medieval period. My analysis of the complex process by which Buddhism was naturalized by the Chinese underscores the hermeneutic confusions attendant upon a Buddhological, as opposed to a Sinological, approach to Chinese Buddhist phenomena. The latter half of the dissertation comprises a translation of the Pao-tsang lun, accompanied by a running commentary exemplifying the principles elucidated in the first half of the study.Ph.D.Asian historyAsian literatureLanguage, Literature and LinguisticsPhilosophy, Religion and TheologyReligious historySocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/128715/2/9124104.pd

What Can\u27t be Said Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian Thought

Typically, in the Western philosophical tradition, the presence of paradox and contradictions is taken to signal the failure or refutation of a theory or line of thinking. This aversion to paradox rests on the commitment-whether implicit or explicit-to the view that reality must be consistent. In What Can\u27t be Said, Yasuo Deguchi, Jay L. Garfield, Graham Priest, and Robert H. Sharf extend their earlier arguments that the discovery of paradox and contradiction can deepen rather than disprove a philosophical position, and confirm these ideas in the context of East Asian philosophy. They claim that, unlike most Western philosophers, many East Asian philosophers embraced paradox, and provide textual evidence for this claim. Examining two classical Daoist texts, the Daodejing and the Zhaungzi, as well as the trajectory of Buddhism in East Asia, including works from the Sanlun, Tiantai, Chan, and Zen traditions and culminating with the Kyoto school of philosophy, they argue that these philosophers\u27 commitment to paradox reflects an understanding of reality as inherently paradoxical, revealing significant philosophical insights. Source: Publisherhttps://scholarworks.smith.edu/phi_books/1004/thumbnail.jp