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From the perspective of a poet and first-year psychoanalytic training candidate, this paper develops Jeremy Safran's ideas about the dialectic between psychoanalysis and Buddhism by drawing an analogy between their processes and those of a poetry practice to define an alternative to pathological dissociation under capitalist systems of value. The paper details the writer's experience of working a day job in an office and the pathological dissociation which she subsequently attempts to overcome and critique through writing poetry. Various poems written at work are shared and analyzed as evidence. Drawing from Safran's edited volume, Psychoanalysis and Buddhism, the author then identifies aspects of Zen Buddhist meditation practice and the psychoanalytic process that focus on connecting with reality, however conflicted, as opposed to escaping it. This paper was written under the mentorship of the psychoanalyst and Zen teacher Barry Magid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sufism and Zen share a number of theories and practices, including a concern with lived experience. This article analyses the basis of their teachings, namely, the idea of the self, in texts by two important figures in the respective traditions, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn ("The Revival of the Religious Sciences") by Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) for Sufism, and Shōbōgenzō 正法眼蔵 ("The Treasury of the True Dharma-Eye") by Dōgen 道元 (d. 1253) for Zen. Al-Ghazālī emphasises the necessity of disciplining the self (nafs) in order for the heart to remember God only, while Dōgen famously asserts the importance of learning and forgetting the self (jiko 自己) in the way of the Buddha. This study first examines al-Ghazālī's and Dōgen's views of the self, and then compares their teachings. The juxtaposition of the two masterpieces reveals striking similarities as well as fundamental differences at both doctrinal and practical levels. Despite these similarities, although al-Ghazālī and Dōgen have been contrasted with thinkers outside their own tradition, they have yet to be compared directly. Without denying the philosophical depth of the thought of the two authors, this study also highlights the importance of faith in both the Iḥyāʾ and Shōbōgenzō. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article maps out three broad approaches to understanding the relationship between ethical behavior and meditation in examples of classical Buddhist literature. It then traces these approaches to the contemporary period, where they are echoed in modern articulations of meditation and mindfulness. I refer to these approaches as constructivist, deconstructivist, and innateist, or alternatively, making, unmaking, and discovering Buddhahood. The constructivist approach suggests that one cultivates and reinforces the qualities and virtues of a Buddha through meditation, along with abandoning those contrary to it. Meditation is also used to help fashion and reinforce a distinctively Buddhist lifeworld. The second approach is the deconstructivist move prominent in some Mahāyāna literature. In this attitude, the fundamental insight of emptiness (śūnyatā), the idea that nothing has independent, permanent, or enduring self-existence (svabhāva), supersedes all else, and meditation is not about cultivating virtues, but about deconstructing fixed concepts, reifications, and views. The third paradigm is the "innateist" model, which asserts that all qualities of the Buddha are already present in everyone; therefore, there is no need to cultivate them. Several contemporary approaches to Buddhist and Buddhist-derived meditation practice reflect these approaches as well as the tensions between them. These include meditation practices influenced by debates on the status of mental and emotional states in cognitive science, others influenced by a combination of Zen innateism and Romanticism, and innovative reinterpretations of the relationship between meditation and ethics by contemporary teachers like Thich Nhat Hanh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that the long-standing assumption that Chan Buddhism began as a meditation movement is outdated and needs to be replaced by a paradigm that sees the origins of Chan in a set of literary inventions that took form in the mid-Tang era and were designed to prove that the totality of tradition was owned by certain masters of the day. These bold claims to own perfect tradition were bolstered by newly invented genealogies that worked to show that this or that master was, in effect, a descendant of the Indian Buddha, and, thus, a quasi-Buddha himself. Further finessing these efforts to take over final authority in the world of Tang Buddhism was the studied use of Daoist tropes to naturalize and soften these aggressive claims, all in order to make them more appealing to elite readers who could now be impressed by decidedly Chinese-looking portrayals of perfect Buddhism, set on the timeless ground of the Great Dao, where there could be no competition, envy, literary pretensions, or even Buddhist practices—just pure and total truth in the body of a Chinese man. In trying to make sense of this cycle of carefully rewriting the past in order to control the present (and future), it should be clear that we need to switch to a paradigm that accepts that the seductive reinvention of tradition was done consciously and with no small amount of craft and cunning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores John Cage's "62 Mesostics re Merce Cunningham," a love poem dedicated to the poet's longtime partner. Though scholars of Cage's writing and music tend to ignore the queer context in which his work was created, this study attempts to reconcile the poet's art with his life. As a homosexual couple in the postwar period, Cage and Cunningham observed a closeted silence