In the years after World War II, Westerners and Japanese alike elevated Zen to the quintessence of spirituality in Japan. In this book, the author argues that much of this elevated position is based on misconceptions and that in fact Zen is not based in Buddhism but in Chinese m…
Where the Heart Beats is the story of the tremendous changes sweeping through American culture following the Second World War, a time when the arts in America broke away from centuries of tradition and reinvented themselves. Painters converted their canvases into arenas for acti…
"Among the China-based Buddhist traditions of East Asia, Vietnamese Buddhism is the least known. To most Westerners, it is an extrapolation of popular perceptions of modern East Asian Buddhism, particularly Japanese Zen. As a result, Vietnamese Buddhism has been considered a fai…
Although the lines of the palm of the hand are barely visible in the early light, the monks of the Tofukuji monastery have been about their familiar rounds of daily tasks for several hours. Their routine is simple but faithfully practiced. Within its repetition lies the key to t…
This book brings to life the Buddhist discourse of a network of lay disciples who debated the value of Chan versus Pure Land, sudden versus gradual enlightenment, adherence to Buddhist precepts, and animal welfare. By highlighting the differences between their mentor, the monk Z…
"In Monks, Rulers, and Literati, Albert Welter presents, for the first time in a comprehensive fashion in a Western work, the story of the rise of Chan, a story that has been obscured by myths about Zen. Zen apologists in the twentieth century, Welter argues, sold the world on t…