Visions of Awakening Space and Time: DMgen and the Lotus Sutra [Paperback]

As a religion concerned with eternal salvation, Zen is based on and grew out of a Buddhist worldview very different from the currently prevalent scientific materialism. Indeed, says Taigen Dan Leighton, Zen cannot be fully understood outside of a worldview that sees reality itself as a vital, ephemeral agent of awareness and healing. In this book, Leighton explicates that worldview through the writings of the Zen master Eihei DMgen (1200-1253), considered the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen tradition, which is now spreading in many places in the West. Broader awareness of D?gen's worldview and its implications, says Leighton, is helpful for a modern understanding of Zen and Mah?y?na praxis, and is relevant to contemporary environmental and ethical concerns..As a religion concerned with universal liberation, Zen grew out of a Buddhist worldview very different from the currently prevalent scientific materialism. Indeed, says Taigen Dan Leighton, Zen cannot be fully understood outside of a worldview that sees reality itself as a vital, dynamic agent of awareness and healing. In this book, Leighton explicates that worldview through the writings of the Zen master Eihei DMgen (1200-1253), considered the founder of the Japanese SMtM Zen tradition, which currently enjoys increasing popularity in the West.TheLotus Sutra, arguably the most important Buddhist scripture in East Asia, contains a famous story about bodhisattvas (enlightening beings) who emerge from under the earth to preserve and expound the Lotus teaching in the distant future. The story reveals that the Buddha only appears to pass away, but actually has been practicing, and will continue to do so, over an inconceivably long life span.Leighton traces commentaries on theLotus Sutrafrom a range of key East Asian Buddhist thinkers, including Daosheng, Zhiyi, Zhanran, Saigyo, MyMe, Nichiren, Hakuin, and RyMkan. But his main focus is Eihei DMgen, the 13th century Japanese SMtM Zen founder who imporl£0