Bøger af Richard Bryan Mcdaniel

Zen Masters of Japan is the second book in a series that traces Zen's profoundly historic journey as it spread eastward from China and Japan, toward the United States. Following Zen Masters of China, this book concentrates on Zen's significant passage through Japan. More specifically, it describes the lineage of the great teachers, the Zen monk pioneers who set out to enlighten an island ready for an inner transformation based on compassionate awareness.While the existing Buddhist establishment in Japan met early Zen pioneers like Dogen and Eisai with fervent resistance, Zen Buddhism ultimately persevered and continued to become further transformed in its passage through Japan. The Japanese culture and Japanese Buddhism practices further deepened and strengthened Zen training by combining it with a variety of esoteric contemplative artsthe arts of poetry, the tea ceremony, calligraphy, and archery. Zen Masters of Japan chronicles this journey with each Zen master profiled. The book shows how the new practices soon gained popularity among all walks of lifefrom the lowly peasant, offering a hope of reincarnation and a better life; to the Samurai warrior due to its casual approach to death; to the ruling classes, challenging the intelligentsia because of its scholarly roots.A collection of Zen stories, meditation, and their wisdom, Zen Masters of Japan also explores the elusive state of 'No Mind' achieved in Japan that is so fundamental to Zen practices today.

Interviews with:Hadrian Abbot / Chris Amirault / Hogen Bays / Sarah Bender / Roger Brennan / Joshin Byrnes / Gyokuko Carlson / Seiso Paul Cooper / James Córdova / Erin Joen Dempsey / Jean-Luc Foisy / James Ford / Valerie Forstman / Zenshin Michael Haederle / Kate Hartland / Kokyo Henkel / Cynthia Kear / Karin Kempe / Donna Kowal / Michael Leizerman / Debra Seido Martin / Rafe Martin / Winifred Shokai Martin / Sally Metcalf / Meido Moore / Julie Nelson / Dosho Port / Jissai Prince-Cherry / John Pulleyn / Lila Dené Redding / Judy Roitman / Peggy Sheehan / Jeff Shore / Scott Thornton / David WeinsteinOn the scope, practice, and future of North American Zen

In "The Third Step East: Zen Masters of America", Richard Bryan McDaniel continues the story, begun in his earlier work, of the spread of Zen from India to China ("Zen Masters of China: The First Step East"), thence to Japan ("Zen Masters of Japan: The Second Step East"), and then to North America and Europe. As McDaniel points out in the prologue to this book, the history of Zen practice in United States is less than a hundred years old. The first Zen priests sent to America from Japan were assigned to temples which served the immigrant population on the west coast. The temples functioned as community centers where traditional values were retained and respected. The priests' responsibilities were similar to those of their Christian counterparts, to perform wedding and funeral services, to conduct memorial services, and to carry ritual ceremonies for the benefit of their congregations. Although Zen was understood to be the meditation school of Buddhism, meditation was viewed as an activity for monastics and clergy, not for lay people. McDaniel's book demonstrates how this tradition was transformed into a lay practice in the west. He begins by examining the social and cultural factors in America which led to an initial theoretical interest in Zen during the 1940s and '50s, after which he profiles the individuals who fostered that interest, including D. T. Suzuki, Alan Watts, and the Beat Generation of writers. Ironically, during the 1960s, when Zen was on the decline in Japan-because the youth of that country viewed it as a remnant of the old feudal and the militaristic structures responsible for a the war that had ended so disastrously for the country-youth culture in America came to look upon Zen as a way of escaping from the intellectual and social constraints of their culture. Chapters are dedicated to the lives and work of the early teachers who established Zen practice in the West: Robert Aitken, Shunryu Suzuki, Eido Shimano, Taizan Maezumi, Philip Kapleau, Dainin Katagiri, and others. A summary of the main elements of the teaching styles of each of these is provided, giving readers an overview of the different training methods used by these pioneers and the ways in which they adapted an ancient Asian tradition to a new environment. The book also collects and retells some of the stories associated with these teachers which have begun to circulate within Zen circles, much as earlier tales of their Asian predecessors have done. The story of American Zen will be continued in a sequel to this work, entitled "Cypress Trees in the Garden", scheduled for publication by Sumeru in the Autumn of 2015. It will describe the heirs and legacies of the Zen Masters and teachers described in "The Third Step East".

