Zen Ritual

Steven Heine is Professor of Religious Studies and History and Director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Florida International University. Dale S. Wright is David B. and Mary H. Gamble Professor of Religious Studies and Asian Studies at Occidental College. They are the coeditors of The Koan, Zen Canon, and Zen Classics.

These essays are valuable because they reflect a crucial sea change in the contemporary study of religion: a shift away from the study of what religion says it is about (as explained in sacred texts) to what religion is actually about (as discovered in historical records and sociological observation).

• Dale S. Wright: Introduction: Rethinking Ritual Practice in Zen Buddhism 1.: T. Griffith Foulk: Ritual in Japanese Zen Buddhism 2.: Mario Poceski: Chan Rituals of the Abbots' Ascending the Dharma Hall to Preach 3.: Albert Welter: Buddhist Rituals for Protecting the Country in Medieval Japan: Myoan Eisai's "Regulations of the Zen School" 4.: Steven Heine: Is Dogen's Eiheiji Temple "Mt. T'ien-t'ung East"? Geo-Ritual Perspectives on the Transition from Chinese Ch'an to Japanese Zen 5.: Taigen Dan Leighton: Zazen as an Enactment Ritual 6.: Paula K. R. Arai: Women and Dogen: Rituals Actualizing Empowerment and Healing 7.: Michel Mohr: Invocation of the Sage: The Ritual to Glorify the Emperor 8.: David E. Riggs: Meditation in Motion: Textual Exegesis in the Creation of Ritual 9.: William M. Bodiford: Dharma Transmission in Theory and Practice Pinyin-Wade-Giles Conversion Table