Zen

The paper examines the relativity of psychological time (inner time or time perception), which refers to the sense of time, which can not be directly perceived but must be reconstructed by the brain. Psychological time is linked to physical time but might disconnect from it in certain situations. This disconnection makes the inner time relative and forms the object of the analysis.
In the first part of the paper, we examine the relativity or dilatation of psychological time, which accompanies crossing particular levels or thresholds in brain activity. Such points are related to age, extreme emotions associated with sudden dangers, inner states (such as dreams), near-death experiences, trance, or mystical states.
In the paper's final part, we try to explain the speed up or 'dilatation' of the psychological time in crossing the mentioned thresholds. Our explanation considers that such 'dilatation'  relates to the brain's more and more inner activity, which lets it function at its full (quasi-infinite) 'processing speed'.
This (quasi-infinite) 'processing speed' is a metaphor for the brain's hyper-connected architecture, which allows quasi-infinite parallel mental processes to happen in the same physical time.
This (quasi-infinite) 'processing speed' is a metaphor for the brain's hyper-connected architecture, which allows quasi-infinite parallel mental processes to happen in the same physical time.
For example, we can build a narrative covering each such cognitive process. However, unfolding such infinite narratives entirely (within a mega record)  would take a quasi-infinite time in the physical world.
Hence a second (a moment of physical Now) would equal Eternity within the psychological (reconstructed) time.

ТОЛЬКО ОЗНАКОМИТЕЛЬНЫЙ ФРАГМЕНТ, электронная версия не распространяется.

Сэм ван Шайк. Тибетский дзэн. Открывая утерянную традицию. Истории, рассказанные манускриптами Дуньхуана / Пер. с англ. А. Г. Ливанского, под общ. ред. Б. К. Двинянинова. — СПб. : Издательство «Академия исследований культуры», 2021. — 248 с. : ил. — (Серия «Измерения опыта»). ISBN 978-5-94396-226-4

Вплоть до начала XII в. практически не оставалось следов существования тибетской традиции китайского чань-буддизма или дзэн. После обнаружения запечатанной пещеры в Дуньхуане, наполненной манускриптами на различных языках, начиная с первого тысячелетия н. э., наше понимание раннего дзэн претерпело существенные изменения. В этой книге переведена часть наиболее ранних рукописей тибетского дзэн, сохранившихся в Дуньхуане. Переводы освещают различные аспекты традиции дзэн, включая краткие введения, в которых обсуждаются не только роли ритуала, диспута, линии преемственности и медитации в ранней традиции дзэн, но также разъясняют, каким образом эти тексты были включены в живую практику.

As a nature parable, THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD involves players in a dreamlike gameworld in which their unconscious desires for an ecological sustainable Utopia and a romantic imagery of nature are evoked, exposed to distress, and eventually saturated. By sending players on the journey of a hero to restore order in a polluted but majestic world, the game evokes a bewildering variety of affects in them. These oscillate between positive and negative ones—such as curiosity and fear, excitement and distress, startle and anger, pleasure and terror—and are outlined by the game’s structural peculiarities (its implied player) in different ways, depending on the region of the gameworld. The players’ affective responses then culminate in the tumultuous emotion of astonishment and in the aesthetic response of the sublime. The experience of play—in the interaction between (eco)game, player, and world (culture)—is thus a regenerative one on an affective and subsequent aesthetic level. It resensitises players to the beauty of the natural world, while granting them a different point of view on ecosystems and ecological issues that plague their contemporary surroundings.

No ano do Tigre de Água, na China central, existia certo monge, adentrado em anos e adequado em sabedoria, chamado Wu Xin. Embora tenha passado a maior parte de sua vida como andarilho entre os vários mosteiros e lugarejos na imensidão daquelas terras, agora habitava uma caverna, espaçosa e arejada (mas não excessivamente exposta), aninhada no sopé da Montanha dos Ventos Afortunados. Era uma habitação improvisada, realmente, mas não menos útil para viver como qualquer lar seja suntuoso ou humilde. Um pouco de trabalho duro, uma boa dose de criatividade e otimismo, um grande senso de harmonia com o seu meio, e ali estava: uma habitação aconchegante e muito bem feita.

