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Erez Joskovich
ארז יוסקוביץ
Dharma name: 碧巌 Hekigan

https://bgu.academia.edu/ErezJoskovich

Ben Gurion University of the Negev,  Philosophy,  Faculty Member 
I specializes in the intellectual and religious history of Chan/Zen Buddhism, with a particular focus on pre-modern and modern Japan. My doctoral dissertation is a detailed study of the the development of lay Zen in modern Japan. While working on my dissertation I was awarded fellowship from the Japan Foundation and the Japanese Ministry of Education (Mext). The fellowship enabled me to work as a visiting scholar at the University of Tokyo (2008-2012). I received my Ph.D. (June 2014) from the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Tel-Aviv University (in collaboration with the University of Tokyo). I am a currently teaching at UC, Berkeley as a Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Japanese Buddhism (2016-). Other research interests include Buddhist ethnography, ritual, and performance studies.

EDUCATION 

2014                PhD, The School of Philosophy, Tel-Aviv University in cooperation with The University of Tokyo.
2008-2012        Research Fellow at the Department of Religious Studies, The University of Tokyo.
2007                M.A (summa cum laude) Religious Studies, Tel-Aviv University.
2003                B.A (summa cum laude) Philosophy and East Asian Studies, Tel-Aviv University.

 

PUBLICATIONS 

PDF: “How Old is the Wine: Ningen Zen Kyōdan and the development of laypeople Zen narrative in contemporary Japan.” 
International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 2010, 1:2 pp. 223–242.

 

PDF: “Zen and Science”
by Erez Joskovich
Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, 2012, 12:1.

 

Tōrei Enji—Shūmon mujintō ron
PDF: The Inexhaustible Lamp of Faith: Faith and Awakening in the Japanese Rinzai Tradition
by Erez Hekigan Joskovich
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 42/2: 319–338 © 2015 Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture

In the modern period, Zen has often been depicted as a faithless form of spirituality that favors discarding authority and encourages existential doubt. The primary objective of this article is to challenge this assumption by highlighting the importance of faith in the Zen tradition. To achieve this goal, I focused on Shūmon mujintō ron, a major text of the Rinzai tradition, written by the eminent Japanese master Tōrei Enji (1721–1792). After establishing “faith” as an analytic category for studying Zen, I adopted the philosophical framework of necessary and sufficient conditions in order to elucidate the relationship between faith and awakening, as well as the interdependency of faith and doubt in Zen training. By examining the role of faith in the text, I shed new light on the role of faith in the Zen tradition, particularly in Rinzai training.

 

PDF: “Playing the Patriarch: Representation and Transformation in the Zen Sermon.”  
by Erez Joskovich
Journal of the American Academy of Religion. July 2016, pp. 1–24. [85, no. 2 (2017): 470–93.]

 

PDF: Relying on Words and Letters: Scripture Recitation in the Japanese Rinzai Tradition
by Erez Joskovich
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 46/1: 53-78 © 2019 Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture

Classical Chan/Zen literature is famous for its ostensive disparagement of scriptural authority. In practice, however, sutra recitation and invocation of dhāraṇī have been a significant and influential component of Zen monastic life throughout history. Daily and monthly sutra-recitation services take up more of the monks' time and effort than any other activity. This article examines the liturgical function of Buddhist scriptures within the Japanese Rinzai tradition. It also aims to better understand how Zen practitioners interpret the meaning and purpose of sutra recitation and how they bridge the aforementioned gap between soteriology and practice. I explore the Kankinbō chapter of Goke sanshō yōromon, written by the eighteenth-century Japanese Rinzai monk Tōrei Enji. Tōrei focuses on the mental and physical benefits of sutra recitation and its power to positively affect natural and supernatural environments. This illustrates the multifaceted understanding of texts as ritual objects, one that challenges strict distinctions between worldly benefits and spiritual cultivation. Tōrei's exegetical efforts to explain the function and justify the legitimacy of sutra recitation attest that the tension between antinomian rhetoric and worship was a major concern for Zen reformers in Edo Japan. Accordingly, I contend that the Kankinbō can advance our understanding of the meaning and function of rituals within Edo-period Zen and shed new light on modern interpretations of the tradition.

PDF: The Sound of One Hand Playing: The Sonic Environment of a Zen Training Temple
by Erez Joskovich
Religions 2023/14: 1246.