An Essay Answering Questions From the Assigned Text by Faure
This essay will attempt to answer questions coming from the Bernard Faure text assigned in class. The questions are as follows: How does Hu Shih’s approach to Chan differ from D.T. Suzuki’s? Why was the scholarship of the Japanese on Zen not objective? What does Faure mean by the teleological fallacy? What does he mean by the two alternative approaches he suggests: structural analysis and hermeneutics?
How does Hu Shih’s approach to Chan differ form D.T. Suzuki’s? To answer this we must first recognize that Hu Shih emphasizes the historicism of Chan, meaning he places great importance on the historical aspect, while Suzuki aligns himself with the metaphysics aspect. Suzuki states that there are two kinds of people who can talk about Zen: The first(Suzuki), which is one who has a firm grasp on the concepts and greatly understands Zen, the other(Hu Shih), someone who is utterly unable to grab the concepts. Suzuki states that Hu Shih may know Zen historically, but that he does not actually know Zen. Suzuki says about Hu Shih that “it is not a historians business not talk about Zen.” Hu argues that ‘a historic approach to Zen cannot be reduced to the circumstances of its emergence and how it “transmits its situation of departure into a means to understand itself and others.’” Since Hu Shih is from the academic world, his approach to Zen is more factual, while ...
Thích Nh’at Hanh is a world renowned Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, religious figure and accomplished writer. Living Buddha, Living Christ is only one of his many famous publications. Thích Nh’at Hanh, is famous for his insights into spiritual heritage and mindfulness in the present moment. Many Americans are seeking religious understanding and personal spirituality, even if they do not practice in the traditional manner. Throughout this book Nh’at Hang encourages readers to find meaning, understanding, mindfulness, and peace in the teachings of Buddha and Christ. His main focus is to open meaningful dialogue between different traditions, cultures, and religious groups around the world, for the betterment
Zen in the Art of Archery, by Eugen Herrigel describes the ritualistic arts of discipline and focus that the Zen religion focuses around. In this book, Herrigel describes many aspects of how archery is, in fact, not a sport, but an art form, and is very spiritual to those in the east. The process he describes shows how he overcame his initial inhibitions and began to look toward new ways of seeing and understanding. In the beginning of the book, Herrigel tells us that he is writing about a ritual and religious practice, “whose aim consists in hitting a spiritual goal, so that fundamentally the marksman aims at himself and may even succeed in hitting himself.” (Herrigel p. 4).
“Until the seventeenth century, Japanese Literature was privileged property. …The diffusion of literacy …(and) the printed word… created for the first time in Japan the conditions necessary for that peculiarly modern phenomenon, celebrity” (Robert Lyons Danly, editor of The Narrow Road of the Interior written by Matsuo Basho; found in the Norton Anthology of World Literature, Second Edition, Volume D). Celebrity is a loose term at times; it connotes fortune, flattery, and fleeting fame. The term, in this modern era especially, possesses an aura of inevitable transience and glamorized superficiality. Ironically, Matsuo Basho, (while writing in a period of his own newfound celebrity as a poet) places an obvious emphasis on the transience of life within his travel journal The Narrow Road of the Interior. This journal is wholly the recounting of expedition and ethos spanning a fifteen hundred mile feat, expressed in the form of a poetic memoir. It has been said that Basho’s emphasis on the Transient is directly related to his and much of his culture’s worldview of Zen Buddhism, which is renowned for its acknowledgement of the Transient as a tool for a more accurate picture of life and a higher achievement of enlightenment. Of course, in the realization that Basho does not appear to be unwaveringly religious, perhaps this reflection is not only correlative to Zen Buddhism, but also to his perspective on his newfound celebrity. Either way, Matsuo Basho is a profound lyricist who eloquently seeks to objectify and relay the concept of transience even in his own name.
In The Heart of Understanding, Thich Nhat Hanh’s uses simple but powerful words and real world examples to illustrate the profound Buddhist philosophy from the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, an important representative of Mahayana Buddhist literature. The Mahayana school of Buddhist teachings emphasizes the doctrine of Sunyata- emptiness. The doctrine of emptiness, one of the most important Mahayana innovations, focuses on the relational aspect of existence. Thich Nhat Hanh coins and introduces a new word- interbeing to explain the state of emptiness. This idea of interbeing not only illustrates emptiness well but also provides understanding of other fundamental Buddhist ideas such as No-Self, impermanence and non-duality.
Suzuki, D.T. An introduction to Zen Buddhism. Ed. Christmas Humphreys; fwd. C.G. Jung. London: Rider, 1983.