施茶在佛門是普遍常見的善行，常施於荒郊野嶺、行人乾渴處，事小而微，卻有濟急之需的慈悲布施；茶水清涼，連結解脫清涼、法水甘露，藉施茶濟人亦可濟己；再加上禪門趙州喫茶去之機鋒，茶成為機鋒啟悟的引子，施茶也就加入修悟弘法元素；於是由布施之福德慈悲，擴及至法門之空性智慧，這是佛門的基本施茶觀。
    明末憨山因弘法蒙難，被發配從軍流放廣東雷陽，途經電白苦藤嶺時，遇見易真潭居士等人施茶，憨山記錄這段經歷，並幫助施茶居士募建施茶庵，取名為化城庵。由此形成他具個人特色，有血有肉、有智有悲的生命修悟與弘法歷程感的施茶觀。
    「化城」，典故來自《法華經》，是前往究竟佛乘寶所的中途休息站，憨山將施茶處視為清涼化城，有二個面向：化城觀與邊地觀。他修道之初，切慕華嚴四祖清涼澄觀，遂前往號稱清涼山的五臺山，一生重要的修悟都發生於此，並與「清涼」境界相應；當他流放嶺南，正是從北方「清涼」到南方「火宅」，修悟或身心皆受轉折衝擊，於是施茶處成了清涼化城。而從化城要前往的是究竟「寶所」，然而他前往的卻是無佛「邊地」，憨山對此已有所體悟，他從一人一事開始，實踐入世菩薩行於邊地，使無佛邊地成為佛乘寶所之處，而實則邊地即是寶所。

Tea giving is a common good deed in Buddhism. Tea is often
placed in wilderness or where the pedestrians might feel thirsty. It
is a trivial deed but is a virtuous charity timely for those in urgent
needs. The coolness of tea is associated with liberation and coolness
and Dharma water and sweet dew. To help others through tea giving
is a way to help oneself. In addition to the witticism of Zhao Zhou’s
having tea, tea becomes an introduction to witticism and epiphany.
Tea giving is thus added with the element of cultivation and Buddhist
teaching propagating. Accordingly, the basic philosophy of Buddhist
tea giving is developed from the virtue and mercy of giving to the
wisdom of emptiness in Buddhism.
In the end of Ming Dynasty, Hanshan was banished to serve in
an army Leiyang, Guangdong because he encountered trouble during
Buddhist teaching propagating. He saw Householder Yi Zhen Tan and
others giving tea when passing by Ku Teng Ling, Dianbai. Hanshan
recorded this experience and helped the Tea Giving Householder
to raise funds to build Tea Giving Convent, named Conjured City
Convent. In this way, the philosophy of tea giving with life cultivation
of his personal characteristics, with fl esh and blood, and with wisdom
and sadness and the course of Buddhist teaching propagating is hence
developed.
The allusion of “conjured city” is originated from Lotus
Sutra, a rest stop on the way to the treasured land of final Buddha.
Hanshan regards the place of tea giving as a cool conjured city for
two dimensions: philosophy of conjured city and philosophy of the
frontier. At the beginning of his cultivation, he admired the fourth
patriarch Chengguan. Therefore, he went to Wutaishan, also known
as Qingliangshan. The important understanding in his life happened
here. It corresponds with the realm of “coolness.” When he was exiled
to Lingnan. He moved from the “cool” north to the “fi re residence” in
the south. His cultivation or physical and mental conditions underwent
great impact. Therefore, the tea giving place became a cool conjured
city. He should go from the conjured city to the fi nal “treasured land.”
However, he went to the “frontier” without Buddha. Hanshan had
already understood this. Starting from one man and one thing, he
practiced the way of a worldly bodhisattva in the frontier so that the
frontier without Buddha became a treasured land of Buddha. In reality,
the frontier is the treasured land.

Trabalho de tradução realizado como parte de meus estudos sobre os fundamentos da linguagem prática e contemplativa budista.

Tradução ao português por Claudio Miklos. Trechos entre colchetes e notas são de responsabilidade do tradutor brasileiro.

This treatise is actually the Foreword of the haiku book, A Tree Frog's Eyes: Haiku, by David E Navarro. It is extracted and presented here as its own paper since it is complete in itself and explains a little about the historical essence of haiku, as well as four core essentials (zoka, ma, tathata, and toriawase) and two core functional elements (kigo and kireji) of it. It also briefly touches on the Zen quality of kensho in Zen influenced haiku. Not all haiku is Zen, nor does it need to be, but Zen haiku poets are fond of its use and impact. It also discusses some of the ramifications of Japanese haiku as translated into English and explains what the author means by jhetsu. Finally, there is an explanation of the rare list or trio haiku and some thoughts about haiku vs. senryu. It was originally written to give background and context to the haiku and senryu written by the author and poet of the book.

