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1 Chapter 1 : Robert Sharf University of California, Berkeley - blog.quintoapp.com Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism is, among other things, an extended reflection on the theoretical foundations and conceptual categories that undergird the study of medieval Chinese Buddhism. Buddhisim in Asia 6. Popular Buddhism in Japan. Shin Buddhist Religion and Culture. University of Hawaii Press, Folk Elements in Burmese Buddhism. Women under the Bo Tree: Buddhist Nuns in Sri Lanka. Cambridge University Press, Buddhist Monk, Buddhist Layman: Princeton University Press, The Korean Approach to Zen: The Collected Works of Chinul. The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea. The Marga and its Transformation in Buddhist Thought. Essays on the Theravada Tradition in Sri Lanka. State University of New York Press, The Chinese Transformation of Buddhism. A Buddha from Korea: Mothers and Sons in Chinese Buddhism. Stanford University Press, Shin Buddhism in Medieval Japan. Indiana University Press, Kingdom of the Dragon. The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: The Education of a Tibetan Buddhist Monk. University of California Press, The Great State of White and High: The Will to Orthodoxy: Buddhism in Afghanistan and Central Asia, 2 Vols. Monk, Householder, and Tantric Priest: Newar Buddhism and Its Hierarchy of Ritual. Buddhism in Chinese Society: Columbia University Press, The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet and the Dalai Lama. Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity. Buddhism in the Life and Writings of Su Shih. Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism. Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought. Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism. Buddhism in the Sung. Ryogen and Mount Hiei: Japanese Tendai in the Tenth Century. The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School. Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary. Practical Buddhism among the Thai-Lao: Religion in the Making of a Region. Trans Pacific Press, Zen, the Kyoto School, and the Question of Nationalism. The Religions of Mongolia. In the Shadow of the Han: Buddha in the Crown: Avalokitesvara in the Buddhist Traditions of Sri Lanka. Oxford University Press, A Buddhist Leader in Ming China. Pennsylvania State University Press, The Inscriptions of Asoka. Indological Book House, Hyer, Paul and Sechin Jagchid. A Mongolian Living Buddha. Neither Monk nor Layman: Clerical Marriage in Modern Japanese Buddhism. Religion and the State, Thai Women in Buddhism. The Initial Growth of Japanese Buddhism. Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan: Buddhism and Its Persecution. Buddhist Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography. A Thousand Lives Away: Buddhism in Contemporary Burma. Harvard University Press, Buddhism and Asian History. Teachings of Twelve Buddhist Masters. The Korean Buddhist Canon: Introduction of Buddhism to Korea. Asian Humanities Press, Payneo and Karen M. Religion and Society in Contemporary Korea. British Explorations of Buddhism in South Asia. Popular Buddhist Texts from Nepal: Narratives and Rituals of Newar Buddhism. Buddhism, Imperialism and War: Burma and Thailand in Modern History. Buddhist Revival in India: Aspects of the Sociology of Buddhism. The Religions of Tibet in Practice. The Secrets of Chinese Meditation. Buddhism and the State in Sixteenth Century Japan. Sangha and State in Burma. Cornell University Press, The History and Theology of Soka Gakkai: A Japanese New Religion. The Edwin Mellen Press, Nakamura, Kyoko Motomuchi, trans. Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition: The Nihon Ryoiki of the Monk Kyokai. Page 1

2 Chapter 2 : Chinese Esoteric Buddhism - Wikipedia Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Coming to Terms With Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise (Studies in East Asian Buddhism) at blog.quintoapp.com Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Hardcover Verified Purchase One can generally take it to the bank that anything in the Kuroda Institute series in conjunction with the Univ. Alas, this body of literature is hardly known outside of the scholarly community and arcane specialist study, which is really a shame in many ways. In fact, two cases in the Chan classic "Blue Cliff Record" Pi-yen Lu were derived from the Treasure Store Treatise, which ought to catch the attention of Zen students interested in probing the background context of "Golden-Age" Chan in more depth. We can go further The reason for this is the same as in any discipline- fact is, there is a huge gulf between the popular literature of religions and what the scholarly community knows and discusses this is as true in Christianity as in Buddhism. What is perhaps sad about this "gulf" between popular vs. Back to the book. The title, "Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism" is probably well-chosen, for what Sharf examines actually goes far beyond merely a translation of an obscure text. In fact, among other topics, he attempts to entirely re-focus scholarly trends regarding so-called "sinification"- i. Sharf sees many problems with prior scholarship in this