Filial Piety with a Zen Twist:

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" Filial Piety with a Zen Twist: "
Michel Mohr

Document Type	:	AL
Record Number	:	1073063
Doc. No	:	LA116692
Call No	:	‭10.1163/22118349-12341248‬
Language of Document	:	English
Main Entry	:	Michel Mohr
Title & Author	:	Filial Piety with a Zen Twist: [Article] : Universalism and Particularism Surrounding the Sutra on the Difficulty of Reciprocating the Kindness of Parents\ Michel Mohr
Publication Statement	:	Leiden: Brill
Title of Periodical	:	Journal of Religion in Japan
Date	:	2013
Volume/ Issue Number	:	2/1
Page No	:	35–62
Abstract	:	This article examines the Sutra on the Difficulty of Reciprocating the Kindness of Parents and its reinterpretation by the Japanese Rinzai Zen monk Tōrei Enji 東嶺圓慈 (1721-1792). In the context of the Tokugawa period (1600-1867) where filial piety was upheld as one of the pillars of morality and Neo-confucian orthodoxy, Tōrei’s commentary of this sutra skillfully combined the particularist understanding of filiality as limited to one’s relatives with its broader construal as a universal attitude of reverence directed toward all sentient beings. The father is envisioned as the wisdom and the excellence of the Buddha, the mother as the compassionate vows of the Bodhisattva, and the children as those who emit the thought of awakening. Tōrei further pushed this interpretation by adding the distinct Zen idea that the initial insight into one’s true nature needs to be surpassed and refined by perfecting the going beyond (kōjō 向上) phase of training, where the child/disciple’s legacy and his indebtedness towards his spiritual mentors is recast in terms of overcoming one’s attainments and attachment to them. This article examines the Sutra on the Difficulty of Reciprocating the Kindness of Parents and its reinterpretation by the Japanese Rinzai Zen monk Tōrei Enji 東嶺圓慈 (1721-1792). In the context of the Tokugawa period (1600-1867) where filial piety was upheld as one of the pillars of morality and Neo-confucian orthodoxy, Tōrei’s commentary of this sutra skillfully combined the particularist understanding of filiality as limited to one’s relatives with its broader construal as a universal attitude of reverence directed toward all sentient beings. The father is envisioned as the wisdom and the excellence of the Buddha, the mother as the compassionate vows of the Bodhisattva, and the children as those who emit the thought of awakening. Tōrei further pushed this interpretation by adding the distinct Zen idea that the initial insight into one’s true nature needs to be surpassed and refined by perfecting the going beyond (kōjō 向上) phase of training, where the child/disciple’s legacy and his indebtedness towards his spiritual mentors is recast in terms of overcoming one’s attainments and attachment to them.
Descriptor	:	family reverence
Descriptor	:	filial piety
Descriptor	:	going beyond
Descriptor	:	Rinzai Zen
Descriptor	:	Song period Chan
Descriptor	:	universality
Location & Call number	:	‭10.1163/22118349-12341248‬