throughout their lives together, preferring to refer to one another as collaborators rather than romantic partners or lovers. While such strategies were not uncommon, the couple's use of Zen philosophy to imbue their silent relationship with an almost religious purpose distinguishes them from many others. Indeed, the poem embodies this situation well. Offering, at one moment, a glimpse into the couple's private life, at the next, the piece consistently subverts this gesture through various avant‐garde techniques. In fact, in its unusual use of typography and its experimental performance history, Cage's mesostic reimagines the space and terms of traditional love poetry — much like his relationship with Cunningham reworked traditional gender roles. By bringing these aspects of Cage's life and work to light, this article aims to provide scholars with a fuller understanding of postwar queer poetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beatrice Lane Suzuki was the American born wife of renowned Zen scholar Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki. Until very recently, nothing beyond this had been written about her. She was, however, also a very significant figure in introducing Japanese Buddhism to the West, a partner in the mission to making Mahāyāna Buddhism better understood in the West. This paper begins by looking at her early life to establish what she brought to the partnership, and the spiritual search that brought her to Mahāyāna Buddhism. The body of the paper analyses her contribution to Western knowledge of Buddhism: as a founding editor of the pioneering journal of Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Eastern Buddhist, and as a prolific author on Buddhism in her own right. It shows the distinctive contribution she made through her commitment to the Bodhisattva vows as a path to spiritual development in modern, secular life, and as a solution to the world problems so apparent in the interwar period in which she wrote.

Objectives: To update recent information on contamination levels of mycotoxins in South Korea. Materials and methods: A total of 208 samples sourced from the feeds of swine farms were collected. The contamination levels of mycotoxins, which are aflatoxin (Afla), ochratoxin A (OTA), deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZEN), fumonisin (FUM), and T-2 toxin, were investigated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). Results: The detection levels of the total samples were 78.91% for DON, 75.24% for Afla, 47.02% for ZEN, 68.31% for FUM, and 5.94% for OTA and T-2, which were not detected at all. Most of the analyzed mycotoxins showed significant high occurrences in 47.02%–78.91% of the swine feed samples. 11 of the 152 alfa-positive samples exceeded the maximum residue limit (MRL) of Afla proposed by the Korean regulation. In the analysis of mycotoxin detection levels by growth stage, ZEN was found in the nursery stage at a remarkably high concentration level (126.46 ± 63.76 ppb), exceeding the MRL of ZEN for piglets proposed by the European Commission. This mycotoxin was also found in the samples from the gestation barn (89.04 ± 46.05 ppb) and the farrowing house (105.58 ± 94.12) at a high concentration level. Afla was found in the nursery stage at a high concentration (8.00 ± 2.22 ppb), approaching the MRL (10 ppb) of Afla proposed by the Korean regulation. Conclusion: These results indicate that many swine farms in South Korea are still exposed to mycotoxin risk, and special attention and surveillance are necessary for these mycotoxin risks in swine farms. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2024; 11(1.000): 125-131]

We turn to some aspects of Zen Buddhist philosophy and use the examples of Aikido martial arts philosophy to explore what might be in common between psychotherapy and martial arts. We focus on existential therapy, which we see has much in common with the philosophy and spiritual practices of the Far East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thiền sư Thích Nhất Hạnh was one of the most influential Buddhist public figures of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His name is now synonymous with global mindfulness and engaged Buddhism movements. Yet before achieving international acclaim, ThíchNhấtHạnh was also an active Buddhist reformer and social organizer in his home country, Vietnam. This introduction to the special issue contextualizes Thích Nhất Hạnh as a monastic, poet, activist, scholar, innovator, and beloved community leader for many, tracing his multiple legacies in and beyond Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sufism and Zen share a number of theories and practices, including a concern with lived experience. This article analyses the basis of their teachings, namely, the idea of the self, in texts by two important figures in the respective traditions, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn (“The Revival of the Religious Sciences”) by Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) for Sufism, and Shōbōgenzō 正法眼蔵 (“The Treasury of the True Dharma-Eye”) by Dōgen 道元 (d. 1253) for Zen. Al-Ghazālī emphasises the necessity of disciplining the self (nafs) in order for the heart to remember God only, while Dōgen famously asserts the importance of learning and forgetting the self (jiko 自己) in the way of the Buddha. This study first examines al-Ghazālī’s and Dōgen’s views of the self, and then compares their teachings. The juxtaposition of the two masterpieces reveals striking similarities as well as fundamental differences at both doctrinal and practical levels. Despite these similarities, although al-Ghazālī and Dōgen have been contrasted with thinkers outside their own tradition, they have yet to be compared directly. Without denying the philosophical depth of the thought of the two authors, this study also highlights the importance of faith in both the Iḥyāʾ and Shōbōgenzō.

