Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism (Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions) [Paperback]

Dale S. Wright (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521789842 | ISBN-13: 978-0521789844 | Publication Date: August 28, 2000

This book is the first to engage Zen Buddhism philosophically on crucial issues from a perspective that is informed by the traditions of Western philosophy and religion. It focuses on one renowned Zen master, Huang Po, whose recorded sayings exemplify the spirit of the "golden age" of Zen in medieval China, and on the transmission of these writings to the West. While deeply sympathetic to the Zen tradition, it raises serious questions about the kinds of claims that can be made on its behalf.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book...will be most attractive to those with interests at the interface of philosophy and Asian studies." Choice

"Required reading for all scholars and teachers of Asian religion, and highly recommended for advanced students." Religious Studies Review

Book Description

This book is the first to engage Zen Buddhism philosophically on crucial issues from a perspective that is informed by the traditions of western philosophy and religion. It focuses on one renowned Zen master, Huang Po, whose recorded sayings exemplify the spirit of the 'golden age' of Zen in medieval China, and on the transmission of these writings to the West. While deeply sympathetic to the Zen tradition, it raises serious questions about the kinds of claims that can be made on its behalf.

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (August 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521789842
• ISBN-13: 978-0521789844
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,556,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ground Breaking Book, March 24, 2002

By 

David Bubna-Litic (University of Technology, Sydney) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism (Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions) (Paperback)

Dale Wright has engaged with the Zen Buddhist tradition with a powerful and sophisticated hermanuetic analysis. Based on Blofield's influential translation of Huang Po's Transmission of Mind he delivers a masterful exploration of Zen thinking. Zen's traditional claims to transcending words and concepts is closely scrutinized. Wright cleverly uses the Buddhist concept of dependent origination to add a further explanatory dimension to the role of language and its context in reading and understanding Zen. He rightly points out that Zen Buddhism is deeply intwined with language and that whilst Zen Koans are presentations of extra-ordinary human experience, their oddness is not meaningless cryptic, but instrumental in communicating insight gained through meditative practice using ordinary language in non-ordinary ways. The book challenges romantic and historicist conceptions of Zen which hold to something like a universial "spirit" or experience which transcends historic time and location. And it challenges the disembodied "objective" analysis of scientific approaches which set upon "facts" and "historical data" as though they can be simply "read" without reflection on the frames of interpretation of the observer. Instead Wright exposes the reader to an important dimension of reflexivity which comes with a post-modern sensibility. Zen emerges the wiser, without a romantic and naive sense of transcendence and a firmer understanding of importance of understanding the historical context of Zen writing. We are also reminded of how our own modern context colours how we make sense of Zen as well as nonsense of it.

My sense is that this book it is a major landmark in the meeting between Western Philosophy and Buddhism. The complexity of the hermanuetic circle of understanding something like Zen, I suspect, means we have many more rounds to go. My sense is that, like Zen, this complexity trangresses the boundaries of language in ways we are yet to grasp. Zen's lack of reflexivity and historic resistence to critical reflection are great limitations, and yet western linguistics too does not fully appreciate how words themselves can be brimming with emptiness. There is work to be done on both sides and hopefully this book will serve as the basis for a mutually beneficial dialogue.

Overall, Dale Wright has written an important piece in understanding the rich vein of knowledge that Zen inquiry uncovers. It links into to new developments in the cognitive sciences which, as the late Francisco Varela suggests, opens up a door to a new mode of human experience that has hardly been explored in the West. Wright explains how our language, not only needs to develop in radical ways to meet this marvelousness Zen experience, but even just to begin the inquiry. It is essential reading for anyone taking eastern philosophy seriously.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A landmark book--for Zen scholars AND students/practitioners, April 9, 2008

By 

Ted Biringer "Author of The Flatbed Sutra of ... (Anacortes, Washington United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism (Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions) (Paperback)

Dale S. Wright's, Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism, is an important book--and not just for scholars but for Zen students/practitioners as well.

Using the classic Huang Po texts (especially John Blofeld's translation) as his touchstone, Professor Wright examines some of the most significant issues concerning the authentic message of Zen Buddhism.

