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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Zen, a distinctively East Asian form of Buddhism.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Zen. It's often thought of as a form of Buddhism that emphasises the practice of meditation over any particular set of beliefs. In fact Zen belongs to a particular intellectual tradition within Buddhism that took root in China in the 6th century AD. It spread to Japan in the early Middle Ages, where Zen practitioners set up religious institutions like temples, monasteries and universities that remain important today.

GUESTS

Tim Barrett, Emeritus Professor in the Department of the Study of Religions at SOAS, University of London

Lucia Dolce, Numata Reader in Japanese Buddhism at SOAS, University of London

Eric Greene, Lecturer in East Asian Religions at the University of Bristol

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Thu 4 Dec 2014 21:30

LINKS AND FURTHER READING

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READING LIST:

William Bodiford, Soto Zen in Medieval Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 1993)

Robert E. Buswell, The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea (Princeton University Press, 1992)

Bernard Faure, Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval Japanese Buddhism (Princeton University Press, 1993)

Bernard Faure, The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism (Princeton University Press, 1991)

Steven Heine, Opening a Mountain: Koans of the Zen Masters (Oxford University Press, 2002)

Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright, Zen Ritual: Studies of Zen Buddhist Theory in Practice (Oxford University Press, 2008)

John McRae, Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism (University of California Press, 2004)

Morten Schlütter, How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China (University of Hawaii Press, 2008)

Brian Victoria, Zen at War (Weatherhill, 1997)

Albert Welter, The Linji Lu and the Creation of Chan Orthodoxy: The Development of Chan’s Records of Sayings Literature (Oxford University Press, 2008)

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Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Melvyn Bragg
Interviewed Guest Tim Barrett
Interviewed Guest Lucia Dolce
Interviewed Guest Eric Greene
Producer Luke Mulhall

Broadcasts

  • Thu 4 Dec 2014 09:00
  • Thu 4 Dec 2014 21:30

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