Evil and/or/as the good : omnicentrism, intersubjectivity, and value paradox in Tiantai Buddhist tought / Brook Ziporyn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ziporyn, Brook, 1964- author.

Series:

Harvard-Yenching Institute monograph series ; 51.

Harvard-Yenching Institute monograph series ; 51

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tiantai Buddhism--Doctrines--History.

Zhili, 960-1028.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : Harvard University Asia Center : Harvard University Press, [2000]

Summary:

"Other than the devil, there is no Buddha; other than the Buddha, there is no devil." The Chinese monk Siming Zhili (960-1028) uttered this remark as part of his justification for his self-immolation. An exposition of the intent, implications, and resonances of this one sentence, this book expands and unravels the context in which the seeming paradox of the ultimate identity of good and evil is to be understood. In analyzing this idea, Brook Ziporyn provides an overview of the development of Tiantai thought from the fifth through the eleventh centuries in China and contributes to our understanding of Chinese intellectual culture and Chinese Buddhism, as well as to basic ontological, epistemological, and axiological issues of interest in modern philosophy.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: I Introduction: The Question

The Problem of Antithetical Values 2/ A Value-Free Universe? i8/

Antinomianism? 20

2 Value, Intersubjectivity, and Holism: Philosophical Parameters

and the Chinese Background

Part I: Holism-Definitions and Distinctions 27

The Center 3o/ Intersubjectivity and Chinese Holisms 41/

Object as Focus and Field 50/ Implications of Unicentrism,

Oligocentrism, and Omnicentrism 55

Part II: Value 68

Speculative Ground for a General Theory of Value Paradox 69/

Inverted Pyramid of Instrumental and Ultimate Values 78/

Paradox in Chinese Rhetoric 85/ Applications of Holism in

Early Chinese Thought and Their Axiological Consequences 95

3 Value and Anti-value in Indian Buddhism

4 Tiantai Basics: Omnicentric Holism

Part I: The Basics 114

The Four Teachings and the Three Truths 114/ The Three Tracks 135/

The Ten Thusnesses 137/ The Ten Realms 138/ The Transcendental

Marvels, Relative and Absolute 140/ Opening the Provisional to Reveal

the Real (Transformative Recontextualization) 145/ The Three

Thousand Quiddites Inherently Entailed in Each Moment of

Experience / Inherent Entailment 159

Part II: Transitional Historical Considerations of Later Tiantai 170

The Huayan School and "Nature-Origination" 170/ The Suratigama

Sutra and the "Pure Mind" of Early Chan 176/ Zhanran's Reassertion

of Tiantai 186/ Toward the Shanjia/Shanwai Schism 195

5 Intersubjectivity in the Tiantai Tradition as Understood by Zhili I99

Self-praxis as Identical to the Teaching and Transformation of

Others 201/ Stimulus and Response (Ganying) 203/ The

Pervasiveness of the Intersubjective 208/ The Ultimacy of

Intersubjectivity as a Focus of the Shanjia/Shanwai Debate 218

6 Value and Anti-value in Tiantai Thought 240

Part I: Good and Evil in Zhiyi and Zhanran 240

Value-Paradoxical Consequences of Tiantai Upiya Theory 241/

The Moral Benefits of Inherent Evil and Zhiyi's Critique of Anti-

nomianism 251/ Zhanran on Inherent Evil and Practiced Good 261

Part II: Zhili's Concept of Value Paradox 270

The Intersubjective Underpinning of Ineradicable and All-pervading

Evil as Identical with the Good 272/ The Ultimacy of the Dung

Beetle 295/ Comparison to Zhiyi and Zhanran 306/ Comparison

to the Shanwai 312/ Objections and Responses 323/ Zhili's

Practice of Evil 329

7 What's So Good About Evil: Conclusions and Implications 344

Metaphysical Implications 351/ Episremological Implications 358/

Ethical Motivations and Implications 361

Notes 387

Bibliography 455

Glossary 465

Index 471.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-68417-034-6

OCLC:

956711862

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9781684170340 DOI