His excellent book illumines many of the seemingly contradictory stances that have arisen due to the dynamic interplay between history and tradition, fact and fiction, as it has been transmitted to the West as well as through time itself.

After lucidly outlining his intentions in the introduction, Wright provides a wonderful lesson on "meditative reading" that reminds us of Moritmer J. Adler's revelations on the necessity of "active reading" for authentic communication--or should we call it transmission. In any case, his points are well taken. After all, Zen records are not mystery novels; they are the basic texts of a spiritual tradition that many people base their lives on.

His approach to "meditative reading" is outlined with three basic points. First, it should be "thoughtful." That is, the reader needs to do what the author has done: think. Second, it should be "reflexive." In that the reader's own self-awareness must be functioning in the activity of reading. Third, the reader must be open to "self-transformation." If the reader is to actually learn anything, they must be willing to let go of old ideas.

The book opens with a discussion about the fact that the Huang Po text (as well as many of the records of the great Zen masters) does not come directly from the mind of Huang Po. Instead, this record is the result of thousands of "mediations."

Outlining just a fraction of the transformative conditions that have played out on this text, Wright mentions such factors as the motives of the original editor, P' ei-hsiu (former Prime Minister, former student of Tsung-mi). The elder monks at Kuang T'ang Monastery (who P' ei-hsiu invited to correct or add to the record). The various factors concerning "personal censorship" and the "internal editor." The general "attitude" toward texts in China at the time (for instance, it was common and acceptable to copy, amplify, add to, etc.). The fact that most copies were probably "hand copied," hence, were susceptible to mistakes, as well as "modification."

Professor Wright then demonstrates his own "openness" to reading. Rather than simply dismissing the texts as spurious fabrications, as some scholars might (and have), he approaches them through the Buddhist formula of "dependant origination."

Acknowledging our modern "romantic" notions for establishing the "authority" of texts, Write invites us to look deeper. He invites us to see how this kind of "communal authorship" might even prove more significant than could any historical account of the facts. Wright points out:

"In the gradual alteration of the manuscript we find the unfolding and transformation of the community's highest ideals."

Have you ever considered the authorship of the Heart Sutra, or the Avatamsaka sutra? Might their creation not be similiar to those of some of the classic Zen masters?

This is only a small peek at the rich harvest Professor Wright has presented in this profound examination of the texts, philosophy, message, and meaning of Zen Buddhism in the modern world.

Still unsure? Allow me to briefly mention a few more points that Professor Wright makes in this remarkable offering of "meditations."

He methodically, and systematically examines the vital role that reading has played in the history of Zen, as well as the profound significance that reading (or the lack of reading) has on Zen in the present day--and what it might mean for the future.

We are invited to explore the implications of the fact that the Zen teachings about "no dependence on words" are themselves "words" recorded in texts.

Dale S. Write examines the significance, meanings, and implications of the fact that the very masters that made admonitions regarding texts were themselves well read and often quoted texts as the ultimate authorities of their own teachings.

He also demonstrates the fallacy of the "explanation" by some that reading consists of some kind of "preliminary" stage to "authentic" Zen and, as such can be abandoned upon "actual" experience.

Dale S. Wright lifts the black/white arguments of the various schools of thought and finds much more than gray. Like the Zen master Dogen, he discovers (and presents) an infinite number of colors in those curious, and marvelous wonders of world literature--the records of the Great Zen Masters.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent. Caution: Requires Mindfulness to Read!, August 21, 2009

By 

N. Glusenkamp (Los Angeles, Ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism (Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions) (Paperback)

I took a number of courses from professor Dale Wright while studying at Occidental College.
He's an amazing teacher and that comes through strongly in this book.

We were never assigned this text in class, but I can understand why.
It took me a few years of both Zen practice and study to really appreciate the subtlety of the arguments Wright
makes in Philosophical Meditations. Additionally I found that it actually requires the practice of mindful-reading to follow each argument-packed sentence and absorb the insights therein.

Wright really applies the notion of historicity honestly and rigorously to his own thinking.
In doing so he actively illustrates, as opposed to simply arguing, that hermeneutics can be a powerful guide to understanding the dependent-origination of our own thinking about Zen and the world in general.
I think he is wildly successful in that pursuit. Give it a read!