regard. His contention is that scholars not only have set up a false so-called "master narrative" that views these interactions in terms of distinct sects, the exaggeration of "separate entities" can, according to Sharf, even be extended to supposed distinctions between "Indian Buddhism" vs. What to make of all this? A logical deduction seems to be that the various "schools" really DID have some lines of demarcation, and although Sharf may have a point seeing distinctions to be exaggerated, scholars are probably going to keep on describing Chinese sinification processes in terms of the interaction of distinct "schools". It may be difficult to do otherwise. Although a common thread certainly would be expected to run though Buddhist doctrinal developments in China, there are also tremendous differences in emphasis on particular doctrines among various "schools", as well as differences in the external cultural contributions. Some of his excellent contributions, too many to detail here, include an important discussion of how certain Indian conceptual terms correlated with, and thereby were transformed by, Chinese cosmological beliefs in terms of "sympathetic resonance" kan-yin. Sharf sees little evidence for a self-conscious Chinese esoteric movement separate from the Buddhist mainstream. This is another section that no doubt challenges conventional assumptions and makes for good discussion, particularly regarding the claims of the Japanese esoteric schools. Probably the simplist reply here is to recognize that works such as the Pao-tsang Lun represent a period when the merging of Mayahana doctrines with indigenous Chinese thought produced some very interesting literature, which also reached a high level of sophistication. The fact that classical Chan masters of the stature of Yun-men Unmon were inspired by such literature including other works more properly attributed to Seng-Chao, dating back to the 5th century is food for thought. Zen people, take notice. It behooves practitioners to become more familiar with the background material that helped formed the teachings in their chosen discipline, no? Page 2

3 Chapter 3 : Sharf Robert East Asian Languages + Culture University of California, Berkeley The University of Chicago Press. Books Division. Chicago Distribution Center. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Albert Welter bio Robert H. Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise. Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism is a welcome addition to the growing number of studies in the field that readdress long-held assumptions about the "essential" nature of Buddhism, and its relation to Chinese culture. The Broad Illumination of Emptiness and Being" pp. The Essential Purity of Transcendence and Subtlety" pp. The Empty Mystery of the Point of Genesis" pp. In addition, there are two appendixes: Other sections are devoted to "Notes" pp. As stated at the outset, "The modern study of medieval Chinese religion has been divided broadly between two camps: While the former ignored Buddhism, the latter tended to ignore everything but" p. Moreover, the study of Buddhism in China was guided by essentialist assumptions that divided religious traditions Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism into a set of normative teachings, and subdivided them further into sects, [End Page ] schools, and lineages. Like pieces on a religious chess board, these discrete elements were juxtaposed in relation to each other to represent a design of the religious terrain. Sharf finds two main problems with this approach. On the one hand, it is a representation superimposed after the fact: In short, it conveniently ignores the actual context, filled with the messy realities of political and social context and the real-life aspirations of a living congregation, to create "high religion" a term used by Sharf on p. Sharf contends that the presumptions of normative traditions are inadequate for understanding what is actually happening on the ground what Sharf calls "low" traditions, ultimately denigrating or dismissing whatever does not match the prescriptive standards of this approach. Never mind that there is no way to validate whose interpretation of the teaching is "correct," or that the very attempt to posit such a teaching is the product of its own particular You are not currently authenticated. View freely available titles: Page 3

4 Chapter 4 : Robert Sharf's website Robert H. Sharf, Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise. Kuroda Institute, Studies in East Asian Buddhism Kuroda Institute, Studies in East Asian Buddhism Besides the absence of historical proof discussed below, there is a lack of linguistic evidence. Geyi is not found in the Daozang Daoist Canon, the official Twenty-Four Histories, Zizhi Tongjian reference of Chinese historiography, Gujin Tushu Jicheng imperial encyclopedia, Siku Quanshu collection with some million characters, or comprehensive digital databases of classics. Zhu Faya was a man of Hejian. He was of a staid, tolerant disposition. As a youth, he excelled at non-buddhist studies, and when he grew up he became proficient in Buddhist doctrine. The sons of gentry families all attached themselves to him and requested that he teach them. At that time, the