Reimagining Zen in a Secular Age

André van der Braak, Ph.D. (2004), Radboud University Nijmegen, is Professor of Buddhist Philosophy in Dialogue with other World Views at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He published various monographs and articles including Nietzsche and Zen: Self-Overcoming without a Self (Lexington, 2011).

• AcknowledgementsXIIntroduction1 Beyond Buddhist Modernism2 Reimagining Zen in the West3 Cross-cultural Hermeneutics4 A Secular Age5 Outline of This BookPart 1: Zen and the Immanent Frame1 Zen Transmissions and Reimaginings1 Reimagining Indian Buddhism as Chinese Chan1.1 Sudden Enlightenment versus Gradual Cultivation1.2 Beyond Language versus within Language1.3 Koan Practice versus Silent Illumination2 Reimagining Chinese Chan as Japanese Zen3 Zen Imaginings in the West4 Discussion2 A Secular Age1 Introduction2 Fullness3 Beyond Subtraction Stories4 Disenchantment5 The Buffered Self6 The Immanent Frame7 A Three-Cornered Battle8 Discussion3 Cross Pressures in the Immanent Frame1 The General Malaise of Immanence2 Enlightenment as a New Form of Fullness3 Disenchantment versus Re-enchantment4 Beyond Transcendence and Immanence5 Open versus Closed Zen Practice6 DiscussionPart 2: Zen Modernism4 Universalization: Zen as Universal Mysticism1 The Birth of Buddhism as a World Religion2 Universal Zen3 Pure Experience4 Criticizing the Universality of Pure Experience5 Against Perennialism: Criticism of Universal Mysticism6 Zen as Non-mysticism7 Back to Language: Dōgen’s Mystical Hermeneutics8 Zen Meditation as Universal Dharma Practice9 Discussion5 Psychologization: The Zen Experience1 Psychologization2 Disenchanting the Bodhisattvas3 Questioning the Zen Experience4 Beyond Religious Experience5 Going Beyond Excarnation and the Buffered Self6 Dōgen’s Embodied Realization7 Discussion6 The Therapeutic Turn: Zen as Therapy1 From Conversion to Healing2 The Reaffirmation of Ordinary Life3 Zen and the Affirmation of Ordinary Life4 Dōgen on the Affirmation of Ordinary Life5 The Medicalization of the Moral6 Instrumentalization versus No Gain7 Discussion7 The Rise of Expressive Individualism: Zen as Global Spirituality1 The Rise of Expressive Individualism2 Personal Spirituality versus Communal Religious Practice3 Religious Belonging4 Zen Belonging in the West5 Pure Zen versus Buddhist Zen6 Zen Ritual as Communal Practice7 DiscussionPart 3: Beyond Zen Modernism8 Batchelor’s Secular Buddhism1 The Search for the Human Buddha2 Beyond Karma3 Reimagining Enlightenment4 Discussion9 Reimagining Emptiness: Toward a Subtler Language of Fullness1 The Kyoto School2 Śūnyatā as Zen Fullness3 Nishitani and Śūnyatā2014 Hisamatsu and Oriental Nothingness5 Masao Abe6 David Loy’s New Buddhist Path7 Deconstructing Enlightenment: Beyond Transcendence and Immanence8 Evolution: A New Enchanted Buddhist Worldview9 Ethics: Reimagining the Bodhisattva Path10 Discussion10 Engaging Dōgen’s Zen1 Back to Buddhist Scriptures2 An Enchanted Zen3 Zen Fullness as Ongoing Practice-Realization4 From Individual Pure Zen to Communal Bodhisattva Zen5 Dōgen’sShushōgi2276 Repenting and Eliminating Bad Karma7 Receiving Precepts and Joining the Ranks8 Making the Vow to Benefit Beings9 Discussion10 The Future of ZenLiteratureIndex