Michael Saso

Zen is for Everyone

Zhi Yi wrote these brief ten lessons in “how to do Zen” in 580 AD. It has been a best seller since then. Still popular in modern Japanese bookshops, the book also goes by the title “Sho Shikan” , Brief lessons in “Stop” “Look” Zen meditation. Written in a modern, readable style, the book is widely used today as a manual for teaching and practicing Zen (Chan) meditation – one can actually practice Zen while sitting, standing, walking, or even lying down. Healing, expelling evil, and openness to understanding other forms of spiritual practice, are included in the brief “Sho Shikan” text.

Zen is for Everyone click here to purchase.

Buddhist Studies in People’s Republic of China 1990-1991

This “cutting edge” selection of contemporary Buddhist Studies in China is a marvelous tool for understanding the intellectual as well as the spiritual rebirth going on inside China today. Originally published as a textbook for upper division and graduate level studies, it soon became popular with the general public, as a means to understand the great legacy of China’s unique contribution to Buddhist spirituality in Asia. “Shen Xiu and Northern Zen (no different from the southern school), “Minority” Chinese Buddhist intellectuals, “Daoist Zhuangzi and the spread of Buddhism,” and “Buddhist Art Imagery,” are among the themes covered by the book’s authors.

Buddhist Studies in People’s Republic of China click here to purchase.

Velvet Bonds: the Chinese Family

This carefully researched and documented study shows how and why the Family has been the very core and sustaining force in China’s 5000+ year-old cultural history. The statistical segment of the book uses the analytical methodology developed at Stanford University, by the noted contemporary scholars Arthur and Margery Wolf, Huang Chieh-san, and the NSF sponsored staff. Velvet Bonds covers a 100 period history of change and growth in 4500 families, with 20,000 family members. 4 distinct patterns appear, which preserve the family institution through peace, war, and the social upheavals of the past century. Urban and agriculture based villages have differing statistical structures. The study then shows case studies of 5 Taiwan, 5 Mainland, and 5 ethnic minority families, including Tibetan, Islamic, the lesser known Muosuo matriarchy, as well as primitive Aini-Hani mountainside terraced irrigation villages. The study concludes with an exhaustive TAT (Thematic Apperception test) analysis of cultural differences between Chinese, Japanese, SE Asian, and American students, who attended University lectures that dealt with the “Velvet Bonds” statistical record. Lower and upper division university courses, graduate seminars, and the general public have purchased and enjoyed the stories and social values, showing the strength of the Chinese Families portrayed in Velvet Bonds.

Velvet Bonds: the Chinese Family click here to purchase.

T’ien T’ai Buddhism and Early Madhyamika

This fascinating study by Professor Yu Kuan Ng is one of the very best and clearest explanations of the famous “Middle Way” school of Mahayana, in East Asian Buddhism. The Middle Way, known as the Madhyamika in Sanskrit, was formulated in India by a monk named Nagarjuna, and developed into a full spiritual practice system by the Chinese monk Zhi Yi (Jr Yi), the founder of T’ain-t’ai Buddhism in China. Zhi YI made the “Middle Way” into a more practical, “emptying” form of meditation in China. The book has helped College students, and the general public, understand this basic spiritual path of Asia.

T’ien T’ai Buddhism and Early Madhyamika click here to purchase.

II. Social Anthropology of China. “Velvet Bonds, the Chinese Family.” (VBCF) This textbook, by Michael Saso, PhD, sells for $20, ($10 wholesale), but comes without cost to IUBeijing students who enroll for the course. Written outlines (of the four themes) and 4 papers are due, one each week). Inquire on-line for guidance in home work, lecture-readings, correction of papers before final submission. Team taught in IUBeijing.

i. A structural analysis of the Chinese Family.  Terminology: three generations living at home is the ideal norm of the traditional Confucian family model, called the “Grand family.” Extended family (two generations, siblings in residence with children), and elementary family, (mother, father, children) are more common in modern urban China. Read pages 1-30; assignment, summarize the contents, explain the terminology, and understand the technical terms.

2. Case studies of Chinese families in north China (p 31 to 48), and minority or “non-Han Chinese” families in ethnically diverse areas (pg 49-72).  show the wide variations, when compared with the southern Han Chinese families seen in week one. Assignment: summarize these stories, point out differences, & compare /contrast with your own family experiences. Note that we visit these areas in our IUB field trips. Which of these areas would you find most interesting to visit and study, after these readings?

3. Statistics taken from the Koseki (Huji) family registers of Hsinchu city, north Taiwan. Analyze, and comment on the differences found in major, minor, uxorilocal, and concubine families (pp. 75-122).

4. The final paper. Read pp. 123 to 134. During the week before the last class, conduct your own TAT (Thematic Apperceptive Test) with family and friends. I.e., show family members or friends a picture of a family, boy and girl dating, students in class, and a meal ready to eat. Have each person make up a story about the picture. Count the words most frequently used with each picture. We will tabulate the results in our last class, or on line; see which words and values were most frequently mentioned in your picture-stories, and compare these with Asian family responses.