adherents who followed him were uniformly well-versed in secular works, but did not yet excel in Buddhist principles. He alternately lectured on secular works and Buddhist sutras. The Shishuo Xinyu, "New Account of Tales of the World", which contains historical anecdotes about the Eastern Jin period when the geyi method began and ended, mentions shishu "enumerated items" in connection with the politician Yin Hao d. When Yin Hao was dismissed and transferred to Tung-yang [in ] he read a large number of Buddhist sutras, gaining a detailed understanding of them all. It was only when he came to places where items were enumerated that he did not understand. Whenever he chanced to see a monk, he would ask about the items he had noted down, end then they would become clear. Zhu Faya helped to develop geyi in an attempt to teach their Chinese students shishu-type sets of Buddhist technical terms, employing comparable lists from non-buddhist texts. When dharma-drums compete to resound, what [does it matter who comes] first [and who comes] later? Yet the [translations] produced by Zhi Qian and Zhu Fahu mostly [were plagued by] stagnant wording and categorized concepts. Tang Dynasty Buddhist texts made some repetitive criticisms of geyi. Daoxuan mentioned geyi twice in contexts about textual obfuscation, and once tr. Jizang, founder of the Three Treatise School, repeats the same criticism four times tr. A final Song Dynasty example shows how geyi became forgotten and misunderstood. The eminent monk Faya excelled at Buddhist and non-buddhist studies. Many lay scholars requested that he teach them. Given that the meanings in the sutras were difficult to explain, Faya matched them with [those] in non-buddhist literature in order to provide instances of lively explications. After analyzing all the occurrences of the "much vexed term" geyi in the entire Buddhist canon, Mair concludes that geyi was an exegetical method to cope with the Indian proclivity for numerical lists of ideas and concepts. From its few occurrences in the Buddhist canon, it is evident that geyi was an abortive exegetical method, not a vital translation technique or essential philosophical principle. After the meager series of texts cited earlier, there is no significant mention of geyi until the twentieth century, when it is miraculously revived by modern historians and made to play a key role in the early development of Buddhism in China. What is more, among the monks there was a concrete method called geyi. Although the term geyi is seldom seen in written records, it was prevalent for a period, and its influence on contemporary thought was profound. Chen further claimed that geyi was a powerful intellectual force through the Six Dynasties and produced Northern Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism. Rogers; it made the semantically contradictory claim that It is a method of comparing and matching with Chinese thought to cause people to understand Buddhist writings easily. As indicated above, there was nothing revolutionary in this, for the Taoistically inclined Chinese who found himself receptive to Buddhism automatically assumed that the two gospels were identical. Reading only Chinese, he had no way of knowing what underlay the scriptures familiar to him, and in all likelihood he did not care anyway. Ko i is significant in that it is an explicit statement to the effect that textual and doctrinal difficulties are properly solved by scrutinizing Taoist analogues. It is also worthy of anticipation that Tao-an, fellow-disciple to Fa-ya, rejected ko i out of handâ or so he thought. The latter has natural limitations. There might not be, in the recipient culture, idea complexes comparable to the alien system being introduced. Indeed, perhaps all human understanding is ko-i, that is, an endless appropiation [ sic ] of new Page 4

5 ideas by relying on the flexibility of the old. This meant that the Indian terms and concepts in a systematic fashion were explained via Chinese terms and concepts. Though this was a definite step forward in the earlier period, when it was devised as a technique of analysis and exegesis of the foreign texts, it later became a crutch and a hindrance to a correct understanding of the Buddhist concepts. Tao-an came to understand that this method of "matching meanings" frequently did injustice to the Indian texts, and it is characteristic of his great originality that, despite its traditional and almost universal acceptance by his contemporaries, he nevertheless abandoned it. It claims 1: Tsukamoto repeatedly postulates geyi connections with Xuanxue "dark learning" Neo-Daoism: Tsukamoto gives examples of geyi "style of learning" lists, such as 1: By the s and s, misinformation about geyi had spread from specialized articles and books about Chinese Buddhism into reputable general-purpose references. Chinese "matching the meanings" Wade-Giles romanization ke-yi. In Chinese Buddhism, the practice of borrowing from Daoist and other philosophical texts phrases with which to explain their own ideas. According to tradition, geyi was first used by Zhu Faya, a student of many religions of the 4th century CE, as he came to understand Buddhism. The technique reached its height of development among translators of the Prajna sutras, who sought to make Buddhist thought more accessible to Chinese readers. After Kumarajiva began his missionary work in China about, geyi was no longer needed; the ideas could be explained directly by an Indian authority. