Customer Reviews

The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism

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After reading the only existing review of this book, I felt the need to offer a counter-view. From the perspective of a scholar, this book fundamentally reshaped Chan/Zen studies. But from the perspective of a practitioner it also reshapes our views. Faure forces us to rethink the cherished illusions of Zen. Whether scholar or practitioner, we had best take up the challenge. It is tough going, but it is work which we all must do to be worthy of the tradition we study.

Despite the praise heaped on this text, I can't help feeling that Bernard Faure has been constructing the 'straw men' other readers have spotted. It is by no means certain that the Ch'an (Zen) tradition has functioned as Faure suggests. Why, for instance, set up the 'anti-scriptural' argument - only to concede - on proper investigation, that it is a myth? There are enough commentaries - on the sutras, by Zen monks, to make this sort of thing seem pointless. Sorry, but lets place trust in those deluded masters of old - and stay unenlightened, Faure style.

This book will recommend itself to those who believe that a run-of-the-mill contemporary college professor can have a deeper insight into what the Zen people were doing than they had themselves, and to those who believe that deconstructionism is more sophisticated than the Buddhist perspective on mind found in such works as the Avatamsaka Sutra and the Linji Lu.

I had seen this book cited in many other books and so was expecting something useful. Man, was I disappointed. This book seemed to be written from an academic perspective of deconstructionism, of trying to make a name for yourself by upsetting the existing order, and by blowing things out of proportion and presenting them as great problems to be exposed, i.e. "straw men". For anyone interested in the genuine teachings and practice, or even historical developments and research, there are a lot of better books.