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Reddit mentions of Tibetan Zen: Discovering a Lost Tradition

Sentiment score: 2
Reddit mentions: 3

We found 3 Reddit mentions of Tibetan Zen: Discovering a Lost Tradition. Here are the top ones.

Tibetan Zen: Discovering a Lost Tradition
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Specs:
ColorTan
Height9 Inches
Length6 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateAugust 2015
Weight0.72532084198 Pounds
Width0.6 Inches

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Found 3 comments on Tibetan Zen: Discovering a Lost Tradition:

u/grass_skirt · 5 pointsr/zen

>True. I just think emphasis is perhaps more essential than name.

Yeah, from a practice point of view, one should treat the differences very seriously. It's the critical historians who like to insinuate that it was mostly rhetorical.

>the actual Jatakas were kind of entertaining, anyway, and their mere presence doesn't mean Chan would have been all hard-line about rebirth

I agree these stories are also very entertaining. Sometimes, those who grew up in predominantly Christian cultures have a hard time seeing humour and entertainment as anything other than secular pursuits. My experience is that Chinese religions very frequently incorporate humour and irreverence, and that these are quite compatible with an attitude of religious piety. So Westerners see Yunmen calling Buddha a "shit-stick", and think there's no way he could possibly have been a pious Buddhist. I disagree with that.

I suppose I'm waiting to find a clear indication from a traditional Chan source that rebirth is nothing more than a fancy joke. Until then, I'm going to assume the teaching was taken seriously.

>I don't know if it was you I already asked, but how/when did you learn Classical Chinese?

My undergraduate degree was in Chinese Studies. I got the opportunity to take a course in basic Classical Chinese around my second or third year, and a more advanced course in my fourth year. (Sadly, the latter course has since been axed at my institution.) I just kept at it when I began postgrad studies. The first year of my PhD was pretty much all spent translating Chan texts. That was a great year.

I'm on leave right now, and might never return (?), but last time I was lecturing I was the course co-ordinator for the same introductory Classical Chinese subject which I'd taken as an undergrad. And also for a complimentary subject in Chinese philosophy, which dealt with much the same sources albeit in English translation.

EDIT: btw, if you are going to learn Tibetan and Chinese, you might be able to do work on the Tibetan Zen corpus from Dunhuang. Sometimes those Tibetan translations shed light on things which are not too clear in the Chinese, for example Bodhidharma's "wall-gazing" meditation technique. Also, you would be well-placed to tell the world how Nyingma Vajrayana and Chan Buddhism might have influenced each other. That would make Padmasambhava-related posts on /r/zen a real possibility. ;)

u/electricsteam · 2 pointsr/vajrayana

There is an excellent book on this topic. Goes deep into the existence of Chan in Tibet early on and how the 2 influenced each other. It uses direct documents from the time. They’re mainly from the border areas of the Tibetan and Chinese empires. It’s called “Tibetan Zen” and is a bit academic, but very interesting read. Here’s a link to it on Amazon: Tibetan Zen: Discovering a Lost Tradition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1559394463/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_UAEkDb1BD6F8W

u/Dhammakayaram · 1 pointr/zen

Of course you could be very wrong. There is only one true tradition and that is Buddhism the rest are like different medicines for the ignorant. Zen, Mahamudra, Dzogchen all stem from Buddhism (baudda in Sanskrit). Btw, have you read the bk. Tibetan Zen?