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Not only English reference works, but also Chinese and Japanese ones give similarly erroneous geyi definitions. For instance, the popular Chinese dictionary Cihai A method for explaining Buddhist sutras during the Wei-Jin period. At that time, when Buddhist sutras had only recently been transmitted to China, in order to make it easier to propagate them, some Buddhist scholars invariably used indigenous concepts and vocabulary from Chinese philosophy chiefly Lao-Zhuang philosophy to carry out strained comparisons and explanations. The practice of elucidating Indian Buddhist concepts by drawing parallels with native systems of thought was ubiquitous throughout the history of Buddhism in China; indeed, how was Buddhism to be understood without some recourse to the familiar? Victor Mair, in investigating the grounds of this theory, has found it to be utterly without support, explaining that "we may conclude that geyi Wright historically treat geyi "matching concepts" as a short-lived Buddhist method of Chinese translation that was abandoned in the 4th century. For instance, Chin Yinke claiming geyi was an essential historical component in Chinese philosophy, and Whalen Lai suggesting, "all human understanding is geyi. For my own part, I basically wish to adopt the interpretation of geyi put forward by Chen Yinke and other Chinese researchers. In addition to this, I characterize the indigenous thought of China that played such a decisive role especially in geyi-based Buddhism, namely, Lao-Zhuang thought, as the "philosophy of dao-li," and defining geyi as the comprehension and interpretation of Buddhism on the basis of this philosophy of dao-li. I refer to all forms of Buddhism based on this geyi-conditioned understanding as geyi-based Buddhism. The various 20th-century delusions about geyi "matching meanings" or "matching concepts" are based on ignoring the Chinese historical and linguistic evidence. Only a few Eastern Jin scholars unsuccessfully experimented with the geyi method of explaining Buddhist terminological lists before it was abandoned; the ge component does not mean "matching". Pseudo-geyi speculations have resulted in widespread misunderstanding about the histories of Daoism and Chinese Buddhism. At that very same time, religious Daoism was beginning to take shape with Way of the Five Pecks of Rice starting in and Tianshi "Celestial Masters" late 2nd century. In other words, "Daoism as a formal, organised religion with a body of texts, monastic rules and institutions, nascent iconography and set of ritualised practice was to a large extent a response to the advent of Buddhism. In a comprehensive, detailed history of the development of early Chinese Buddhism, geyi deserves to be mentioned, but not as the centerpiece that modern scholarship has made of it. Derk Bodde, Princeton University Press. Mote, Princeton University Press. Hurvitz, Leon, "Review: Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: Issues and Confusions in Cross-Cultural Translation. Ithmar Theodor and Zhihua Yao. Leon Hurvitz, 2 Vols. Tokyo, New York and San Francisco: Page 5

6 Chapter 5 : Meditation, Buddhism, and Science - Paperback - David McMahan; Erik Braun - Oxford Univers June 5, ; This in-depth study of Treasure Store Treatise brings our attention to the Chinese Buddhist active wrestling with its predecessor--indian Buddhism that has been hidden or flattened out by the narratives of sinicization, syncretism, and "fidelity" or "authenticity". Others such as Fotudeng d. The use of mandalas Chinese: The Tang dynasty saw the growth to prominence of Chinese Tantric Buddhism. These three masters brought the esoteric teachings to their height of popularity in China. Orzech outlines the growth of this tradition as follows: Second, we see the advent of texts representing distinct and comprehensive systems that are meant to codify the swelling tide of mantric texts, deities, and techniques. Full entry into these systems was accessed only through abhiseka, effecting the ritual transformation of a disciple into a cosmic overlord. Third, these overarching systems were given what amounts to imperial imprimatur during the twenty year period from the s into the s. Goble, Amoghavajra was the most influential of these and is to be considered as the true founder of the Zhenyan or Mantra Tradition. He translated the largest number of texts second only to Xuanzang, performed rituals for the royal family, taught disciples from Japan and Korea and was the first to be bestowed Tang imperial titles. The followers of the Baotang school of Chan, founded by Baotang Wuzhu also seem to have had a strong affiliation with the Zhenyan tradition. Kukai was taught by the great master Hui-kuo â ; Japanese: It is claimed that he learned the complete teachings in two years before returning to Japan. Esoteric Buddhism also entered the Korean kingdom of Goryeo â The Xia in particular adopted Tibetan Buddhist influences and produced many translations into the Tangut language and artistic works, many