Advaita Vedānta and Zen Buddhism : deconstructive modes of spiritual inquiry / Leesa S. Davis.

This fascinating and innovative monograph explores the relationship between the philosophical underpinnings of Advaita Vedanta, Zen Buddhism and the experiential journey of spiritual practitioners. Taking the perspective of the questioning student, the author highlights the experiential deconstructi...

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Bibliographic Details
Online Access: Full Text (via ProQuest)
Main Author: Davis, Leesa S.
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: London ; New York : Continuum, ©2010.
Series:Continuum studies in Eastern philosophies.
Subjects:
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction: experiential deconstructive inquiry
  • Foundational philosophies and spiritual methods
  • Non-duality in Advaita Vedānta and Zen Buddhism
  • Ontological differences and non-duality
  • Meditative inquiry, questioning, and dialoguing as a means to spiritual insight
  • The 'undoing' or deconstruction of dualistic conceptions
  • Advaita Vedānta : philosophical foundations and deconstructive strategies
  • Sources of the tradition
  • Upaniṣads : 'that art thou' (tat tvam asi)
  • Gauḍapāda (c.7th century) : 'no bondage, no liberation'
  • Śaṅkara (c.7th-8th century) : 'there is no apprehender different from this apprehension to apprehend it'
  • Modern and contemporary masters
  • Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) : 'who am I?'
  • H.W.L Poonja (1910-1997) : 'you have to do nothing to be who you are!'
  • Gangaji (b. 1942) : 'you are that!'
  • Advaita Vedānta summary : 'nothing ever happens'
  • Zen Buddhism : philosophical foundations and deconstructive strategies
  • Sources of the tradition
  • The Laṇkāvatāra Sūtra and the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra : 'all things ... are not independent of each other and not two'
  • Nāgārjuna (c.113-213) : 'Saṃsāra is nothing essentially different from nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa is nothing essentially different from saṃsāra'
  • Eihei Dōgen (1200-1253) : 'if I am already enlightened, why must I practice?'
  • Contemporary masters
  • Ekai Korematsu (b. 1948) : 'return to the spine'
  • Hōgen Yamahata (b. 1935) : 'why not now?'
  • Zen Buddhism summary : 'neither being nor non-being is to be taken hold of'
  • Deconstructive techniques and dynamics of experiential undoing
  • Four deconstructive techniques common to both traditions
  • The teacher-student dynamic
  • Four key deconstructive techniques
  • Unfindability analysis
  • Bringing everything back to the here and now
  • Paradoxical problems
  • Negation
  • Dynamics of experiential undoing
  • Non-dual experiential 'space'
  • Experiential mapping : practitioners in the space
  • Experiential undoing in Advaita Vedānta
  • Experiential undoing in Zen Buddhism
  • Conclusion: deconstruction of reified awareness.