Mycotoxins present a significant health concern within the animal-feed industry, with profound implications for the pig-farming sector. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of two commercial adsorbents, an organically modified clinoptilolite (OMC) and a multicomponent mycotoxin detoxifying agent (MMDA), to ameliorate the combined adverse effects of dietary aflatoxins (AFs: sum of AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, and AFG2), fumonisins (FBs), and zearalenone (ZEN) at levels of nearly 0.5, 1.0, and 1.0 mg/kg, on a cohort of cross-bred female pigs (N = 24). Pigs were randomly allocated into six experimental groups (control, mycotoxins (MTX) alone, MTX + OMC 1.5 kg/ton, MTX + OMC 3.0 kg/ton, MTX + MMDA 1.5 kg/ton, and MTX + MMDA 3.0 kg/ton), each consisting of four individuals, and subjected to a dietary regimen spanning 42 days. The administration of combined AFs, FBs, and ZEN reduced the body-weight gain and increased the relative weight of the liver, while there was no negative influence observed on the serum biochemistry of animals. The supplementation of OMC and MMDA ameliorated the toxic effects, as observed in organ histology, and provided a notable reduction in residual AFs, FBs, and ZEN levels in the liver and kidneys. Moreover, the OMC supplementation was able to reduce the initiation of liver carcinogenesis without any hepatotoxic side effects. These findings demonstrate that the use of OMC and MMDA effectively mitigated the adverse effects of dietary AFs, FBs, and ZEN in piglets. Further studies should explore the long-term protective effects of the studied adsorbent supplementation to optimize mycotoxin management strategies in pig-farming operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how the Lengyan jing , or Śūrangama Sūtra – an apocryphal Buddhist scripture written in China around 705 CE – remapped Chinese Buddhist understandings of moral responsibility in consequential ways. Although grounded in the orthodox doctrinal premise that all sentient beings innately possess buddha-nature, the Lengyan jing is punctuated by warnings about the danger that even the most earnest seekers of enlightenment might be possessed by demons, embark on evil behavior, and end up fully demonic. Such warnings depart from longstanding norms in Buddhist ethics, according to which responsibility for fault is measured in terms of a person's intentions. Instead, I argue that the Lengyan jing articulates a moral logic of what Sandra Macpherson calls "tragic responsibility." This logic informed important but overlooked aspects of the soteriological vision found in key texts from the Chan (Japanese Zen) tradition, which rose to prominence in the centuries following the Lengyan jing 's composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zen practice is often associated with aloof silence and introspection. However, any visitor to a Japanese Zen training temple will be surprised by the abundance and richness of the acoustic environment. In effect, every moment of the training schedule is accompanied, chronicled, and choreographed by percussions and chanting vocals. This paper will introduce this sonic environment and explain how different sounds construct the training experience. In particular, I will focus on sound instruments that coordinate daily activities, such as bells, gongs, drums, and the like, arguing that they are essential to Zen practice. The first part of the paper explains the unique characteristics of a Japanese Zen training temple, focusing on ritual sound instruments and their place within the monastic soundspace. The second part examines the meaning of these instruments as described in Zen canonical writing, focusing mainly on Baizang's monastic regulation and different references to it by Japanese masters throughout history. The third part explores how contemporary monastics understand sound instruments and their function in regulating the body, conveying values, and evoking spiritual transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of LG-8 and its dry fragments as zearalenone (ZEN) adsorbents was investigated. The study showed that Geotrichum candidum LG-8 and its fragments dried at 55°C or through lyophilization are able to adsorb around 80% of ZEN. However, besides in water and 55°C-drying conditions, SEM indicated that higher 90% of ZEN binding tended to occur when cell walls of fragments were intact with less adhesion among themselves. Notably, ZEN/LG-8 fragments complexes were quite stable, as only 1.262% and 1.969% of ZEN were released after successive pH treatments for 4 h and 5 min. The kinetic data signified that adsorption of ZEN onto LG-8 fragments followed well the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. Isotherm calculations showed Langmuir model was favourable and monolayer adsorption of ZEN occurred at functional binding sites on fragments surface. Therefore, we conclude that it can be an alternative biosorbent to treat water contained with ZEN, since LG-8 is low-cost biomass and its fragments have a considerable high biosorption capacity avoiding impacting final product quality and immunodeficient patients.

