scholarly journals Just Sitting and Just Saying: The Hermeneutics of Dōgen’s Realization-Based View of Language

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Steven Heine
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Contemplative Practice ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Soto Zen ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
Roles Of Teacher ◽  
Zen Buddhist

This paper explicates the complex relationship between contemplative practice and enlightened activity conducted both on and off the meditative cushion as demonstrated in the approach of the Sōtō Zen Buddhist founder Dōgen (1200–1253). I examine Dōgen’s intricate views regarding how language, or what I refer to as just saying, can and should be used in creative yet often puzzling and perplexing ways to express the experience of self-realization by reflecting the state of non-thinking that is attained through unremitting seated meditation or just sitting (shikan taza). In light of the sometimes-forbidding obscurity of his writing, as well as his occasional admonitions against a preoccupation with literary pursuits, I show based on a close reading of primary sources that Dōgen’s basic hermeneutic standpoint seeks to overcome conventional sets of binary oppositions involving uses of language. These polarities typically separate the respective roles of teacher and learner by distinguishing sharply between delusion and insight, truth and untruth, right and wrong, or speech and silence, and thereby reinforce a hierarchical, instrumental, and finite view of discourse. Instead, Dōgen inventively develops expressions that emphasize the non-hierarchical, realization–based, and eminently flexible functions of self-extricating rhetoric such that, according to his paradoxical teaching, “entangled vines are disentangled by using nothing other than entwined creepers,” or as a deceptively straightforward example, “the eyes are horizontal, and the nose is vertical.”

The Russian nationalist movement at low ebb

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Verkhovsky
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Subsequent Increase ◽  
Nationalist Movement

This chapter examines changes in the Russian nationalist movement from Russia’s annexation of Crimea until the State Duma elections in September 2016. Since 2014, the nationalist movement has been split over which side to support in the war in Ukraine. Then, with the subsequent increase in state repression of ultra-rightists, the movement lapsed into total decline. The chapter traces activities in various sectors of Russian nationalism, discussing the separate trajectories of the pro-Kremlin and oppositional nationalists, as well as the latter group’s further subdivision into groups that support or oppose the ‘Novorossiia programme’. Attention is paid to the complex relationship and interaction between the various groups of nationalists, as well as to their interaction with the powers-that-be and with the liberal opposition.

Central Places and Cities: A Consideration of the Protohistoric Tarascan State

1980 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Perlstein Pollard
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Human Settlement ◽  
Settlement System ◽  
Central Places ◽  
Western Mexico ◽  
Urban Status ◽  
Lake Patzcuaro Basin ◽  
Tarascan State

Systems of human settlement serve as primary sources of evidence for investigating variability in the evolution of complex societies. In particular, the existence of and nature of cities reveals much about the nature and direction of sociopolitical changes characteristic of prehistoric states. The present study places the analysis of prehistoric urbanism within the context of settlement system analyses and applies this approach to the protohistoric Tarascan state of western Mexico. This first synthesis of our knowledge of major Tarascan settlements evaluates the protohistoric communities at Tzintzuntzan, Ihuatzio, Pátzcuaro, and Erongarícuaro (within the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin) and considers those outside the Tarascan core, especially Zacapu. This study suggests that the Tarascan state did not participate in the Central Mexican urban tradition, and that the historic capital, Tzintzuntzan, may have been unique in its urban status. Rather, the state was characterized by a complex and overlapping network of central places and specialized places. To the extent that this pattern diverges from other prehistoric systems it constitutes one source for understanding the diversity in the protohistoric Mesoamerican world.