Originally from Japan, Soyen Shaku was the first Zen master to arrive in America. His followers urged him not to come to a nation that was so ill-mannered and uncultivated and that the Japanese were facing extreme discrimination. Shaku’s countrymen Hirai Ryuge Kinzo “offered pointed examples: the barring of a Japanese student from a university on the basis of his race; the exclusion of Japanese children from the San Francisco public schools; the processions of American citizens bearing placards saying ‘Japs Must Go!’” (Eck 185). After several decades, there was a Zen boom of the 1950s and that was how Buddhism affected western culture, especially in regards to entertainment. “‘Zen’ is “the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese character "chan," which is in turn the Chinese translation from the Indian Sanskrit term "dhyana," which means meditation’” (Lin).
Homeschooling offers students a more time efficient education that allows the student to focus on education in which is the sole purpose for school. Homeschooling also gives the teacher a thorough evaluation of a student’s strengths and weaknesses by visually seeing what subjects they excel in and what subjects they are weak in. At this point students can increase their individual progression in each subject. Homeschooling permits control of the environment a student learns in to retain the focus of the student. This will reduce the chances of drug usage, bullying, and violence. Samuel Blumenfeld said this on the importance of homeschooling “The home is a safe haven for the children in a world awash with drugs, sexually transmitted diseases, violence, and moral corruption” (Cindy Mur et al.76). When parents come to realize that the home is the safest place for their children, then will they act as Blumenfeld concludes “I look forward to the day when the public schools will be virtually empty not because we have abolished public education but because the parents will have abandoned it” (Cindy Mur et al.
Like with any modern point of contention, it is important to understand the history. Since as early as the revolutionary war, women have been active participants in the U.S. military. From nursing soldiers to cross-dressing and actually fighting, women have played a crucial
The popularity of Buddhism in America became most pronounce in the period after World War II. It is interesting to note that the United States had just concluded the most devastating war in human history, with the first use of the atomic bomb on the Empire of Japan, yet the Japanese of style Buddhism took hold in America more than other school after the war. It could be said that the main figure head of Japanese, or more precisely, Zen Buddhism, in America was the author and intellectual Dr. D.T. Suzuki. In terms of the American expression of Buddhism, Suzuki had more influence over the interpretation of Zen philosophy than any other writer of the time.
Since the creation of the Selective Service Act of 1917, the role of a woman has evolved from the common role of a housewife, teacher or nurse. Now women have access to and are equally able to join many different career fields that were once gender based. The case Rostker v Goldberg 1981 debated whether or not women should be excluded from the Selective Service Act. Congress came to determine that “since women are excluded from combat roles in the Armed Forces, then they are not similarly situated for the purpose of the draft (Rostker, 1981)”. According to the Army Times in 2012, “The Army will start placing women in as many as 14,000 combat related jobs (Tan, 2012)”. So now, women are able to pursue combative careers in the military.
Patricia Lines describes homeschooling in the abstract for her article Homeschooling Comes of Age, as “one of the most significant social trends of the past half century.” This trend has sparked debate over its effectiveness and the quality of the students it produces. Roy Lechtrek, in The Case for Homeschooling, and Lines argue in favour of homeschooling while Benjamin Gorman, in An Argument Against Homeschooling, argues against it. All three of them agree that isolation in education, whether social or academic, is not beneficial to students. They also believe that religion plays a major role in the decision to homeschool students. The differences they have are a result of their agreement on these fundamental principles of education. Disagreement is over the execution of these principles and so the common ground is often implied through their ideas of the ideal method.
In 1127, after a prince of the Song Dynasty fled across the Yangtze River to Hangzhou, the Southern Song Dynasty was established. The Southern Song Dynasty achieved a period of economic success, prosperity, and artistic creativity, despite the fact that the military was not exactly strong. The Southern Song Dynasty’s downfall did not come from problems within, but was overthrown by Mongols in 1279, marking the end of the Song Dynasty.
Philip J. Ivanhoe. Confucian moral self cultivation. New York : P. Lang, vol. 3, 1993.
Homeschooling greatly diminishes the peer pressure a student receives from peers at a traditional school. This enables students to focus on studies rather than trying to fit in or impress others. Kids are able to learn material and pass material at their own pace when being homeschooled. Students do not have to spend a week of class time to learn a particular lesson like in a traditional classroom setting. The student would be able to learn the lesson in a few hours. Homeschool students are more likely to advance at a faster pace, therefore, learning more in a homeschool setting. Parents and students of homeschooling also do not have to work their schedules around the schools schedule. The student has more independence to wake up at a more appropriate time and perform better in their studies. The amount of sleep preteens and teens get, and the time classes begin, are critical to how they perform in those classes. Also, no time is wasted in homeschooling. Many times in a traditional school students are assigned homework that is meaningless, or “busy work”. Homeschoolers do not receive busy work, and can make better time of their learning by doing the necessary work that they personally need. Homeschooling does provide positive results. A nationwide peer-reviewed research project shows that on standardized tests homeschool students perform in average of the 60th to the 88th national percentile. Whereas, traditional school students only perform at an average of the 50th percentile on standardized
Nivison, David S. The Ways of Confucianism: Investigations in Chinese Philosophy. Ed. Bryan W. Van Norden. Chicago and La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1996.