This article explores how the notion of ordinary aesthetics can stem, as well as the one of ordinary ethics, from that revolution of the ordinary started by Wittgenstein and further developed by philosophers like Cavell and Diamond. The idea of ordinary ethics emphasizes the importance of everyday life and the particular details of our experiences. This concept can be extended to aesthetics, forming the basis of a modality of aesthetic appreciation that recognize values and importance in the details and nuances of everyday experience. One example of such ordinary aesthetics can be found in the haiku poetry of Bashō. Bashō’s poetry often focuses on the ordinary and mundane aspects of life, such as the changing of seasons, the sound of rain, or the sight of a bird in flight, but also on that lower world made of insects, rotten foliage, and excrements. Bashō conveys in poetry the core of Zen philosophy, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all things and the value of living in the present moment. This approach to aesthetics offers an alternative to more traditional modes of aesthetic appreciation, which tend to prioritize grandeur, spectacle, and formal perfection. Ultimately, the concept of ordinary aesthetics invites us to find the intrinsic importance in the simple things that surround us and to cultivate a deeper appreciation for the richness of our everyday lives.

The article analyzes the Buddhist vegetarian cuisine of the Ōbaku Zen school called fucha ryōri and its history in Japan from its inception in Nagasaki with Chinese monks to the present day. The Ōbaku school, the third branch of Japanese Zen Buddhism, which appeared after Rinzai and Sōtō, was established in Japan during the Tokugawa period (1603–1868) by Chinese emigrants led by Ingen Ryūki (1592–1673), who arrived to the islands in 1654. Despite the fact that Ōbaku did not make a significant revolution in Japanese Buddhist community, its ceremonial, routine, and cultural aspects of the teaching, imbued with novelty and otherness, attracted Japanese people, since they made it possible to learn a different culture, and significantly influenced the unique image of the Edo era. This also applies to fucha ryōri cuisine, which, being part of the Buddhist teaching, adhered to the same basic principles as the Japanese Buddhist cuisine shōjin ryōri, but had distinctive features related to both the menu and the ceremonial, preserved even now, more than three centuries later. The article describes the origins of fucha ryōri in Japan in its connection with the teachings of Ōbaku Zen, its traditional features that have become key characteristics, as well as the assimilation of fucha ryōri into a foreign cultural environment. Particular attention is paid to the description of the original menu, the color, taste, and methodological symbolism of the cuisine, the rules for serving fucha ryōri dishes, which, along with obvious indulgences in the diet (the abundant use of oil and kuzu starch), distinguished it from shōjin ryōri. The author concludes that the cooking of the Ōbaku monks brought a significant number of innovations to the Japanese diet, ranging from acquaintance with beans, bamboo sprouts, lotus roots, the popularization of the alternative tea tradition, and ending with the introduction of new variations of already familiar dishes into daily diet. At present, shōjin ryōri, enriched with local elements, is prepared not only in the temples of Ōbaku, but also in secular restaurants, and any guest interested in vegetarian cuisine can appreciate the taste and harmony of the centuries-old traditions of the two countries and modern ideas.

The shadowy figure of Pyrrho has been intriguing modern scholars ever since the outlines of his thought were rediscovered in the sixteenth century, most notably by Michel de Montaigne. The academic approach to the Pyrrhonian legacy has been complicated, however, not only by the difficulties of reconstructing Pyrrho’s philosophy from particularly fragmentary evidence, but also by the fact that it was not conceived as an academic exercise, but rather as a practical guide to life—or as a Taoist or Buddhist might put it, a Way or Path. The analogies with Eastern teachings should not be taken too far, of course, as if Pyrrho had been literally a Buddhist, let alone a practitioner of Zen; but the parallels are still helpful for “untangling the tangle” and making more vivid and credible a philosophical way of life that was by no means dull and disengaged, as it has sometimes been understood, but on the contrary, loving and joyfully equanimous.

