Women Living Zen
Japanese Soto Buddhist Nuns
ISBN13: 9780199928682ISBN10: 0199928681
Paperback,
268 pages
Also available:
Hardback
Mar 2012,
In Stock
Price:
$24.95 (06)Description
In this study, based on both historical evidence and ethnographic data, Paula Arai shows that nuns were central agents in the foundation of Buddhism in Japan in the sixth century. They were active participants in the Soto Zen sect, and have continued to contribute to the advancement of the sect to the present day. Drawing on her fieldwork among the Soto nuns, Arai demonstrates that the lives of many of these women embody classical Buddhist ideals. They have chosen to lead a strictly disciplined monastic life over against successful careers and the unconstrained contemporary secular lifestyle. In this, and other respects, they can be shown to stand in stark contrast to their male counterparts.Reviews
"...a long overdue corrective to the androcentric scholarship that has ignored Zen nuns' importance.... This very readable book is ideal for classroom use."--Religious Studies Review
Product Details
268 pages; 18 halftones, 1 linecut; 6.14 x 9.21; ISBN13: 978-0-19-992868-2ISBN10: 0-19-992868-1About the Author(s)
Paula Kane Robinson Arai, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and East Asian Studies, Vanderbilt University