Design’s attempts to address social, ethical and environmental concerns of our time have often been marred by theory generated by well-meaning scholars who have imposed hard-line definitions and models of what it means to be an ‘ethical designer’. These arguments abstract values and impose ideological and political positions that designers can find difficult to apply in their daily practices. It is not as simple as prescribing the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ values for designers to have and translate them through design. Whatever values there are, those values need to matter to people who care about them enough to translate them into action . Values are not impersonal. They cannot be detached and be subsumed under a more universal value or comparable importance. The paper opens with a critique of this prescriptive approach to highlight the reasons for why ethical design remains stuck in a rut. I then move to discuss more deeply, the close relationship between being ethical and being a human-centred practitioner in design. In doing so, I critique common notions of human-centred design that gives it an ergonomic, human-factors emphasis, or its ‘do-gooder’ side that is associated with humanitarian design. Instead, I offer an alternative framework for human-centred design based on the Japanese ethical concept woven into what it means to be human.

The Japanese term for ‘human being’ is ningen (人間), composed of two characters for ‘person’ (人), and ‘between’ (間). The Japanese understanding of human as in-betweenness, etymologised by ‘between person’, situates it as a relational being. This is the central framework for my notions of ‘self’ and being ‘human’ . This concept of human is strikingly different from major Western philosophies that emphasises ‘anthropos’ or ‘homo’, denoting the individual. Being human-centred is criticised for perpetuating an anthropocentric position , further contributing to humanity’s self-centredness and environmentally destructive behaviour. The profound ethical difference of conceiving humans as detached and in isolation, compared to the Japanese concept of human as relational in-betweennes, is argued by one of the most significant Japanese philosophers of the twentieth century, Tetsuro Watsuji . He was influenced by hermeneutics, phenomenology, Zen Buddhism and the Japanese indigenous spirituality of Shinto. In his book Rinrigaku, ethics in Japan, Watsuji is critical of Western philosophy (Heidegger and many others ) that emphasises the individual concept of self and the locus of the ethical problem pertaining to the consciousness of the individual. The paper dives deeply into Watsuji’s ethical framework in explaining the ningen ‘between person’ that is significant to my definition of being human-centred. I attempt to combine the Eastern philosophy with the West by bringing in a selection of other philosophers such as Goethe, Bortoft and Merleau-Ponty that have resonance with the argument constructed. There is nothing to be gained from East-West dualism or exoticism, as it locks down discourse. Although these Eastern and Western philosophies that I draw upon have not, until now, directly engaged with each other in the discourse of design , they have many valuable overlaps that I would like to share in this paper.

The relational association located in the betweenness, Watsuji argues, to be human is to shift and change continually – it is undergoing a process of constant transformation. The transformation of a designer to being a human-centred practitioner is achieved in relation to others. This connection between self and others (including people, animals, objects and environment) is essential in positioning and embedding oneself in the world. The transformative process is more than cognitive learning or professional development – it is in fact a process of self-awareness that comes from continually reflecting on our activity, our behaviour and how we are with others. This is reflective practice. Though in contrast to reflection and reflective practice that is grounded in critical theory , I explore this by incorporating aspects of wholeness from Goethe’s phenomenology and embodied perception by Merleau-Ponty . I argue the importance of being a reflective practitioner as the first step in being able to fully understand ourselves, our relationship and our connection to others. This pursuit of self-awareness, through reflective practice, is the central argument of this paper of being a human-centred practitioner. Through weaving together these various frameworks, I discuss the cyclical journey of transformation of the self where reflection is experienced in an immersive, affective, embodied way.

True, long-term sustainable change towards building and creating an ethical practice cannot come from being told what to design or choosing the ‘right’ values to adopt. Neither does it come from simply undertaking community-based projects, taking up a social cause or deploying participatory methods. To manifest and practise human-centredness is not a switch one can flick ‘on’ when you are in the design studio at 9am and ‘off’ when you’re leaving work. Instead, I stress the importance of human-centredness manifesting through all facets of our lives that involves engaging in the in-betweenness with others. It requires active creation and the practising of practice that is truly human-centred and aware – aware of oneself, of others and the world we live in. It is a day-to-day application and manifestation, but it is not merely a mechanical repetition. The significance of this being a practice is that it is a transformation and evolution of ourselves in bringing an awareness and embedded-ness to what we do everyday. It is a path (Tao) we each carve our ‘way of being’ in the world.

This paper explores how the concept of Absolute Nothingness as developed in the thought of three key Kyoto School thinkers Nishida Kitarō, Tanabe Hajime and Nishitani Keiji has influenced the practice of sound art. The paper examines the influence of these three philosophers on D.T. Suzuki and John Cage, the Mono-ha movement, and the Fluxus movement before examining how these influences have shaped sound art practice.

