"Chan Before Chan is a cultural history of the earliest traditions of Buddhist meditation (chan) in China during the era before the rise of the "Chan School" (better known as "Zen") of the eighth-century and beyond, with a particular focus on the semiotics of meditative and espe…
What is Buddhist meditation? What is going on-and what should be going on-behind the closed or lowered eyelids of the Buddha or Buddhist adept seated in meditation? And in what ways and to what ends have the answers to these questions mattered for Buddhists themselves? Focusing …
Meditation and Meditation Literature in Early Medieval Chinese Buddhism -- Visionary Meditation -- Buddhist Meditation according to the Chan Essentials and Methods for Curing -- Ritual Repentance, Buddha Bodies, and Somatic Soteriology. "In the early 400s, numerous Indian and C…
