Eshin Nishimura | |
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西村 惠信 | |
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Title | Rōshi |
Personal | |
Born | |
Religion | Rinzai, Zen Buddhism |
Nationality | Japanese |
Senior posting | |
Based in | Hanazono University |
Eshin Nishimura (西村 惠信; born 1933) is a Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhist priest, the former president of Hanazono University in Kyoto, Japan, and also a major modern scholar in the Kyoto School of thought. [1] A current professor of the Department of Buddhism at Hanazono University, he has lectured at universities throughout the world on the subject of Zen Buddhism. [2] The author of many books, most written in the Japanese language, Nishimura has been a participant in many dialogues on the relationship of Zen to Christianity and Western philosophy. [3]
Eshin Nishimura was born the youngest child of six siblings to a family of Rinzai practitioners. According to his own account, "Blessed with a profound karmic relationship with the Buddha, I entered the priesthood at age two and left my parents to live in a Zen temple as a priestling." [4] Nishimura graduated from Hanazono University from their Department of Buddhist Studies in 1956. [4] In 1969 he came to Oberlin College to give talks on Zen, and in 1970 and 1971 he taught a course for ten weeks on Zen at Carleton College [2] and another course at Carleton on Keiji Nishitani's Religion and Nothingness in 1989.
Emperor Hanazono was the 95th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1308 through 1318.
Myōan Eisai/Yōsai was a Japanese Buddhist priest, credited with founding the Rinzai school, the Japanese line of the Linji school of Zen Buddhism. In 1191, he introduced this Zen approach to Japan, following his trip to China from 1187 to 1191, during which he was initiated into the Linji school by the master Hsü an. It is also said that he popularized green tea in Japan, following this same trip. He was also the founding abbot of Japan's first Zen temple Shōfuku-ji and Kennin-ji. He is often known simply as Eisai/Yōsai Zenji (栄西禅師), literally "Zen master Eisai".
The Kyoto School is the name given to the Japanese philosophical movement centered at Kyoto University that assimilated Western philosophy and religious ideas and used them to reformulate religious and moral insights unique to the East Asian philosophical tradition. However, it is also used to describe postwar scholars who have taught at the same university, been influenced by the foundational thinkers of Kyoto school philosophy, and who have developed distinctive theories of Japanese uniqueness. To disambiguate the term, therefore, thinkers and writers covered by this second sense appear under The Kyoto University Research Centre for the Cultural Sciences.
The Ōbaku-shū (黄檗宗) is one of three main schools of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, in addition to Sōtō and Rinzai. It had a strong influence on Japanese Rinzai, which partly adopted Ōbaku-practices, and partly reinstored older practices in response to the Ōbaku-school.
Kitarō Nishida was a Japanese moral philosopher, philosopher of mathematics and science, and religious scholar. He was the founder of what has been called the Kyoto School of philosophy. He graduated from the University of Tokyo during the Meiji period in 1894 with a degree in philosophy. He was named professor of the Fourth Higher School in Ishikawa Prefecture in 1899 and later became professor of philosophy at Kyoto University. Nishida retired in 1927. In 1940, he was awarded the Order of Culture. He participated in establishing the Chiba Institute of Technology (千葉工業大学) from 1940.
Keiji Nishitani was a Japanese philosopher. He was a scholar of the Kyoto School and a disciple of Kitarō Nishida. In 1924, Nishitani received his doctorate from Kyoto Imperial University for his dissertation "Das Ideale und das Reale bei Schelling und Bergson". He studied under Martin Heidegger in Freiburg from 1937 to 1939.
The Rinzai school ,named after Linji Yixuan is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, along with Sōtō and Ōbaku. The Chinese Linji school of Chan Buddhism was first transmitted to Japan by Myōan Eisai. Contemporary Japanese Rinzai is derived entirely from the Ōtōkan lineage transmitted through Hakuin Ekaku (1686–1769), who is a major figure in the revival of the Rinzai tradition.
Sobin Yamada is the 26th abbot of Shinju-an, a subtemple of the important Rinzai Zen temple of Daitoku-ji in Kyoto. Shinju-an is the memorial temple for Ikkyu. Yamada studied at Hanazono, a Rinzai university in Kyoto, and at Ryukoku University.
Masao Abe was a Japanese Buddhist philosopher and religious studies scholar who was emeritus professor at Nara University. He is best known for his work in comparative religion, developing a Buddhist-Christian interfaith dialogue which later also included Judaism. His mature views were developed within the Kyoto School of philosophy. According to Christopher Ives: "Since the death of D. T. Suzuki in 1966, Masao Abe has served as the main representative of Zen Buddhism in Europe and North America."
Kyozan Joshu Sasaki, Roshi was a Japanese Rinzai Zen teacher who lived in Los Angeles, United States since 1962. He was one of the most influential but also controversial Zen masters in America, "coercing hundreds of [students] into having sexual contact with him" since at least the early 1970s. He sought to tailor his teachings to westerners, opening dozens of centres, and founding serving as head abbot of the Mount Baldy Zen Center, near Mount Baldy in California, and of the Rinzai-Ji order of affiliated Zen centers.
Myōshin-ji is a temple complex in Kyoto, Japan, which serves as the head temple of the associated branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism. The Myōshin-ji School is by far the largest school in Rinzai Zen, approximately as big as the other thirteen branches combined: it contains within it about 3,400 temples throughout Japan, together with a handful overseas, of the approximately six thousand total Rinzai temples, and also has nineteen associated monasteries, of the total of forty Rinzai monasteries and one nunnery.
Shin'ichi Hisamatsu was a philosopher, Zen Buddhist scholar, and Japanese tea ceremony master. He was a professor at Kyoto University and received an honorary doctoral degree from Harvard University.
Kennin-ji is a historic Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, and head temple of its associated branch of Rinzai Buddhism. It is considered to be one of the so-called Kyoto Gozan or "five most important Zen temples of Kyoto".
Shizuteru Ueda was a Japanese philosopher specialized in philosophy of religion, especially in philosophy of Buddhism and Zen. He was a professor at Kyoto University and considered a third generation member of Kyoto School.
Gotō Zuigan was a Buddhist Rinzai Zen master the chief abbot of Myōshin-ji and Daitoku-ji temples, and a past president of Hanazono University of Kyoto, also known as "Rinzai University."
Hanazono University is a private university in Kyoto, Japan that belongs to the Rinzai sect. The university and the neighborhood are named for Emperor Hanazono, whose donated his palace to make Myōshin-ji.
Manju-ji (万寿寺) is a Rinzai Buddhist temple in Higashiyama-ku Kyoto, Japan. Owing to the influence of the Ashikaga, Manju-ji was designated a Jissatsu temple for a time. At present, it is a sub-temple of Tōfuku-ji. It is considered to be one of the so-called Kyoto Gozan or "five great Zen temples of Kyoto".
Tōrei Enji (東嶺円慈) was an eminent Japanese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, painter and calligrapher. He was the chief disciple and heir of famed Japanese Rinzai master Hakuin Ekaku (1685–1786). He wrote an influential text on Zen practice called "The Undying Lamp of Zen", which gives an overview of Hakuin's views and practices with regard to the Buddhist path.
Motokichiro Osaka was a Japanese pastor, theologian, and newspaper columnist. He is notable for his public criticism of efforts by the Japanese government to regulate religious bodies and strengthen a national form of Shinto, which culminated in a government-backed attack that left Osaka close to death. During his recovery, a personal awakening transformed his conceptualization of Christianity from an earthly, altruistic social practice to an ascetic practice rooted in Catholic orthodoxy.
Zenji is a masculine Japanese name.