{"title":"Robert H Sharf","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the scholarly works of Robert H. Sharf, a leading voice in Buddhist Studies. Explore critical analyses of Zen Buddhism, ritual practices, and the construction of religious knowledge. A must-read for academics and enthusiasts alike.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"coming-to-terms-with-chinese-buddhism-book-robert-h-sharf-9780824830281","title":"Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe issue of sinification--the manner and extent to which Buddhism and Chinese culture were transformed through their mutual encounter and dialogue--has dominated the study of Chinese Buddhism for much of the past century. Robert Sharf opens this important and far-reaching book by raising a host of historical and hermeneutical problems with the encounter paradigm and the master narrative on which it is based. \u003ci\u003eComing to Terms with Chinese Buddhism\u003c\/i\u003e is, among other things, an extended reflection on the theoretical foundations and conceptual categories that undergird the study of medieval Chinese Buddhism.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Sharf draws his argument in part from a meticulous historical, philological, and philosophical analysis of the \u003ci\u003eTreasure Store Treatise (Pao-tsang lun),\u003c\/i\u003e an eighth-century Buddho-Taoist work apocryphally attributed to the fifth-century master Seng-chao (374-414). In the process of coming to terms with this recondite text, Sharf ventures into all manner of subjects bearing on our understanding of medieval Chinese Buddhism, from the evolution of T'ang \"gentry Taoism\" to the pivotal role of image veneration and the problematic status of Chinese Tantra.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The volume includes a complete annotated translation of the \u003ci\u003eTreasure Store Treatise,\u003c\/i\u003e accompanied by the detailed exegesis of dozens of key terms and concepts.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50369227981073,"sku":"CIN0824830288G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51008649330961,"sku":"NIN9780824830281","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52587543068945,"sku":"NLS9780824830281","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/2020045680.jpg?v=1762598467"},{"product_id":"living-images-book-robert-h-sharf-9780804739894","title":"Living Images","description":"Buddhist images are ubiquitous in Japan, yet they are rarely accorded much attention in studies of Buddhist monastic traditions. Scholars of religion tend to regard Buddhist images as mere symbols or representations of religious ideals, commemorations of saints and patriarchs, ancillary aids to meditative practice, or the focus of lay piety. Art historians approach these images as works of art suitable for stylistic and iconographic analysis. Yet neither of these groups of scholars has adequately appreciated the centrality and significance of images and image worship in Japanese monastic practice.   The essays in this volume focus on the historical, institutional, and ritual context of a number of Japanese Buddhist paintings, sculptures, calligraphies, and relics—some celebrated, others long overlooked. Robert H. Sharf’s introduction examines the reasons for the marginalization of images by modern Buddhist apologists and Western scholars alike, tackling the thorny question of whether Buddhists were in fact idolators.    The essays by Paul Groner and Karen Brock document and explicate the crucial role that sacred images played in the lives of two eminent medieval clerics, Eison and Myoe. James Dobbins looks at Shin representations of Shinran, founder of the Shin school of Pure Land Buddhism, and finds that early Shin piety was centered as much on Shinran and his images as on the Buddha Amida himself. Robert H. Sharf’s essay on the use of Tantric mandalas reveals that, contrary to received opinion, such mandalas were not used as aids to ritual visualization but rather as vivified entities whose presence ensured the efficacy of the rite.    In each case, the authors find that the images were treated, by elite monks and unlettered laypersons alike, as living presences with considerable apotropaic and salvific power, and that Japanese Buddhist monastic life was centered around the management and veneration of these numinous beings.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51007606194449,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007609012497,"sku":"NIN9780804739894","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804739897.jpg?v=1762597883"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-robert-h-sharf.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}