The purpose of this thesis was to explore the history and rituals of Japanese Soto Zen nuns and American Soto Zen ordained women in order to examine the motivations behind each group’s practices and distinguish the differences in the intent and practice of American Soto women’s rituals, specifically their reactions to the influence of feminism, and the effects of American syncretization in order to identify if a schism or a continuation is occurring within the Soto Zen tradition. Along with a survey of published research, interviews were conducted with two scholars and prominent ordained Soto practitioners–eight female and three male. Findings suggest that while maintaining strict adherence to specific orthodox rituals, American Soto women also reinterpret Soto traditions and adapt new practices to address the needs of American women’s practice. Findings further indicate the effects of American syncretization in nurturing a legitimate albeit uniquely American expression of Soto Zen.

156 f. / Submitted by Edileide Reis (leyde-landy@hotmail.com) on 2013-04-25T14:13:47Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Ivone Melo.pdf: 2175867 bytes, checksum: 1f4b7aabff4e46d77adb56deba8b1c02 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Auxiliadora Lopes(silopes@ufba.br) on 2013-04-30T16:52:08Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Ivone Melo.pdf: 2175867 bytes, checksum: 1f4b7aabff4e46d77adb56deba8b1c02 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-04-30T16:52:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ivone Melo.pdf: 2175867 bytes, checksum: 1f4b7aabff4e46d77adb56deba8b1c02 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Este trabalho se constitui como relato de um percurso em que caminhamos através de uma hermenêutica em que estão implicados corpo e mente, aspectos teóricos e práticos, como parte de um esforço de conhecer a si mesmo através da leitura do texto. O pensamento de Eihei Dogen remonta ao século XIII, no contexto de um Japão medieval, mas só recentemente suas ideias começaram a se tornar conhecidas fora do âmbito de sua escola religiosa. Para ele, estudar o budismo é tornar-se budismo. Não é valorizada uma apreensão intelectual que não encontre correspondência numa ação concreta, refletindo a apreensão teórica. Ao escrever, ele o faz a partir de sua própria realização dos ensinamentos e, ao ensinar, pretende que cada aprendiz encontre seu caminho próprio de realização. O educar se configura como expressão da concepção que assumimos, permitindo que as condições favoreçam a realização do que compreendemos como importante para nossas vidas. A compreensão do sentido de ‘impermanência’ em seu pensamento é fundamental para compreender sua visão do tempo. A contribuição de Dogen, a partir de sua visão da impermanência, vai na direção de tencionar a contingência de forma profunda e radical, com uma disposição para aceitar, confrontar e encontrar liberdade em termos da própria impermanência mais o que de fugir dela. Para Dogen, é inútil discutir o Tempo como tema filosófico separado de uma implicação na ação como resposta ao problema da impermanência. Nosso estudo articula momentos de investigação teórica da obra de Dogen, aprofundando nossa compreensão acerca da ideia de Tempo presente em sua proposta educativa, com momentos dialógicos com a perspectiva transdisciplinar da educação. A dialética budista ressalta a importância da realidade, e de uma hermenêutica polissêmica necessária à sua compreensão como parte do absoluto. Neste estudo, trabalhamos com uma racionalidade que percebe uma relação complementar entre ciência e tradição, e que aponta para uma relação necessária entre conhecimento e sustentabilidade da vida, no sentido de que o saber deve estar em sintonia com a preservação das condições fundamentais de bem-estar e renovação da vida de todos os seres. A formulação do tempo como simultaneidade apresenta a natureza dinâmica do movimento como interconexão entre todos os seres, e a conexão entre os momentos como a interpenetração entre passado, presente e futuro no instante. Para Dogen, o ser-tempo possui características de continuidade e de descontinuidade, simultaneamente. Cada ser é inteiramente o que é em seu instante absoluto e ao mesmo tempo está conectado a tudo que existe, através do ser-tempo presente. Temos então momentos do ser-tempo, descontínuos e uma profunda interconexão entre tudo o que existe. O ensinamento de Dogen não pretende acabar com o problema da impermanência, mas levar a uma realização genuína, que penetre o sentido ontológico e existencial da transitoriedade. Sem chegar a experimentar esse exato aqui do tempo, esse exato ser do instante, a proposição é palavra morta, o ato educativo é alijamento do sentido profundo implicado no ensinar-aprender. Conhecer a intensa atividade da quietude silenciosa, no diálogo com o ir e vir da caminhada singular e coletiva, como proposta que assume coletivamente a habilidade de responder aos desafios presentes do viver, procurando compreender e integrar aspectos da impermanência, interdependência e simultaneidade nas elaborações que visam resolver os problemas colocados pelas situações cotidianas. / Salvador