of which have been preserved in the findings at Khara-Khoto. Following the Liao, the Jin dynasty â saw a continuation of the forms of Buddhism that existed in the Liao. So it is no surprise that after the Mongol conquest of China and their establishment of the Yuan dynasty â, the Yuan emperors made Tibetan Buddhism the official religion of China, and Tibetan monks or, as they were called in Chinese, "barbarian monks from the West", Chinese: The tantric deity Mahakala was used in military campaign to protect the armies during their war against China and became the protector deity of the Yuan state. They were granted unprecedented status and privileges such as temple offerings and shrines. The rulers of the Ming were also enthusiastic about Tibetan tantric Buddhism. During the Ming dynasty â, the emperors such as the Yongle Emperor r. Another edition of the Tibetan canon was further printed in Beijing in The Zhengde Emperor r. A profitable business was the selling of Dharma instruments at the capital and one report states that "men and women in the capital filled the street" for Tibetan monks in Beijing. Many Ming literati and courtiers continued to attack and ridicule the religion as demon worship and sorcery. The Qianglong Emperor was also a promoter of the arts which flourished in his reign, and he was particularly fond of Tibetan thangkas. Page 6

7 Chapter 6 : Geyi - Wikipedia Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism is a welcome addition to the growing number of studies in the field that readdress long-held assumptions about the "essential" nature of Buddhism, and its relation to Chinese culture. The book's contents are divided into an introduction and two parts. From Colonialism to Brainscans: McMahan and Erik Braun 2. Mindful but not Religious: McMahan is the Charles A. Metaphor and Visionary Imagery in Mahayana Buddhism. He is the author of The Birth of Insight: He focuses primarily on Burmese Buddhism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, though he also works on matters related to Pali literature and to globalizing forms of meditative practice. Her first book, Living Buddhism: Cassaniti examines the social articulations of religious ideas in the psychology of everyday life in Southeast Asia and around the world, with special attention to their implications for health and well-being. Joanna Cook is an anthropologist at University College London. She is the author of Meditation in Modern Buddhism: His research is primarily in the areas of Buddhist philosophy, environmental philosophy, and 20th-century French and German thought. William served as co-director of the International Association of Environmental Philosophy and is now co-editor of the journal Environmental Philosophy. He is also co-editor of Buddhist Philosophy: Levinas and Environmental Thought. He has written on Indian Buddhist literature, visual metaphors and practice, the early history of the Mahayana movement in India and, more recently, on the interface of Buddhism and modernity, including its interactions with science, psychology, modernist literature, romanticism, and transcendentalism. He works primarily in the area of medieval Chinese Buddhism especially Chan, but he also publishes in the areas of Japanese Buddhism, Buddhist art, Buddhist philosophy, ritual studies, and methodological issues in the study of religion. He is author of Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: Japanese Buddhist Icons in Context He is the author of Waking, Dreaming, Being: He is also co-author of The Embodied Mind: He received both his B. His work focuses on Indian Buddhism in general and the Yogacara school in particular. He is the author of Mindful America: Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. This alone is enough to ensure that this book will eclipse other scholarly introductions to the sociocultural dimensions of Buddhist meditation that are currently being sold at prohibitively expensive prices. Given these advantages of breadth, accessibility, and price, I am of the opinion that this book would be put to particularly good use in the classroom. The essays include historical, cultural, philosophical, textual, cognitive, psychological, and sociological critiques of the all-too-often decontextualized scientific study of meditation. These perspectives enable us to better understand how the complexities of lived human existence influence meditation practice and meditation experiences. Taken together the essays further demonstrate the importance of interdisciplinarity for the study of Buddhism. Chapter 7 : Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism by Robert H. Sharf Annotation Chinese Buddhism is often portrayed as the product of a protracted encounter between Indian Buddhism and Chinese civilization, an encounter that led to the "sinification" of Buddhist teachings and practices. Chapter 8 : Studies in East Asian Buddhism This title re-evalutes the encounter between Indian Buddhism and Chinese civilization. It argues that although the Chinese were cognizant of the foreign origins of Buddhism, their actual exposure to South Asian clerics and Sanskrit texts was limited throughout medieval times. Chapter 9 : Robert H. Sharf Page 7

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