Jane Naomi Iwamura
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199738601
- eISBN:
- 9780199894604
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199738601.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
1950s mass media representations of D.T. Suzuki and the American “Zen Boom” are the focus of this chapter. The specific way that Suzuki is portrayed—as engaging, yet ineffable Oriental—and the medium ...
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1950s mass media representations of D.T. Suzuki and the American “Zen Boom” are the focus of this chapter. The specific way that Suzuki is portrayed—as engaging, yet ineffable Oriental—and the medium in which these depictions first appear—the fashion magazine—mark Eastern spirituality as a “stylized religion” and consumable object. The various “characters” that emerge in the unfolding of Zen Buddhism mid-century are explored: Alan Watts and Jack Kerouac as Suzuki’s most famous pupils and spiritual heirs; Arthur Koestler as Zen’s skeptical critic and; Mihoko Okamura, Suzuki’s long-time assistant, who figures the problematic representation of Asian Americans in the scheme of American conceptions of Asian religions. These real-life personalities and the debates and drama that ensue over Zen’s legitimacy and significance prefigure and establish a Virtual Orientalist narrative that is still popular today.Less
1950s mass media representations of D.T. Suzuki and the American “Zen Boom” are the focus of this chapter. The specific way that Suzuki is portrayed—as engaging, yet ineffable Oriental—and the medium in which these depictions first appear—the fashion magazine—mark Eastern spirituality as a “stylized religion” and consumable object. The various “characters” that emerge in the unfolding of Zen Buddhism mid-century are explored: Alan Watts and Jack Kerouac as Suzuki’s most famous pupils and spiritual heirs; Arthur Koestler as Zen’s skeptical critic and; Mihoko Okamura, Suzuki’s long-time assistant, who figures the problematic representation of Asian Americans in the scheme of American conceptions of Asian religions. These real-life personalities and the debates and drama that ensue over Zen’s legitimacy and significance prefigure and establish a Virtual Orientalist narrative that is still popular today.
Laurence Coupe
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719071126
- eISBN:
- 9781781702079
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719071126.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter examines Alan Watts' relationship with the Beats, as well as Christianity, which is the dominant religion of North America, and its common points with the philosophies of Hinduism, Zen, ...
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This chapter examines Alan Watts' relationship with the Beats, as well as Christianity, which is the dominant religion of North America, and its common points with the philosophies of Hinduism, Zen, Taoism and Buddhism. It takes note of Watts' doubts about the Beats' spiritual authenticity and discusses his philosophy, which is rooted in the tradition of the American Transcendentalists, where mysticism is considered to be the most important goal of religion.Less
This chapter examines Alan Watts' relationship with the Beats, as well as Christianity, which is the dominant religion of North America, and its common points with the philosophies of Hinduism, Zen, Taoism and Buddhism. It takes note of Watts' doubts about the Beats' spiritual authenticity and discusses his philosophy, which is rooted in the tradition of the American Transcendentalists, where mysticism is considered to be the most important goal of religion.
Laurence Coupe
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719071126
- eISBN:
- 9781781702079
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719071126.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This book reveals the ideas behind the Beat vision that influenced the Beat sound of the songwriters who followed on from them. Having explored the thinking of Alan Watts, who coined the term ‘Beat ...
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This book reveals the ideas behind the Beat vision that influenced the Beat sound of the songwriters who followed on from them. Having explored the thinking of Alan Watts, who coined the term ‘Beat Zen’, and who influenced the counterculture that emerged out of the Beat movement, it celebrates Jack Kerouac as a writer in pursuit of a ‘beatific’ vision. On this basis, the book goes on to explain the relevance of Kerouac and his friends Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder to songwriters who emerged in the 1960s. Not only are detailed readings of the lyrics of the Beatles and of Dylan given, but the range and depth of the Beat legacy within popular song is indicated by way of an overview of some important innovators: Jim Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Donovan, the Incredible String Band, Van Morrison and Nick Drake.Less
This book reveals the ideas behind the Beat vision that influenced the Beat sound of the songwriters who followed on from them. Having explored the thinking of Alan Watts, who coined the term ‘Beat Zen’, and who influenced the counterculture that emerged out of the Beat movement, it celebrates Jack Kerouac as a writer in pursuit of a ‘beatific’ vision. On this basis, the book goes on to explain the relevance of Kerouac and his friends Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder to songwriters who emerged in the 1960s. Not only are detailed readings of the lyrics of the Beatles and of Dylan given, but the range and depth of the Beat legacy within popular song is indicated by way of an overview of some important innovators: Jim Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Donovan, the Incredible String Band, Van Morrison and Nick Drake.
