[Buddha-l] query about a term in Japanese zen, translated as "soul" in one text.

[Christopher Fynn]

This book may be of interest:
Jungnok Park "How Buddhism Acquired a Soul on the Way to China"
<http://www.equinoxpub.com/equinox/books/showbook.asp?bkid=512&keyword=soul>

Publisher's Description:
"Why did some Buddhist translators in China interpolate terms
designating an agent which did not appear in the original texts?

The Chinese made use of raw material imported from India; however,
they added some “seasonings” peculiar to China and developed their own
“recipes” about how to construct the ideas of Buddhism. While Indian
Buddhists constructed their ideas of self by means of empiricism,
anti-Brahmanism and analytic reasoning, the Chinese Buddhists
constructed their ideas of self by means of non-analytic insights,
utilising pre-established epistemology and cosmogony. Furthermore,
many of the basic renderings had specific implications that were
peculiar to China. For example, while shen in philosophical Daoism
originally signified an agent of thought, which disintegrates after
bodily death, Buddhists added to it the property of permanent
existence. Since many Buddhists in China read the reinterpreted term
shen with the implications of the established epistemology and
cosmogony, they came to develop their own ideas of self.

After the late 6C, highly educated Buddhist theorists came to avoid
including the idea of an imperishable soul in their doctrinal system.
However, the idea of a permanent agent of perception remained vividly
alive even during the development of Chinese Buddhism after the 7C."

On 02/01/2012, Sally McAra <sallymcara at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi there,
> Happy new year, all!
> After hearing a teisho about Bassui (downloaded from the Rochester Zen
> Center website, the first of a series of 5 talks on Bassui by Roshi
> Bodhin Kjolhede), I've been looking online at a book called "Mud and
> Water: The Teachings of Zen Master Bassui." (Bassui Tokusho, transl.
> Arthur Braverman)
> (see
> http://www.amazon.com/Mud-Water-Teachings-Master-Bassui/dp/0861713206#reader_0861713206
> )
>
> In the introduction (p. 3) the word "soul" is used in recounting
> Bassui's inquiry: at a memorial service for his late father, he asked
> the officiating priest how his dead father could eat the food
> offerings on the altar. The priest told him that his father's "soul"
> would receive the offerings, and this led to Bassui's inquiry "What is
> this thing called a soul?"
>
> Given the emphasis on "anatman" in Buddhism, I'm curious about the use
> of the English word "soul" in this translation and wondering if anyone
> familiar with the Japanese version of Bassui's biography that the
> translator is referring to might be able to tell me what the Japanese
> term was? I'm not a student of Japanese, but would like to know the
> term and any other ways it might be glossed in English. Braverman also
> uses the word "soul" when talking about what transmigrates between the
> 6 realms of existence (see p. 220, note 25).
> NB., Philip Kapleau also uses the word soul in his "editor's
> introduction" to one of Bassui's Dharma talks (see Three Pillars of
> Zen, Part IV - pages 174ff in my edition, 2000).
>
> Cheers
> Sally
> PS if anyone responds to my query and I don't reply, apologies, it's
> because I'm about to go away tomorrow for 7 days and won't have
> computer access. But I'm looking forward to your answers.

>