About this Item
This book is in good condition; spine crease from use. The book has some shelfwear. Many highlighted / underlined passages throughout. Solid study or reading copy but not for collectors. ; Kuroda Studies in East Asian Buddhism; 9 X 6.40 X 1.30 inches; 566 pages. Seller Inventory # 120117-653-059
Bibliographic Details
Title: Original Enlightenment and the ...
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Publication Date: 2003
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Good
About this title
Original enlightenment thought (hongaku shiso) dominated Buddhist intellectual circles throughout Japan s medieval period. Enlightenment, this discourse claims, is neither a goal to be achieved nor a potential to be realized but the true status of all things. Every animate and inanimate object manifests the primordially enlightened Buddha just as it is. Seen in its true aspect, every activity of daily life—eating, sleeping, even one s deluded thinking—is the Buddha s conduct. Emerging from within the powerful Tendai School, ideas of original enlightenment were appropriated by a number of Buddhist traditions and influenced nascent theories about the kami (local deities) as well as medieval aesthetics and the literary and performing arts.
Scholars and commentators have long recognized the historical importance of original enlightenment thought but differ heatedly over how it is to be understood. Some tout it as the pinnacle of the Buddhist philosophy of absolute non-dualism. Others claim to find in it the paradigmatic expression of a timeless Japanese spirituality. According other readings, it represents a dangerous anti-nomianism that undermined observance of moral precepts, precipitated a decline in Buddhist scholarship, and denied the need for religious discipline. Still others denounce it as an authoritarian ideology that, by sacralizing the given order, has in effect legitimized hierarchy and discriminative social practices. Often the acceptance or rejection of original enlightenment thought is seen as the fault line along which traditional Buddhist institutions are to be differentiated from the new Buddhist movements (Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren) that arose during Japan s medieval period.
Jacqueline Stone s groundbreaking study moves beyond the treatment of the original enlightenment doctrine as abstract philosophy to explore its historical dimension. Drawing on a wealth of medieval primary sources and modern Japanese scholarship, it places this discourse in its ritual, institutional, and social contexts, illuminating its importance to the maintenance of traditions of lineage and the secret transmission of knowledge that characterized several medieval Japanese elite culture. It sheds new light on interpretive strategies employed in pre-modern Japanese Buddhist texts, an area that hitherto has received a little attention. Through these and other lines of investigation, Stone problematizes entrenched notions of corruption in the medieval Buddhist establishment. Using the examples of Tendai and Nichiren Buddhism and their interactions throughout the medieval period, she calls into question both overly facile distinctions between old and new Buddhism and the long-standing scholarly assumptions that have perpetuated them. This study marks a significant contribution to ongoing debates over definitions of Buddhism in the Kamakura era (1185–1333), long regarded as a formative period in Japanese religion and culture. Stone argues that original enlightenment thought represents a substantial rethinking of Buddhist enlightenment that cuts across the distinction between old and new institutions and was particularly characteristic of the medieval period.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Store Description
If you plan to pay by check or money order, please do NOT make the check or money order payable to Mahler Books, or we will not be able to accept it. Please make checks or money orders payable to Erik R Magnuson. Books may be returned within 15 days for a full refund so long as they are in the same condition when sold. Please contact us prior to returning a product.
Orders usually ship within 2 business days. Shipping costs are based on standard-sized books weighing up to 4 LB, or 1.8 KG. If your book order is heavy and/or over-sized and the shipping address is OUTSIDE of The United States, we may contact you to let you know extra shipping is required.
At Mahler Books, we make no attempt to over-charge for shipping. Sometimes International buyers are surprised to discover the high cost of shipping heavy or over-sized books.
If you are located OUTSIDE of The United States, and you are ordering a heavy or over-sized book, the shipping costs are estimated to be about 42 US dollars. This is the cost of the Global Priority Flat Rate Box. I agree that this shipping cost seems excessive, but this is what the Postal Service charges me, and this is the cheapest rate I have been able to locate for large books weighing over 1.8 KG.
Payment Methods
accepted by seller
Money Order Cash PayPal