William A. Richards and G. William Barnard
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231174060
- eISBN:
- 9780231540919
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231174060.003.0019
- Subject:
- Psychology, Psychopharmacology
The Taboo of Knowing who you Are and the future of psychedelic studies.
The Taboo of Knowing who you Are and the future of psychedelic studies.
R. John Williams
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780300194470
- eISBN:
- 9780300206579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300194470.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter examines the notion of technê-Zen: a discourse premised on the supposed commensurability and mutual determination of Zen Buddhism (including all of its related Taoist notions and ...
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This chapter examines the notion of technê-Zen: a discourse premised on the supposed commensurability and mutual determination of Zen Buddhism (including all of its related Taoist notions and techniques of spiritual and aestheticized practice—in short, its technê) and the possibilities of an organic and holistic form of rationalist technocracy. In analyzing the discourse of technê-Zen in Robert Pirsig's novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, its historical origins, and its ongoing role in the networked global capitalist systems we live with today, this chapter advances two main arguments: first, whereas Pirsig posits technê-Zen as a discursive rupture from the dissident “spirit of the sixties,” his book can be more correctly understood as both a continuation and an acceleration of a discourse of “cybernetic Zen” already well under way in the 1950s and 1960s; second, the forms of technê-Zen developed in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance have come to occupy an especially privileged space in the technologically saturated realms of network capitalism and particularly the corporate management theories that currently dominate international business practiceLess
This chapter examines the notion of technê-Zen: a discourse premised on the supposed commensurability and mutual determination of Zen Buddhism (including all of its related Taoist notions and techniques of spiritual and aestheticized practice—in short, its technê) and the possibilities of an organic and holistic form of rationalist technocracy. In analyzing the discourse of technê-Zen in Robert Pirsig's novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, its historical origins, and its ongoing role in the networked global capitalist systems we live with today, this chapter advances two main arguments: first, whereas Pirsig posits technê-Zen as a discursive rupture from the dissident “spirit of the sixties,” his book can be more correctly understood as both a continuation and an acceleration of a discourse of “cybernetic Zen” already well under way in the 1950s and 1960s; second, the forms of technê-Zen developed in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance have come to occupy an especially privileged space in the technologically saturated realms of network capitalism and particularly the corporate management theories that currently dominate international business practice
Gregory P. A. Levine
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780824858056
- eISBN:
- 9780824876906
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824858056.003.0003
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
Focused on D. T. Suzuki, this chapter considers the efforts of Japanese Zen monastics and lay Buddhists to reform and modernize Zen—to bring it out of the meditation hall—through emphasis on lay and ...
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Focused on D. T. Suzuki, this chapter considers the efforts of Japanese Zen monastics and lay Buddhists to reform and modernize Zen—to bring it out of the meditation hall—through emphasis on lay and global outreach, framed within Japanese exceptionalism and articulated through hybridization with Western theology and philosophy and premised in an argument for Zen’s universality. It turns then to critics of Suzuki’s presentations as well as the proliferation of Zen advocates in the West, including R. H. Blyth and Alan Watts, whose adaptations of Zen were not entirely consonant with the Zen promoted by Suzuki and other Japanese authorities.Less
Focused on D. T. Suzuki, this chapter considers the efforts of Japanese Zen monastics and lay Buddhists to reform and modernize Zen—to bring it out of the meditation hall—through emphasis on lay and global outreach, framed within Japanese exceptionalism and articulated through hybridization with Western theology and philosophy and premised in an argument for Zen’s universality. It turns then to critics of Suzuki’s presentations as well as the proliferation of Zen advocates in the West, including R. H. Blyth and Alan Watts, whose adaptations of Zen were not entirely consonant with the Zen promoted by Suzuki and other Japanese authorities.