The images of lotus growing in fire and lotus in fire that often appear in traditional Chinese literature actually derived from Buddhism. In Buddhism, lotus represents the pure nature of human beings, fire the burning troubles of the earth, and gold represents a profound realm of Buddhism learning. At the same time, this image had a profound impact on Chinese tea culture, which was an important reason for the formation of the concept of tasting Zen in tea. The process of tea being cooked by fire to produce fragrance is just like the process of Zen practice, similar to growing lotus in fire in the earthly world. Whether lotus or tea, its connotation is not only Buddhism, but also combination of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. As the routine image of rich cultural connotation, lotus and tea are the embodiment of integration of the three religions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an intermediate layer located between buildings and cities, neighborhoods are considered critical with regard to the transition to low-carbon cities and zero-emission societies. Sustainable and zero-emission neighborhood (ZEN) projects can be characterized as both complex and multi-organizational. However, there is currently only limited research available concerning collaboration among organizations in relation to ZEN projects. In particular, there is a lack of evidence as to how lead organizations arrange procurement for ZEN projects. Using a case study approach, this paper explores the potential of procurement to serve as a system integrator in ZEN projects. Our findings indicate that system integration by means of procurement in ZEN projects is difficult due to several challenges. Among the identified challenges, the most important are the complex ownership structure, the lack of supporting regulations, and the unclear mandate of the procurement department. In light of these findings, we propose a conceptual model that lead organizations could apply to support the realization of ZEN projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zearalenone is a frequently occurring and well-known mycotoxin developed in cereals before and during the harvest period by Fusarium spp. mainly in maize and wheat. In addition to the main form, various modified forms (phase I and II metabolites) were detected, in some cases in high amounts. These modified forms can be harmful for human health due to their different toxicity, which can be much higher compared to the parent toxin. In addition, the parent toxin can be cleaved from the phase I and II metabolites during digestion. A risk of correlated and additive adverse effects of the metabolites of ZEN phase I and II in humans and animals is evident. ZEN is considered in many studies on its occurrence in grain-based foods and some studies are dedicated to the behavior of ZEN during food processing. This is not the case for the ZEN phase I and II metabolites, which are only included in a few occurrence reports. Their effects during food processing is also only sporadically addressed in studies to date. In addition to the massive lack of data on the occurrence and behavior of ZEN modified forms, there is also a lack of comprehensive clarification of the toxicity of the numerous different ZEN metabolites detected to date. Finally, studies on the fate during digestion of the relevant ZEN metabolites will be important in the future to further clarify their relevance in processed foods such as bakery products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a reading of Bashō's biography written by Brazilian poet Paulo Leminski (published with the title "The Tear of the Fish" in 1983 by Brasiliense Publishing House, republished in 1990 by Sulina Publishing House in the volume entitled Life, and then in 2013 by Companhia das Letras). This reading interprets that, through the establishment of a kōan ("zen enigma", in general lines), the author makes an immersion in Japanese culture, more precisely in the culture of the Edo period. At first, information about Bashô and his samurai formation will be presented, as well as Zen Buddhism, and haikai as a flourishing genre. Soon after, we will analyze what is Zen in Leminski's text and the dō("path", "technique") whose creation he attributes to Matsuo Bashō: the haiku-dō. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In responding to the three creative interpretive discussions in the symposium on my book Philosophy and the Art of Writing, this paper explores the different styles of philosophical discourse and their role in the practice of philosophy as a way of life that extends beyond the discursive and that combines self‐cultivation with care for others in the ethical‐aesthetic pursuit of living beauty. In advocating this aesthetic model of philosophical life over a purely therapeutic model, I suggest how the former can incorporate the latter's concerns for spiritual health and liberation. In developing my response to the symposiasts while elaborating on the themes of my book, I consider issues of ineffability, creative performance, embodiment, truth, heroism, vulnerability, possession, art, spirituality, love, and liberation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This response to Richard Shusterman's Philosophy and the Art of Writing focuses on his concern that philosophy is, first and foremost, a way of life, illustrated in the West by the Socratic ideal of the philosopher and in the East by the example of the scholar‐artist‐gentleman. This paper examines the process of Buddhist meditation and the process of creating novels, supplementing the authors Shusterman carefully examines with examples from Black American literature, the author's own teacher John Gardner, and artistic colleagues the author has known. The basic thrust of the response is that the skillful means used in writing can indeed be a form of self‐creation, but it can also be a means of liberation from the self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kate Raworth's celebrated book, Doughnut Economics: Seven ways to think like a 21st century economist, calls for a reconciliation of our design principles for society and the economy with the rhythms and tolerances of ecological systems. It will demand something akin to a new axial revolution that will have to be experienced as much in the body and in the intimacies of a renewed care and appreciation for our relational and ecological selves as in the collective re-design of our societies, democratic decision-making and collective provisioning. Buddhist scholarship offers a distinctive contribution to this conversation invoked in a book that has sparked a global movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary Buddhism has been fashioned from cross-cultural interactions between a long history of Asian traditions and the expansionist drive of modernity. As part of this engagement, Buddhism, particularly in the West, has developed a close relation with transpersonal psychology. This essay forms an introduction to the special issue of articles approaching this relation between Buddhism and psychology in different ways. While some articles probe the difference in aims of the two disciplines, some are concerned with the decontextualized uses of Buddhist techniques such as mindfulness, some explore the possibilities of Buddhist practice in cognitive or other psychological terms and some ground Buddhism in ecopsychological concerns as forms of engagement. This paper outlines the historiography of modern Buddhism and introduces the papers in this special issue of IJTS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does meditation bring political benefits in the sense of strengthening citizenship or democracy? Taking the Zen phrase“meditation doesn’t work—it’s good for nothing” as my point of departure, and reading Aristotle’s discussion of leisure in relation to citizenship, I argue that meditation can foster significant dimensions of democratic citizenship. This argument focuses particularly on the avowedly anti-instrumental aspect of mindfulness meditation. The connection between meditation and leisure demands a shift in our thinking of leisure, away from relaxation available to the privileged few and toward practices that are open-ended, non-instrumental, and, like democracy and citizenship, due to all. Finally, meditation offers an example of how to appropriate and inhabit excess in ways that support egalitarian citizenship. Meditation needs to be of “no benefit” in order to foster citizenship in these ways.

This essay argues that the long-standing assumption that Chan Buddhism began as a meditation movement is outdated and needs to be replaced by a paradigm that sees the origins of Chan in a set of literary inventions that took form in the mid-Tang era and were designed to prove that the totality of tradition was owned by certain masters of the day. These bold claims to own perfect tradition were bolstered by newly invented genealogies that worked to show that this or that master was, in effect, a descendant of the Indian Buddha, and, thus, a quasi-Buddha himself. Further finessing these efforts to take over final authority in the world of Tang Buddhism was the studied use of Daoist tropes to naturalize and soften these aggressive claims, all in order to make them more appealing to elite readers who could now be impressed by decidedly Chinese-looking portrayals of perfect Buddhism, set on the timeless ground of the Great Dao, where there could be no competition, envy, literary pretensions, or even Buddhist practices—just pure and total truth in the body of a Chinese man. In trying to make sense of this cycle of carefully rewriting the past in order to control the present (and future), it should be clear that we need to switch to a paradigm that accepts that the seductive reinvention of tradition was done consciously and with no small amount of craft and cunning.

