Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism: Myoshinji, a Living Religion (Numen Book Series) (Numen Books: Studies in the History of Religions)

Zen Buddhist ideas and practices in many ways are unique within the study of religion, and artists, poets and Buddhists practitioners worldwide have found inspiration from this tradition. Until recent years, representations of Zen Buddhism have focussed almost entirely on philosophical, historical or “spiritual” aspects. This book investigates the contemporary living reality of the largest Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhist group, Myōshinji. Drawing on textual studies and ethnographic fieldwork, Jørn Borup analyses how its practitioners use and understand their religion, how they practice their religiosity and how different kinds of Zen Buddhists (monks, nuns, priest, lay people) interact and define themselves within the religious organization. Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism portrays a living Zen Buddhism being both uniquely interesting and interestingly typical for common Buddhist and Japanese religiosity. Contents ......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 12 Introduction......Page 14 Legendary beginnings......Page 20 Tradition, transmission, and sacred kinship......Page 22 Myoshinji, gozan, and Muromachi......Page 26 Tokugawa: Bakufu, honmatsu seido, and danka seido......Page 30 1.2 Meiji Zen: Modernization and invented traditions......Page 33 Buddhist responses......Page 36 Zen and Myoshinji developments......Page 37 Lay Zen......Page 39 1.3 Postwar and contemporary Myoshinji Zen......Page 41 Judicial and institutional and structure of religious organizations......Page 42 Myoshinji institutional structure......Page 44 Zen temples......Page 46 Economy......Page 52 Social, laicized, and international Zen......Page 55 1.4 Summary......Page 60 2.1 Men with or without rank: shukke, zaike, and a discussion of terminology......Page 62 2.2 The clergy......Page 64 Shukke: "Leaving home" and returning as a ritual process......Page 65 Shukke as returning soryo......Page 67 Dharma rank and hierarchy; status and stratified clerical systems......Page 69 Alternative career mobility: ango-e......Page 72 Clerical offices ......Page 73 The priest......Page 75 The priest wife and the Zen family......Page 83 Temple sons......Page 87 Nuns......Page 89 Householder or believer: zaike, danka and danshinto......Page 92 Sect-transcending laity; users, clients, and occasional Buddhists......Page 97 Religious confraternities......Page 99 Intellectuals, critics, and enlightened laymen......Page 101 Foreigners......Page 109 2.5 Summary......Page 112 3.1 Rituals and ritualization......Page 114 Myoshinji categories and classifying as religious practice......Page 116 Categories of religious practice......Page 118 3.2 Zen ideas and practice......Page 120 Superhuman agency, powers, and ideal states......Page 121 Cultural ideal values......Page 133 Some theoretical remarks on "belief" ......Page 136 Belief, commitment, and "meaning to mean it" in the Myoshinji context......Page 138 Ritual practice and how to do it right......Page 142 Education, training, cultivation, and mission......Page 147 Cultivating the clergy......Page 149 Cultivating the laity......Page 157 The strategy and reality of training and cultivation......Page 167 Ritualized monastic life......Page 172 Alms-begging and exchange......Page 181 3.5 Ritualized events; clerical rites of passage......Page 187 Ordaining the monk......Page 188 Installing the master......Page 190 Installing the priest......Page 192 Initiating the dead......Page 196 Structure and semantics of clerical rites of passage......Page 197 Reihai: Temple and domestic worship......Page 199 Worship as ideal ethical and soteriological practice......Page 204 Rhetoric, semantics, and magic......Page 208 Myoshinji texts......Page 211 Ritualization of texts......Page 214 Meanings, structures, and ideals of meditation......Page 218 Meditation practice......Page 222 3.6.4 Calendrical rituals......Page 229 Seasonal rituals......Page 230 Pilgrimage......Page 235 Sectarian and Buddhist calendrical rituals......Page 237 Memorial days of patriarchs and sect founders......Page 239 Statistics and semantics of calendrical rituals......Page 243 Daruma-cults and festivals......Page 247 Manninko kojusai: dining, healing, and circumambulating toilets......Page 252 Local folk Zen, an interpretation......Page 256 Lay ordination; jukai-e and receiving the precepts......Page 259 Rituals of sociocultural and biological order......Page 266 Rituals of death and dying......Page 267 Funeral rituals......Page 268 Structure and meaning of the traditional Zen Buddhist funeral......Page 275 Ideas and ideals of death......Page 276 Modernization, institutionalization, and ritual context......Page 279 3.7 Summary......Page 286 Plural Zen......Page 290 Umbrella Zen......Page 291 Hierarchical Zen......Page 293 Power play and exchange......Page 296 Zen rituals and practical meaning......Page 298 Zen and the study of religion......Page 301 Appendix......Page 302 Bibliography......Page 312 Index......Page 326 "Zen Buddhist ideas and practices in many ways are unique within the study of religion, and artists, poets and Buddhists practitioners worldwide have found inspiration from this tradition. Until recent years, representations of Zen Buddhism have focussed almost entirely on philosophical, historical or "spiritual" aspects. This book investigates the contemporary living reality of the largest Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhist group, Myoshinji. Drawing on textual studies and ethnographic fieldwork, Jorn Borup analyses how its practitioners use and understand their religion, how they practice their religiosity and how different kinds of Zen Buddhists (monks, nuns, priest, lay people) interact and define themselves within the religious organization. Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism portrays a living Zen Buddhism being both uniquely interesting and interestingly typical for common Buddhist and Japanese religiosity."--Jacket