Religion and the State in Post-war Taiwan

2003 ◽  
Vol 174 ◽  
pp. 395-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul R. Katz
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
The State ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Martial Law ◽  
Academic Organizations ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Post War

This article explores the development of local religious traditions in post-war Taiwan, particularly since the ending of martial law in 1987. It focuses on the factors underlying the ongoing popularity of temple cults to local deities such as Mazu (originally the goddess of the sea, now worshipped as an all-powerful protective deity) and the Royal Lords (Wangye; plague deities now invoked to counter all manner of calamities). Special attention is devoted to the complex relationship between local community-based religious traditions and the state, including the loosening of restrictions on festivals, the use of temples as sites for political rallies during local elections, and the recent controversy over attempts to stage direct pilgrimages to mainland China. Other issues include debates over the “indigenization” of religious traditions in Taiwan and the growth of academic organizations devoted to the study of Taiwanese religion.

scholarly journals Interindi: una nueva perspectiva de investigación acerca del indigenismo / Interindi: A New Research Perspective on Indigenismo

2018 ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Laura Giraudo ◽  
Juan Martín Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
State Of The Art ◽  
The State ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Research Perspective ◽  
Scientific Discussion ◽  
Professional Field ◽  
New Research ◽  
Empirical Contribution

This article presents the main objectives and outcomes of the Interindi research project: “El indigenismo interamericano: instituciones, redes y proyectos para un continente, 1940-1960”. Its most ambitious research objective is to provide a methodological, theoretical and empirical contribution to scientific discussion on indigenismo. After discussing the state of the art in this field, advances are offered for a new broader perspective based on two fundamental aspects: 1) the importance of consulting primary sources to explain indigenismo, and 2) the need to remove the discussion of the indigenous question and indigenismo from the auto-referential context in which it has developed.Key WordsIndigenismo, professional field, inter-American networks.ResumenEste artículo presenta los objetivos y resultados principales del proyecto de investigación Interindi: “El indigenismo interamericano: instituciones, redes y proyectos para un continente, 1940-1960”. El objetivo más ambicioso de la investigación es conseguir una contribución metodológica, teórica y empírica a la discusión científica acerca del indigenismo. Tras discutir el estado de la cuestión, se introducen los avances de una nueva perspectiva general que radica en dos aspectos fundamentales: 1) la importancia de acudir al estudio de las fuentes para explicar el indigenismo y 2) la necesidad de sacar la discusión sobre la cuestión indígena y el indigenismo del contexto autorreferencial en que se ha desarrollado.Palabras claveIndigenismo, campo profesional, redes interamericanas.

Educational Activities of the State Russian Museum in the 1940s

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 549-559
Author(s):  
Olga A. Tuminskaya
Keyword(s):  
Publishing House ◽  
The State ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Subsequent Work ◽  
Educational Activities ◽  
Tour Guides ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Post War ◽  
Museum Tour

The relevance of the article is indicated by referring to archival primary sources that characterize the forms and methods of scientific and artistic educational activities of the State Russian Museum in the 1940s, in particular — during the Great Patriotic War (a museum tour, an exhibition session, a lecture, a conversation with slides). This makes it possible to more accurately identify the direction of work in the following years and at the present time and indicate the need to introduce other forms of work with visitors: lectures with slides, traveling exhibitions, concerts, cycle subscriptions, trips to villages and enterprises, lectures on the radio, cooperation with the museum’s publishing house and the country’s press bodies.The influence of the Department of Scientific and Artistic Propaganda of the 1940s on the State Russian Museum’s subsequent work on communication with the audience is expressed in the revision of the content of the excursion and lecture courses. In the 1950s—1970s, messages on the heroic past of the Soviet people, presentations of the activities of warrior artists, and communication with national unions of artists gained particular popularity. The State Russian Museum became a center for advanced training of tour guides for peripheral art museums.Documentary sources, which include archive materials, are of particular importance in the preservation of memory. Together with them, works of art created during the war or in the first post-war years play an invaluable role in restoring the truth.

Steps toward a Study of Symeon the Stylite the Younger and His Saint’s Cult*

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 370-407
Author(s):  
Dina Boero ◽  
Charles Kuper
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
The State ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Material Sources ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Insight Into

A large dossier of primary sources survives for Symeon the Stylite the Younger from Late Antiquity. These sources include not only hagiographical evidence, but also archaeological remains from his cult site, homilies, and at least one letter. They offer insight into the varied voices which shaped Symeon’s identity, sanctity, and ministry in the sixth and early seventh centuries CE. The state of scholarship on these sources is uneven, however, with the result that scholars have primarily studied the saint and his cult through the lens of the hagiographic material, the Life of Symeon Stylites the Younger in particular. In order to lay the foundation for a full inquiry into the saint and his cult, this article disentangles the dossier of evidence on Symeon in Late Antiquity. It introduces each source in chronological order; provides an overview of authorship, date, and the state of scholarship for each source; and makes preliminary recommendations for paths forward. It is meant to be a guide for art historians and archaeologists unfamiliar with the sizeable literary corpus, textual scholars who do not often work with material sources, and, for both groups, an introduction to problems in the dossier. It encourages scholars to treat each source on its own terms and re-evaluate the rich interconnections between the textual and archaeological evidence.