This thesis explores what an aesthetic judgment would be if we take existence to be non-duallyinterconnected. Interconnectedness and aesthetic judgment does not seem to be compatible becauseaesthetic judgment seems to depend on, at least, the dualism of the beautiful and the ugly and that ofsubject and object. In contrast, interconnectedness can not accept these dualisms.Zen philosopher Dōgen provides a non-dually interconnected framework that allows for aestheticjudgments in an interconnected view of existence. Zen philosophy concludes that we can both havedualism and non-dualism and that the ideas do not cancel each other out but deal with differentaspects of existence. Dualism with a centric view where existence is viewed from a standpoint andthus is restricted by a perspective, and enlightenment, where existence is perceived non-duallyinterconnected, can coexist. Because Aesthetic judgments are dependent on dualism, they must takeplace on the centric plane of existence. However, because, in enlightenment, everything is seen asBeautiful, it can not reveal much about an object’s beauty. Instead, the aesthetic judgment revealssomething about the standpoint taken in judgment. In light of this reformulation of the meaning ofaesthetic judgments, aesthetics will become phenomenological no matter if you deal with howcentric or enlightened ways of existence reveal themselves. Whether your focus is on aestheticjudgments, appreciation, or artistic practice, you will always deal with aesthetic experiences.

The reason I am writing this dissertation is to introduce another side of Zen, Soto, which is completely unknown in the Western world; and at the same time to bring Dogen's teaching to the attention of Western scholars, since it is famous in Japan as the most profound branch of the philosophy of Zen. Unfortunately, none of Dogen' s teaching has yet been translated into English except Masunaga's private publication given above. Therefore I am taking this opportunity to translate and to add a commentary of my own for the better understanding of Dogen as well as the historical survey of the Soto school. Also I have included the research of Bankei, who was in the line of Rinzai, but his distinguished teaching did not appeal to his contemporaries among the Zen Buddhists; rather he was rebuked by the Rinzai School because of his method of teaching Zen. Later the strict Rinzai School became largely connected with the civil authorities and social leaders, but Bankei's lineage died out because of the opposition. Recently Bankei's Zen and his distinguished teaching. method became very important among Japanese Zen scholars and many of them have done careful research on them. I have translated some of his work and briefly wrote his biography to try to introduce Bankei in the English-speaking world. Incidentally Bankei's teaching was introduced by D. T. Suzuki very briefly; thus my attempt is to supplement it and at the same time to contribute some more of it to Western scholarship.

Cette thèse entend poser les fondements philosophiques d’une « conversion écologique » en éclairant la dimension ontologique de la crise écologique. Tout en s’inscrivant dans le sillage de l’Encyclique Laudato Si’, où le Pape François lance un vibrant appel à la conversion écologique, l’auteur s’efforce de penser les enjeux proprement philosophiques liés à cette notion. En s’appuyant sur des auteurs tels que Heidegger et Hans Jonas, la première partie de la recherche montre la nécessité d’une véritable « conversion » face au péril métaphysique que représente la technique envisagée ici comme dévoiement de notre « être-au-monde ». Dans un contexte marqué par la résurgence du catastrophisme, l’auteur entend ici souligner la dimension humaniste qui constituait l’horizon de la pensée de ses fondateurs (Günther Anders, Jacques Ellül) tout en confrontant leur vision à celle du « Principe Espérance » porté par Ernst Bloch.La seconde partie de la thèse consiste à poser les fondements éthiques et religieux du concept de conversion. De la metanoia platonicienne aux thérapies de l’âme stoïciennes et épicuriennes, l’auteur explore la place de la connaissance de la nature (physis) dans le « retour à Soi » (epistrophè) de ces sagesses grecques. Peut-on voir en elles la source d’une véritable « conversion écologique » par laquelle il s’agirait autant de convertir notre regard sur la nature que d’être converti par elle ? Si oui, quelles en seraient les modalités ? Dans cette perspective, quels sont les apports de la metanoia chrétienne par rapport à la metanoia platonicienne ? En quoi la « conversion des sens » portée à la fois par la mystique franciscaine et la « prière du cœur » des Pères neptiques dans le monde orthodoxe, constitue-t-elle une étape capitale pour penser la conversion écologique comme conversion du corps et du cœur ? Pour mener à bien cette analyse, l’auteur emprunte la méthode phénoménologique afin de mettre en lumière les liens entre conversion et réduction.La dernière partie, plus spécifiquement consacrée à l’écologie contemporaine, s’appuie sur les modalités de la conversion