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Buddha is Dead
Nietzsche and the Dawn of European Zen
| Manu Bazzano |
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| Manu Bazzano has edited two best-selling poetry anthologies, Zen
Poems (2001) and Haiku for Lovers (2003). He recently
translated The Way of Awakening (2005), the most comprehensive
single commentary on the great classic of Buddhist
literature, Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara, and
is the editor of the Zen quarterly Hazy Moon.
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“Illuminates the common radicalism, non-conformity and insistence
on honesty and integrity that underpin what is most challenging
and provocative in the two traditions of Buddhism in general (and
Zen Buddhism in particular) and the tradition (or anti-tradition)
in Western philosophy that finds its most exultant spokesman in
the figure of Friedrich Nietzsche.
It is inspiring to be reminded of Nietzsche’s radical
vision and how the author links it to Buddhism and Zen. Manu Bazzano’s
book serves to reaffirm the creative side of doubt, especially
in those moments when doubt begins to drag you down.” Stephen
Batchelor, author of the bestselling Buddhism Without Beliefs and Living
with the Devil
“One of the most profound
and not always well known understandings of Zen Buddhism is that
Great Doubt and deep inquiry will lead
directly to Great Liberation and Great Faith. In Zen one learns
the importance of embracing doubt and that doubt is the seed of
Transcendental wisdom. One of the main themes, exemplified by Nietzsche's
life, is that embracing doubt does not lead necessarily to cynicism
and negativity, but can bring about a change of heart and allows
for faith to arise, which brings Zen into the picture ... This
book has the potential to bridge the gap between East and West.” D.
Genpo Merzel, Roshi, author of The Path of the Human Being:
Zen Teachings on the Bodhisattva Way
“Eloquent and elegant. Manu Bazzano must be the world’s
best advertisement for the benefits of Zen training! His book is
extremely important for the world at this critical juncture in
its history, and undoubtedly deserves and will receive a broad
readership.”
Graham Parkes, author of Composing
the Soul: Reaches of Nietzsche's Psychology, and editor of
Nietzsche and Asian Thought
Drawing on Zen as well as on Nietzsche’s
thought and its ramifications in and for western culture, this
book is a fervent call for a re-visioning of philosophy as vocation.
The author is critical of the status quo and committed to intellectual
integrity; the result is a creative and adventurous enterprise
which is no longer exclusively identified with academia or with
the methodology of logic. Filtered through Nietzsche’s
hammer – by which he sounded out gods old and new – Buddhism
in the West can avoid the pitfalls which emerged during its gestation
period in the twentieth century: otherworldly spiritualism, conservatism,
denial of the body.
The philosophy and the psychology of European Zen advocated
by Manu Bazzano in Buddha
is Dead: Nietzsche and the Dawn of European Zen is an unconditional affirmation
of living-and-dying. It is an extraordinary fertile viewpoint that will be
appreciated by all those who are interested in Eastern philosophy and religions,
and who seek life-affirming wisdom.
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List of Contents to follow |
Publication Details
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ISBN: |
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9781845191498 p/b |
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Page Extent / Format: |
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252 pp. / 229 x 152 mm |
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Release Date: |
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September 2006 |
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Illustrated: |
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No |
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Hardback Price: |
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£15.95 / $35.00 |
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