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Peter D. Hershock (1955-)

 

CURRICULUM VITAE
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/sites/default/files/filemanager/ASDP/CV%20(9-10-15).pdf

Person as narration: the dissolution of 'self' and 'other' in Ch'an Buddhism
by Hershock, Peter D.
Philosophy East and West, Oct., 1994 v44 n4 p. 685ff.
http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/Philosophical/Person_as_Narration_Hershock.html

Chan Buddhism
by Hershock, Peter D.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2015
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/buddhism-chan/

PDF: Reinventing the wheel: a Buddhist response to the information age
by Peter D Hershock
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999

 

Product Details

PDF: Public Zen, Personal Zen: A Buddhist Introduction
by Hershock, Peter D.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014

Summary

Among Buddhist traditions, Zen has been remarkably successful in garnering and sustaining interest outside the Buddhist homelands of Asia, and "zen" is now part of the global cultural lexicon. This deeply informed book explores the history of this enduring Japanese tradition--from its beginnings as a form of Buddhist thought and practice imported from China to its reinvention in medieval Japan as a force for religious, political, and cultural change to its role in Japan's embrace of modernity. Going deeper, it also explores Zen through the experiences and teachings of key individuals who shaped Zen as a tradition committed to the embodiment of enlightenment by all. By bringing together Zen's institutional and personal dimensions, Peter D. Hershock offers readers a nuanced yet accessible introduction to Zen as well as distinctive insights into issues that remain relevant today, including the creative tensions between globalization and localization, the interplay of politics and religion, and the possibilities for integrating social transformation with personal liberation.
Including an introduction to the basic teachings and practices of Buddhism and an account of their spread across Asia, "Public Zen, Personal Zen" deftly blends historical detail with the felt experiences of Zen practitioners grappling with the meaning of human suffering, personal freedom, and the integration of social and spiritual progress.
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/public-zen-personal-zen-buddhist-introduction

Contents

PART I: ZEN ORIGINS
1. Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha from India to China
2. The Japanese Transformation of Buddhism
3. From Chinese Chan to Japanese Zen

PART II: PUBLIC ZEN
4. Rinzai Zen
5. Sōtō Zen
6. Ōbaku Zen
7. Zen in a Modernizing Japan

PART III: PERSONAL ZEN
8. Practicing Zen
9. Zen Exemplars: Dōgen, Ikkyū, Hakuin, and Ryōkan
10. Zen Here and Now

Review

"Books on Zen Buddhism generally aim to accomplish one of two goals: either to be a scholarly, historical study of the development of the tradition or a pragmatic study that explains the ramifications of the Zen life for value questions we face today. Rarely does a book accomplish both goals, but this one does. Readers will be indebted to Peter Hershock for his care in treating the tradition in a balanced, scholarly manner while going beyond that scholarship to explain why Zen maintains its importance for engaging the personal and global problems of our times. A masterwork both informative and enlightening."

Thomas P. Kasulis, Ohio State University

 

Product Details

PDF: Chan Buddhism
by Hershock, Peter D.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005.

Summary

Chan Buddhism has become paradigmatic of Buddhist spirituality. Known in Japan as Zen and in Korea as Son, it is one of the most strikingly iconoclastic spiritual traditions in the world. This succinct and lively work clearly expresses the meaning of Chan as it developed in China more than a thousand years ago and provides useful insights into the distinctive aims and forms of practice associated with the tradition, including its emphasis on the unity of wisdom and practice, the reality of "sudden awakening," the importance of meditation, the use of "shock tactics," the centrality of the teacher-student relationship, and the celebration of enlightenment narratives.
Unlike many scholarly studies, which offer detailed perspectives on historical development, or guides for personal practice written by contemporary Buddhist teachers, this volume takes a middle path between these two approaches, weaving together both history and insight to convey to the general reader the conditions, energy, and creativity that characterize Chan. Following a survey of the birth and development of Chan, its practices and spirituality are fleshed out through stories and teachings drawn from the lives of four masters: Bodhidharma, Huineng, Mazu, and Linji. Finally, the meaning of Chan as a living spiritual tradition is addressed through a philosophical reading of its practice as the realization of wisdom, attentive mastery, and moral clarity.
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/chan-buddhism

Contents

1. The Buddhist roots of Chan
2. Differences in Indian and Chinese cultural contexts
3. Early developments in Chinese Buddhism
4. The early history of the Chan tradition
5. Exemplars of Chan, homegrown Buddhas
6. Chan practice as philosophy and spirituality
7. Chan now? : why and for whom?

 

Product Details

Liberating Intimacy: Enlightenment and Social Virtuosity in Ch'an Buddhism
by Hershock, Peter D.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996.

Summary

Liberating Intimacy dramatically reevaluates the teachings and practice of Ch'an Buddhism. Considering Buddha's insight that everything is empty or absent of a permanent and independent "self nature," Hershock argues that not only is suffering without any essence and so dependent on time and place, so is end of suffering or enlightenment. He shows that the tradition need not entail a quietistic withdrawal from social life. Far from being something privately attained and experienced, Ch'an enlightenment is best seen as the opening of a virtuosic intimacy through which we are continually liberated from the arrogance of both "self" and "other." That is, enlightenment in Ch'an must be understood as irreducibly social—it can never be merely "mine" or "yours," but is only realized as "ours." Including new translations from the teachings of Ma-tzu, Pai-chang, Huang-po and Lin-chi, Liberating Intimacy reconciles the almost fierce individualism that characterizes the mastery of Ch'an and its unwavering embrace of the ideal of compassionately saving all beings.
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/liberating-intimacy-enlightenment-and-social-virtuosity-chan-buddhism

 

Product Details

PDF: Buddhism in the Public Sphere: Reorienting Global Interdependence
by Hershock, Peter D.
London: Routledge, 2006

Summary

The core teachings and practices of Buddhism are systematically directed toward developing keen and caring insight into the relational or interdependent nature of all things. This book applies Buddhist thought to reflect on the challenges to public good created by emerging social, economic, and political realities associated with increasingly complex global interdependence. In eight chapters, key arenas for public policy are addressed: the environment, health, media, trade and development, the interplay of politics and religion, international relations, terror and security, and education. Each chapter explains how a specific issue area has come to be shaped by complex interdependence and offers specific insights into directing the dynamic of this interdependence toward greater equity, sustainability, and freedom. Thereby, a sustained meditation on the meaning and means of realizing public good is put forward, emphasizing the critical role of a Buddhist conception of diversity that is relevant across the full spectrum of policy domains and that becomes increasingly forceful as concerns shift from the local to the global.