Richard Bryan McDaniel's "Cypress Trees in the Garden" continues the history of North American Zen which he began in "The Third Step East: Zen Masters of America" (Sumeru Press, 2015). The earlier book described the pioneers who established Zen practice in North America; this new book focuses on the heirs and successors of those teachers and the challenges they faced. Between March 2013 and September 2014, McDaniel traveled from San Francisco to Portland, Maine, from Montreal to Albuquerque, interviewing 75 prominent Zen teachers and their senior students. The result is a book which describes the way in which-like the Chinese and Japanese before them-North Americans have taken an Indian tradition which pre-dates Christianity and reformed it into something uniquely their own. Chapters on teachers in the Rinzai, Soto, and Sanbo Zen traditions provide a strikingly honest portrait of contemporary Zen teaching, practice, and social engagement in the United States and Canada. This survey of current American Zen teachers gives an honest, intimate, look into the inspiring efforts and growing pains of the evolution of Zen in the West. It does this by letting the major players speak in their own voice about how they came to Zen practice, their offerings, their troubles and their hopes for the future of American Zen. I couldn't put it down. - Genjo Marinello, Abbot of Chobo-Ji In "Cypresss Trees," Rick McDaniel masterfully gets out of the way and lets his subjects tell their stories. In so doing, we get a whole sense of this great American Zen experiment from satori to debauchery and back (or vice versa), along with much in the middle. If the Zen root does entangle with the American spirit, then Zen students for generations will cherish this book for the honest portrayals of its founders and failures expressed and exposed here. - Dosho Port Roshi, Great Tides Zen ...this offering is at once a history of Zen and a lovely homecoming. Additionally, McDaniel weaves in fundamental teachings, such as differences between Soto and Rinzai Zen within the context of his narrative. This book should be of interest to the serious Zen student, the casual reader as well as students of the history of religion. - Seiso Paul Cooper Sensei, Two Rivers Zen Richard Bryan McDaniel taught at the University of New Brunswick and Saint Thomas University before starting a 27 year career in International Development and Fair Trade. He is the creator of the YMCA Peace Medallion. A long time Zen practitioner, he is the author of "Zen Masters of China," "Zen Masters of Japan," and "The Third Step East: Zen Masters of America."

Catholicism and Zen explores the history of Christian/Buddhist dialogue, and profiles fourteen modern Catholic clergy who have become authorized to teach Zen practice within their Christian faith. These real-life stories of men and women engaged in a spiritual quest enliven the meaning and form of awakening beyond traditional constrictions. Although there are a number of books written on Christianity and Zen, including several by Catholic clergy, this is the first to take it from its origins with the Jesuit missionaries sent to Japan, to interviews with the many contemporary Catholic clergy - priests and nuns both - who maintain their Catholic faith and practice and find it enhanced by their Zen training.

THE STORY OF ZEN is a complete overview of the ideas, history, evolution, and practice of Zen Buddhism, based on interviews with more than 100 Zen teachers and senior students in Canada, the United States and Mexico. Richard Bryan McDaniel, the author, is a long-time Zen practitioner and well-known expert in his field; this is his sixth book on the subject of Zen. The foreword is by Genjo Marinello Roshi, and the afterword is by Dosho Port Roshi.Part One of the book situates Zen within the larger context of Buddhism, recounting Shakyamuni Buddha's life story, what he taught, how it evolved through time into the Mahayana, and how it continued to evolve upon its encounter with Daoism in China.Part Two of the book explains the essence of Chan (in China), Zen (in Japan), how Westerners first encountered Zen, and how Zen expanded out of Asia as a result of that encounter.Part Three of the book explores the Zen Boom of the 1960s, the challenges and scandals of the 1980s, and how modern American Zen has revisioned and grown from those difficulties. Of particular interest are contemporary voices of Zen teachers and senior students today, with an eye on the future of Zen practice, incorporating such modern social issues as feminism, racism, and environmental activism.The book includes a bibliography and a glossary.

Zen Masters of China presents more than 300 traditional Zen stories and koans, far more than any other collection. Retelling them in their proper place in Zen's historical journey through Chinese Buddhist culture, it also tells a larger story: how, in taking the first step east from India to China, Buddhism began to be Zen.The stories of Zen are unlike any other writing, religious or otherwise. Used for centuries by Zen teachers as aids to bring about or deepen the experience of awakening, they have a freshness that goes beyond religious practice and a mystery and authenticity that appeal to a wide range of readers.Placed in chronological order, these stories tell the story of Zen itself, how it traveled from West to East with each Zen master to the next, but also how it was transformed in that journey, from an Indian practice to something different in Chinese Buddhism (Ch'an) and then more different still in Japan (Zen). The fact that its transmission was so human, from teacher to student in a long chain from West to East, meant that the cultures it passed through inevitably changed it.Zen Masters of China is first and foremost a collection of mind-bending Zen stories and their wisdom. More than that, without academic pretensions or baggage, it recounts the genealogy of Zen Buddhism in China and, through koan and story, illuminates how Zen became what it is today.