A review of Zen Terror in Prewar Japan. Portrait of an Assassin by Brian Daizen Victoria

The inclusion of 'consciousness' in Michael Bonnett's paper signals to me that the right place for examination of the ongoing and deepening environmental disasters that humans face is human consciousness itself: the way we think, perceive, and feel, which flows into the way we relate to and act towards nature. Against the still prevailing way of thinking about environmental disaster and crisis, namely locating these problems out there in the environment, I, like Bonnett, and a growing number of others, point to the problematic 'metaphysics' of how we humans conceive and perceive nature. Our current 'environmental problems' are metaphysical. In support of Bonnett's paper, I examine the problematic metaphysics (namely, The Mechanical Universe), trace its psycho-neurobiological origin to the authoritarian structure that disempowers human beings to play out domination-submission programming, and suggest learning the way of mutual participation and collaboration characteristic of our immersive experience in nature. In further support of Bonnett's characterization of nature as 'self-arising,' which incidentally is the literal meaning of nature in Chinese (自然), I introduce the Way of Zen as practice of 'interbeing.' Interbeing, when practiced, would lead us to experiencing awe and wonder, as in our encounter with nature, restoring a sense of immediacy, presence, and non-discursivity: all central to Zen experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the potential to retrieve aerosol properties with the GRASP algorithm (Generalized Retrieval of Atmosphere and Surface Properties) using as input measurements of zenith sky radiance (ZSR), which are sky radiances measured in the zenith direction, recorded at four wavelengths by a ZEN-R52 radiometer. To this end, the ZSR measured at 440, 500, 675 and 870 nm by a ZEN-R52 (ZSRZEN), installed in Valladolid (Spain), is employed. This instrument is calibrated intercomparing the signal of each channel with coincident ZSR values simulated (ZSRSIM) at the same wavelengths with a radiative transfer model (RTM). These simulations are carried out using the GRASP forward module as RTM and the aerosol information from a collocated CE318 photometer belonging to the AERONET network (Aerosol and Robotic Network) as input. Dark signal and the signal dependence on temperature are characterized and included in the calibration process. The uncertainties on each channel are quantified by an intercomparison with a collocated CE318 photometer, obtaining lower values for shorter wavelengths; between 3% for 440 nm and 21% for 870 nm. The proposed inversion strategy for the aerosol retrieval using the ZSRZEN measurements as input, so-called GRASP-ZEN, assumes the aerosol as an external mixture of five pre calculated aerosol types. A sensitivity analysis is conducted using synthetic ZSRZEN measurements, pointing out that these measurements are sensitive to aerosol load and type. It also assesses that the retrieved aerosol optical depth (AOD) values in general overestimates the reference ones by 0.03, 0.02, 0.02 and 0.01 for 440, 500, 675, 870 nm, respectively. The calibrated ZSRZEN measurements, recorded during two and half years at Valladolid, are inverted by GRASP-ZEN strategy to retrieve some aerosol properties like AOD. The retrieved AOD shows a high correlation with respect independent values obtained from the collocated AERONET CE318 photometer, with a determination coefficient (r²) about 0.86, 0.85, 0.79 and 0.72 for 440, 500, 675 and 870 nm, respectively, and finding uncertainties between 0.02 and 0.03 with respect to the AERONET values. Finally, it is studied the goodness of other retrieved aerosol properties like aerosol volume concentration for total, fine and coarse modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I will explain the characteristics of "pure experience" in Nishida Kitarō's philosophy. This pure experience was a very fundamental concept in Nishida's philosophy, and was an important thought that was consistently at the core of his philosophy from the beginning through his later years. In his important work, An Inquiry into the Good, Nishida uses "the moment of seeing the color or hearing a sound ..." as the initial perception to explain the only reality that developed into many categories by the self-developing characteristics of pure experience. Thus, he discusses "knowing" and "love." At the very same time, Suzuki Daisetz (D.T. Suzuki) explains the same topic by using the "logic of Prajñāpāramitā." The "logic of Prajñāpāramitā" states that everything that is affirmative is negative at the same time. It is generally believed that this "logic of Prajñāpāramitā" is very similar to the characteristics of the pure experience mentioned above. The reason for comparing these thoughts was that Kitarō Nishida and D. T. Suzuki were close friends and exchanged ideas with each other. Therefore, to understand Nishida's "pure experience" and early philosophy thoroughly, the author has also examined the "logic of Prajñāpāramitā." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper explores philosophically the experiences of laughter and irony, focusing on Japanese sources but with a cross-cultural outlook. I ask whether globally unfavorable attitudes towards the comic in the European canon might have left unexplored or misunderstood several insights offered by the bodily and spiritual dimension revealed by laughter, and examine them through Japanese sources. Following a short but poignant triad of examples in Kuki Shūzō's work, the paper analyses three instances of Japanese laughter and irony: the orgiastic laughter of the gods luring Amaterasu out of the Heavenly Cave in Kojiki; the anthropomorphic animal scrolls of Chōjūgiga, and the "Tiger Cubs Crossing" stone garden in Ryōanji, Kyoto, concluding how each one of them offers an important insight on the bodily and conceptual phenomenological cluster of laughter and irony. I conclude with a further exploration of laughter in Zen, a religious tradition with a unique stress on the spiritual potential of humor, following Nishitani's reading of Mumonkan and his connection to the experience of "emptiness". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]