Change LanguageSearch
Menu
  • Who We Are
  • What We Do
  • How We Work
  • Newsroom
  • Donate
  • Apply

Who We Are

  • Who We Are
    • Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche
    • Team
    • Annual Reports
    • Khyentse Network

What We Do

  • What We Do
    • Core Activities
      • Academia
      • Education for Children
      • Monastics
      • Practitioner Support
      • Teacher Training
      • Text Preservation
      • Tradition and Legacy
      • Translation
    • Supported Initiatives
      • Khyentse Vision Project
      • The Kumarajiva Project

How We Work

  • How We Work

Where We Work

Additional

  • Newsroom
  • Events
  • Grants & Scholarships
  • Awards & Prizes
  • Donations
  • Contact
  • Newsroom
  • /
  • Goodman Lecture Series
  • Newsroom
  • /
  • Goodman Lecture Series
Goodman Lecture SeriesNo. 23

Albert Welter

In Search of Zen Studies: The Central Role of Chan/Zen Syncretism

novembro 11, 2023
novembro 11, 2023
By maryann

Zen enthralled the world throughout much of the twentieth century, and Zen studies became a major academic discipline in its wake. Interpreted through the lens of Japanese Zen and its reaction to events in the modern world, Zen studies incorporated a broad range of Zen-related movements in the Asian Buddhist world, ranging from India to Japan and places in between. As broad reaching as the scope of Zen studies was, it was clearly rooted in a Japanese context, and aspects of the “Zen experience” that did not fit aspirations framed by modern Rinzai Zen orthodoxy tended to be marginalized and ignored.

Toward the end of the twentieth century, some of the biases inherent in Zen studies, barely a half century old, began to be exposed, and the parameters of the field shifted markedly into new directions. These included a growing recognition that the Zen label was a mark of its Japanese context. As much as Korean Sŏn and Chinese Chan were included, these were incorporated very much in terms determined by modern Japanese Zen. As a result, even though Chinese Chan and Korean Sŏn were recognized, they were still framed in large measure by Japanese Zen parameters. In addition, the Japanese Buddhist sectarian framework, including Zen sects, began to be exposed as products of the Japanese context and not universally valid frames of reference.

Furthermore, a consensus formed that the so-called golden age of Zen forged by Tang dynasty masters was largely the product of an early Song dynasty Chan revisionism, and that it was actually in post-Tang periods when classical Chan teaching was framed in the terms it came to be known throughout various East Asian contexts. Given this new awareness of the context in which Zen Studies was forged, what is its future? The current talk addresses the problems and pitfalls of the old Zen Studies model based on a “pure Zen” (junsui zen) experience, and proposes a syncretic (kenshū or “combined practice”) model in its stead. Rather than define Zen against a theoretical and rhetorical model of purity, the syncretic model of combined practice recognizes the actual model of the Zen experience.

Post navigation

Previous in series
  • Academia
  • Goodman Lecture Series
No.22

Professor Yao Zhihua

China University of Hong Kong
Emptiness and Nothing in Buddhist Philosophy
julho 15, 2023
By maryann
In this talk I will classify the different conceptions of emptiness in various Buddhist philosophical schools.
Read More
Next in series
  • Academia
  • Goodman Lecture Series
No.24

Dr. Sangseraima Ujeed

University of Michigan
Land of the Jowos: Buddhist Temples in Mongolia as the Embodiment of Statehood
janeiro 20, 2024
By maryann
This talk takes a tour through these monasteries and temples to shed light on the interplay between Buddhism and the state, which led to the proliferation of institutionalized Buddhism in Mongolian lands, and on the impact these processes had on the disintegration of a unified Mongol state.
Read More

Related News

  • Academia

A Sojourn in Pune as Khyentse Foundation Visiting Professor

fevereiro 21, 2025
By maryann
Prof. Mattia Salvini Dharmavardhana Jñānagarbha of the International Buddhist College, Thailand, held the visiting professorship in April and May 2024.
Read More
  • Academia

Eng Jin Ooi Appointed Palyul-Khyentse Chair in Buddhist Textual Studies at the International Buddhist College, Thailand

janeiro 23, 2025
By maryann
KF established the chair—the first the foundation has supported in Asia—in 2022 with a generous matching fund from the Buddhist foundation Yayasan Pema Norbu Vihara.
Read More
  • Academia
  • Goodman Lecture Series
No.30

Professor Jiang Wu

The University of Arizona
Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in 17th-Century China (Lecture in Chinese)
janeiro 10, 2025
By maryann
This lecture centers on the recent translation of Professor Jiang Wu’s monograph, offering a comprehensive examination of the complex history and reinvention of the Chan Buddhist tradition in 17th-century China.
Read More
  • Academia
  • Goodman Lecture Series
No.29

Dr. Catherine Dalton

84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha and Rangjung Yeshe Institute
Study and Translation as Buddhist Practice
outubro 25, 2024
By maryann
In this talk, Catherine explores how integrating the study of Buddhism and the translation of its texts with committed experiential training can lead to a more effective and fulfilling approach to both learning and translation.
Read More
  • Academia

Dr. Jörg Heimbel Appointed Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich

setembro 3, 2024
By maryann
Jointly sponsored by the German TARA Foundation, Khyentse Foundation, and LMU, the tenured position is one of just a handful of Tibetan Buddhism professorships in Europe.
Read More
  • Academia
  • Goodman Lecture Series
No.28

Dr. Lata Deokar

Savitribai Phule Pune University
Doing Lexicography Religiously
agosto 24, 2024
By maryann
This talk discusses how ancient Buddhist authors approached words and their meanings, how they documented meanings, and whether they did conventional lexicography or did away with it.
Read More
  • Tara Altar
  • Khyentse Network
  • KF India
  • Contact
  • Donations
  • Grants & Scholarships

Languages

  • English
  • 简体中文
  • 繁體中文
  • Português
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Settings
© 2025 Khyentse Foundation
Close Menu
Close

Choose Language

  • English
  • 简体中文
  • 繁體中文
  • Português
Close

Choose Language

  • English
  • 简体中文
  • 繁體中文
  • Português
  • Donate
  • Apply
Close
Close
Close