"George Derfer, Zhihe Wang and Michel Weber (eds.), The Roar of Awakening. A Whiteheadian Dialogue Between Western Psychotherapies and Eastern Worldviews, Frankfurt / Paris / Lancaster, ontos verlag, 2009. (251 p. ; ISBN: 978-3-86838-039-2 ; 89 €)
The primary goal of this volume is to describe the contemporary state of affairs in Western psychotherapy, and to do so in a Whiteheadian spirit: with genuine openness to the relative ways in which creativity, beauty, truth and peace manifest themselves in various cultural traditions. To do so, it chooses to explore afresh a cross-elucidatory path that was born with the field of history of religion (and Religionwissenschaft): what have we, and can we, learn from a dialogue with Eastern worldviews? In order to generate meaningful contrasts between these different systems of thought, all the papers address the following core issues. On the one hand, how does the given system understand the interaction of individuality, society, and nature (or cosmos)? Especially: what is its standpoint with regard to the nature of consciousness and with regard to the mind/body problem?; how far is it dualistic?; how are destiny and historicity assessed? On the other hand, what is the paradigm of all mal-adjustment (or pathology) and what is its typical tuning-in (or curative) pattern? What are furthermore the ins and outs of the diagnostic and therapeutic assessments involved? Wherever possible, some (meta)theoretical and clinical issues are addressed from the vantage point of selected material from abnormal psychology or psychiatry.
Table of contents
Contents
Contributors
Foreword — George Derfer, Zhihe Wang and Michel Weber
Introduction — Michel Weber
I. The View from the East
1. Consciousness: The Vedantic Approach to Life and Reality, Francis-Vincent Anthony
2. Dual-Aspect Framework for Consciousness, RamLakhan Pandey Vimal
3. The Paradoxes of Radical Asceticism: Jainism as a Therapeutic Paradigm, Jeffery D. Long
4. Yoga Therapeutics: Philosophical, Scientific and Humanistic Approaches, Ashok Kumar Malhotra
5. Can Indian spiritual practices be used in psychotherapy?, R L Kapur
II. Transcultural Dialogue
6. Ineradicable Frustration and Liberation in Tiantai Buddhism, Brook Ziporyn
7. An Exploration and Analysis into Chinese Traditional Psychotherapy Ideas—A Concurrent Comment on the Integrative point of view of Whitehead’s Organic Philosophy, Fengqiang Gao and Yingmin Chen
8. The Kyoto School and self-awareness in the field of the absolute nothingness —A comparison with Whitehead’s philosophy, Eiko Hanaoka
9. Jung and Hisamatsu Re-envisioning Religiosity: Jungian Psychotherapy and the Kyoto School, Tokiyuki Nobuhara
10. Reconstructing the Meaning of Being Human: A Postmodern Reinterpretation of Frankl in the Framework of Whitehead’s Philosophy, Yoshihiro Hayashi
11. The Development of Binswanger’s Daseinsanalysis, Shoji Muramoto
12. The Intercultural and Daseinsanalytical Psychiatry of Kimura Bin, Bernard Stevens
13. A Certain Form of Psychotherapy (Kenosis, Prajna, Jung, and Hillman), David T. Bradford
14. Vedanta, Process and Psychotherapy, Joseph Grange
15. On Zen Buddhism, Clive Sherlock
"

This paper aims to trace analogies between Eastern Buddhism and Modern Science with regards to the concept of No Mindedness of Zen. Zen Buddhism describes the entity of ‘No Mind’ as the prelude to ‘Satori’ or the spiritual awakening. According to Zen philosophy this state cannot be intellectually explained as it is ‘beyond the intellect’ and it defies rationale. Buddhism outlines meditative skills leading to a similar state of No Mindedness called ‘Sunyata’ meant to give insights into ‘Pragnya’ or wisdom just as No Mind is an avenue to ‘Kensho’ or deep insights into supreme knowledge of spirituality. In Chinese Chan, this No mind is comparable to the ‘Great Void’ of Lao Tzu’s Tao, which supposedly ‘includes everything and excludes nothing’. With modern scientific advances in allied fields of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psycho therapeutic sciences we cannot brush off understanding such an important concept of oriental wisdom – the No Mind. This paper is one more attempt to define what is seemingly obscure, in the light of the modern times.

