Ordinary Mind as the Way: The Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism

Ordinary Mind as the Way: The Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism

By Mario Poceski

Under the leadership of Mazu Daoyi (709-788) and his numerous disciples, the Hongzhou School emerged as the dominant tradition of Chan (Zen) Buddhism in China during the middle part of the Tang dynasty(618-907). Mario Poceski offers a systematic examination of the Hongzhou School's momentous growth and rise to preeminence as the bearer of Chan orthodoxy, and analyzes its doctrines against the backdrop of the intellectual and religious milieus of Tang China. Poceski demonstrates that the Hongzhou School represented the first emergence of an empire-wide Chan tradition that had strongholds throughout China and replaced the various fragmented Schools of early Chan with an inclusive orthodoxy.

 

Mario Poceski is Professor of Buddhist studies and Chinese religions at the University of Florida.  He received a PhD in Buddhist studies from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2000. 

 

ISBN: 0195319966

 

Order at Amazon


Printer Icon

Published: Thursday, August 10, 2017