Waste of Breath: The Readymade as a Stage Set

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sozita Goudouna
Keyword(s):  
Visual Art ◽  
The State ◽  
Complex Relationship

This chapter attempts to further illuminate Breath’s complex relationship between a visual art piece and the theatre by examining Beckett’s choice to fill the stage with scattered and lying rubbish as an effort to escape ‘aesthetisised automatism’, and by arguing that the presence of rubbish is related to Beckett’s ‘anti-aesthetic’ and ‘aesthetics of failure’, as described in his final piece of discursive criticism the ‘Three Dialogues’, that implies the failure to represent (to fail means to fail to represent) and the state of artistic impotence.

Protodemocracy and the Fall of Sovereignty (Hobbes, Aristotle)

2021 ◽  
pp. 203-249
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Bennington
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
State Of Nature ◽  
Rhetorical Dimension ◽  
Models Of Reading

A close reading of Hobbes stresses the latter’s recognition of a democratic or proto-democratic moment at the root of the political, at the aporetic moment of transition from the state of nature to the political state. This rather effaced priority of democracy sits uneasily with Hobbes’s deep suspicion of it, and its constant association in his work with rhetoric and oratory. A reading of Hobbes’s language theory in light of Aristotle’s distinction between phonè and logos shows how this rhetorical dimension of language is in fact irreducible (and indeed exuberantly exploited in Hobbes’s own writing), and how, especially in Hobbes’s elaborate and fascinating discussion of counsel, it relates to the structural failing both of the sovereignty Hobbes is concerned to defend and of the models of reading he promotes in the Leviathan.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 213-216
Author(s):  
J. V. Fesko
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Roman Catholics

The conclusion summarizes the study. The doctrine stands in continuity with patristic versions and does not arise de novo in the sixteenth century. Roman Catholics were also some of the first sixteenth-century theologians to teach an Adamic covenant. The doctrine is a construct based on a good and necessary consequence. This means that the doctrine has a broad scriptural foundation. There are also different variants of the doctrine and even confessional formulations allow for a diversity of opinion. These points stand in contrast to the claims of critics who rarely engage a close reading of primary sources. Moreover, with the development of biblicism, critics have approached the question with a different hermeneutic methodology than early modern Reformed theologians. Lastly, one of the most important themes in the covenant of works is love, something that most critics of the doctrine fail to factor.

On the transmodality of signs and their interpretants: Evidence from Peirce’s MS 599, Reason’s Rules

Semiotica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (228) ◽  
pp. 223-235
Author(s):  
Winfried Nöth
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
The State ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Communicative Process ◽  
External Sign ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe paper begins with a survey of the state of the art in multimodal research, an international trend in applied semiotics, linguistics, and media studies, and goes on to compare its approach to verbal and nonverbal signs to Charles S. Peirce’s approach to signs and their classification. The author introduces the concept of transmodality to characterize the way in which Peirce’s classification of signs reflects the modes of multimodality research and argues that Peirce’s classification of the signs takes modes and modalities in two different respects into consideration, (1) from the perspective of the sign and (2) from the one of its interpretant. While current research in multimodality has its focus on the (external) sign in a communicative process, Peirce considers additionally the multimodality of the interpretants, i.e., the mental icons and indexical scenarios evoked in the interpreters’ minds. The paper illustrates and comments on the Peircean method of studying the multi and transmodality of signs in an analysis of Peirce’s close reading of Luke 19:30 in MS 599, Reason’s Rules, of c. 1902. As a sign, this text is “monomodal” insofar as it consists of printed words only. The study shows in which respects the interpretants of this text evince trans and multimodality.

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