Perkembangan tradisi harakiri tidak dapat dilepaskan dari berbagai pengaruh beberapa kepercayaan masyarakat Jepang seperti Neo-konfusius, Taoisme, Zen dan Shinto. Harakiri dianggap sebagai tindakan terhormat karena untuk melakukan tindakan ini harus memiliki keberanian yang luar
biasa.

Satori Zen is of immense interest to anyone pursuing authentic metaphysical knowledge because it claims to offer an astonishingly straightforward path to full Spiritual Enlightenment. And in terms of outright simplicity and immediate applicability, there is no other spiritual technique quite like it, in any other tradition anywhere. But does it do what it claims to do ? Can you really ‘power your way into heaven’ by brute meditative force ? And does this then mean that satori is equivalent to Supreme Spiritual Enlightenment ? This essay will examine the key elements and claims of Satori Zen in the light of independent and objective metaphysical knowledge.

The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures are a prime example of the use of calligraphy as a teaching tool in Zen Buddhist practice. Each school of Zen Buddhism interprets their depiction of practice differently. Within their practices, certain schools of Zen Buddhism maintain a tradition of chanting the direct transmission of the dharma from the historical Buddha to their most recently deceased master. These dharma lineages are a window into the development of practice and philosophy for Zen schools and communities. Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji (DBZ), a Rinzai Zen Buddhist training monastery in the Catskill Mountains, follows this tradition of dharma lineage chanting and provides access to the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures. An examination into the DBZ lineage and its commentaries of the pictures reveals a tailored, personalized, and experiential presentation of the themes that directly relates to North American practitioners.

Aśvaghoṣa's two epic poems are ostensibly biographies of the Buddha himself and of his half-brother, the handsome Nanda. The poems have hitherto been read in the world of  Buddhist studies as religious texts -- albeit splashed with colourful sexual content. These annotated translations, with introductions to each chapter, aim to bring out the irreligious irony which runs through Aśvaghoṣa's poetry. This irony is most evident in a 'reverse innuendo'  whereby sexually suggestive behaviour (especially in BC Cantos 3 - 5) has hidden meaning that would tend to be called, in Buddhist studies departments, "soteriological." The translator is independent in the sense of holding no academic position nor any status in a religious organization. As a long-time Zen practitioner and qualified teacher of the FM Alexander Technique, however, he has been well trained to appreciate the ever-present irony of "soteriological" endeavour -- namely that trying to be right puts us wrong.

Ces contes ont été publiés dans la page « enfants » du journal Liberté de Lille, un conte par semaine. Ils étaient illustrés par l’auteur et ces illustrations ne sont pas encore sorties des pages du journal, ni même des cartons d’archives de l’auteur. Peut-être qu’un jour, avec patience, pertinence et persévérance (vous connaissez cette bête qu’on appelle le pouvoir d’achat PPP) on les sortira des cartons ou des archives, on les scannera et on pourra les ajouter.
Ces contes sont les témoins d’une longue évolution qui m’a amené à vivre et travailler dans beaucoup de pays et à en ramener des influences, des emprunts, des scories, des diamants parfois. Il semble même que j’en ai ramené une épouse et que le fils rêve parfois de ces climats lointains, pas toujours très hospitaliers.

This is a philological approach to the manuscript versions of the famous Platform Sūtra  of the Sixth Patriarch 六祖壇經. The paper consists of three parts, the first part consisting of an overview on previous scholarship on the text; the second part deals with the textual features of the various manuscripts; the third part tries to contextualize the scripture within popular "Platform congregations" for administering the precepts. As one of the main results, I argue for a radical reinterpretation of the long title of the Dunhuang version of the Platform sutra, showing that "jing 經 (sūtra)" in the title originally referred to the Diamond sutra (central in the text itself and in the context of congregations during which the precepts were conferred), and not to the scripture itself. As such, the "Platform sutra" probably was a sermon delivered during one of these congregations; only in the course of time the reference of "sūtra" gradually shifted from external reference (to the Diamond sūtra) to "internal" reference of the scripture itself.

In the current models of cognitive development some phenomena cannot be categorized: self-actualizing people (Maslow), Buddhism and Taoism. Using Piaget´s genetic epistemology we can argue that the human cognitive system is not flexible enough to cope with the fundamental changes in structure of the need-satisfying actions (infant/adult) without adaption delays. In this article the process of cognitive new-adaptation with all related effects is described as the initiation process. Four thought-forms are introduced and derived from the hypothesis, with which it is possible to categorize the phenomena mentioned above. The initiation process is an independent side effect of ontogenesis and therefore requires a new definition for intelligence.