Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice In Contemporary Korea; Author: Buswell, Robert E.; Paperback

Author: Buswell, Robert E.
Paperback; 16 Halftones
280 pages
Published: April 1994
University Presses of California, Columbia and Princeton
ISBN: 069103477X

Robert Buswell, a Buddhist scholar who spent five years as a Zen monk in Korea, draws on personal experience in this insightful account of day-to-day Zen monastic practice. In discussing the activities of the postulants, the meditation monks, the teachers and administrators, and the support monks of the monastery of Songgwang-sa, Buswell reveals a religious tradition that differs radically from the stereotype prevalent in the West. The author's treatment lucidly relates contemporary Zen practice to the historical development of the tradition and to Korean history more generally, andhis portrayal of the life of modern Zen monks in Korea provides an innovative and provocative look at Zen from the inside.The author draws on his personal experience as a Zen monk in Korea to provide an account of daily Zen monastic practice which attempts to break down Buddhist stereotypes prevalent in the West. He relates contemporary Zen practices to the historical development of the tradition.