In discussing the activities of the postulants, the meditation monks, the teachers and administrators, and the support monks of the monastery. Since 2002 a south korean benedictine monastery has provided the monastery stay experience for people. I have been asked to write about my experiences in the zen monastery in japan. He gives historic accounts and research interspersed with anecdotes from his own years spent as a monk in the korean monastery songgwangsa. Gesta ital, a former famous german actress, was the first western woman who was allowed to enter in a zen monastery in japan and to work with an enlightened master. Buswell, princeton university press, 1992, 069103477x, 9780691034775, 264 pages. She wrote two books about her path and her experience of enlightenment.
Robert buswell, a buddhist scholar who spent five years. The experience of zen meditation in chinese temples article pdf available in tourism management 65. The zen monastic experience combines the rigorous research and nononsense approach of fine academic writing with the depth of understanding and inside knowledge of one who knows his subject. Scribd is the worlds largest social reading and publishing site. When i read these books i had the impression of a very hard and lonely path.
Participants in the experience live in the same way as the monks do, completely isolated from their everyday lives for a period of a few days. Robert buswell crafts the book the zen monastic experience from a combination of research and personal experience in order to shed light on the monastic life and communities of korea. Westerners exposed to zen through englishlanguage materials have been offered a picture of an. The zen monastic experience princeton university press. One is the traditional claim that zen is at odds with language and zen enlightenment is an experience of a linguistically pure state. Buswell zen monastic experience free download as pdf file.