écologique esquissées avec les penseurs grecs et chrétiens pour penser une transformation profonde de notre « affect du monde ». En s’appuyant sur les notions merleau-pontiennes de « chair du monde » et de « monde brut », l’auteur cherche à penser une « empathie universelle » comme socle d’une nouvelle éthique environnementale. A travers une relecture merleau-pontienne de deux grands courants de l’écologie que sont l’écologie profonde (deep ecology) et la wilderness, l’auteur jette les bases d’une ontologie relationnelle dans deux directions. La première envisage la conversion écologique comme un approfondissement du Soi. Dans le sentiment de la wilderness, c’est autant la nature vierge à l’extérieur de nous que le « monde brut » au plus intime de nous-même, qu’il s’agit de préserver pour ouvrir la voie à une expérience transformante du monde telle que la décrit Henri-David Thoreau dans Walden ou la vie dans les bois. La seconde vise un élargissement du Soi par lequel la réalisation de Soi devient indissociable, par un mouvement d’identification, de celle de notre environnement, jusqu’à faire l’expérience charnelle de ce « Soi écologique » dont nous parle Arne Naess en écho à la « chair du monde » merleau-pontienne et aux théories de la Gestalt dont s’inspirent les deux auteurs. Conscient des limites de la pensée occidentale pour cheminer vers cette non - dualité, clé d’une empathie universelle, l’auteur montre, dans la dernière partie de son analyse, l’influence de la pensée bouddhique sur la deep ecology et explore une spiritualité de la résonance avec le bouddhisme zen japonais incarné dans la figure de Maître Dogen, jusqu’à penser une « échologie de la Joie ». / This thesis is an attempt to provide the philosophical foundations for an ecological conversion while revealing the ontological aspects of the ecological crisis. Following the path described in the Laudato Si’ encyclical letter, where Pope François launches a vibrant call for ecological conversion, the author seeks to adress the philosophical issues in relation to this notion. Refering to philosophers such as Heidegger and Hans Jonas, the first part of this research accounts for the necessity of a true ecological conversion to face the metaphysical « peril » represented by the technical way of mind which leads to an unauthentic « being-in-the-world ». As catastrophism rages, the author underlines the humanistic aspect of its founders’ thought (Gûnther Anders, Jacques Ellûl) while confronting their vision to Ernst Bloch’s « Principle of Hope ».The second chapter of the thesis aims at laying down the ethical and religious foundations of the concept of conversion. From Plato’s metanoia to stoïcian and epicurian soul therapies, the author explores the importance of the knowledge of nature (physis) in the process of epistrophè (return to one’s « Inner Self »). Can these therapies be considered as the roots of a true ecological conversion throughout which we could not only modify the way we look at nature but also be transformed by it? If the answer is yes, what would the terms be? From this perspective, what is the specificity of Christian metanoia compared to Plato’s? To what extent can the doctrine of the “spiritual senses” experienced by both the Franciscan mystic and the neptical Fathers’ « Prayer of the heart » - be considered a crucial step to a living experience of ecological conversion that appeals to our body and heart? To carry out this research, the author relies on the phenomenological methodology, evidencing the links between conversion and reduction.The last part, more specifically dedicated to modern ecology, relies on the definitions of ecological conversion outlined with greek and Christian authors to think through a deep change in our « affect for the world ». Refering to Merleau Ponty’s notions of « flesh of the word » and « wild being », the author endeavours to develop the concept of “universal empathy” as the corner stone of environmental ethics. Through a merleau-pontian interpretation of two major ecological schools of thought, wilderness and deep ecology, the thesis provides tools for elaborating a relational ontology based on two concepts. The first one, called deepening of the Self, refers to the wilderness. The author shows that what has to be preserved is not only territories such as natural reserves but the “wild being” in the innermost part of ourselves so as to enable us to be transformed by nature itself through this experience of wilderness described by famous authors such as Henri-David Thoreau in Walden life in the woods… The second one, called “enlargment of the Self” refers to the experience described by Arne Naess as identification to other living beings as a source of self-realization, echoing the merleau-pontian “flesh of the word”.Aware of the limits of western thought to reach this universal empathy based on non-duality, the author points out, in a conclusive paragraph, the influence of the buddhist way of mind on Arne Naess’s deep ecology, explores a spirituality of the resonance with the world through zen buddhism embodied by Master Dogen, and goes as far as thinking an “echology of Joy”.