Readings of the Gateless Barrier
This book presents a new English translation with close readings and creative analyses of the Gateless Barrier from both scholarly and practitioner perspectives, allowing a range of readers to venture into the rich world of Chan and Zen
| Contributors: | |
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| Format: | Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Subito Delivery Service: | Order now. |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Book acquisition: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
New York
Columbia University Press
[2025]
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| In: | Year: 2025 |
| Series/Journal: | Columbia readings of Buddhist literature
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| Further subjects: | B
Koan
B Koan Early works to 1800 B Huikai (1183-1260) B Huikai (1183-1260) Wumen guan B Spiritual Life Zen Buddhism |
| Summary: | This book presents a new English translation with close readings and creative analyses of the Gateless Barrier from both scholarly and practitioner perspectives, allowing a range of readers to venture into the rich world of Chan and Zen "The Gateless Barrier (C. Wumenguan; J. Mumonkan; K. Mumun'gwan) is one of the most innovative, beloved, and yet enigmatic texts in East Asian Buddhism. Compiled by the Chinese Zen (Chan) master Wumen Huikai (1183-1260) in 1228, it contains 48 "public cases" or gong'ans (J. koan; K. kongan)-dialogues or stories of spiritual awakening-that arguably represent the best examples of the gong'an genre of literature. This volume introduces the ways this seminal work has been read, contemplated, transmitted, and experienced in the history of East Asian Buddhism. It also opens new ways of appreciating the text from philosophical, literary, cultural, gendered, and experiential perspectives. The past few decades, particularly in North America, have witnessed a scholarly shift in Buddhist and Chan/Zen studies from philological and philosophical studies to historical and culturally embodied approaches. As valuable as this shift has been, it has resulted in a move away from the development of Buddhist thought and has also arrested our understanding of the ever-evolving ways of reading Buddhist teachings. Editor Jimmy Yu's aim is to give the reader a more grounded and three-dimensional picture of how Chan/Zen was and is practiced and lived, situating The Gateless Barrier intimately in its social and cultural contexts past and present and providing a balance of perspectives on objectivity and normativity, outsider and insider, and etic and emic appreciations. The editor has also provided a new translation"-- |
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| Item Description: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 325-335) and index |
| Physical Description: | [viii], 353 pages, 23 cm |
| ISBN: | 978-0-231-20737-9 |
