Reviews for Identities in Context: Media, Myth, Religion in Time and Place

The average rating for Identities in Context: Media, Myth, Religion in Time and Place based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-02-03 00:00:00 Sandra G. Goeden No matter what, the Zen-samurai can endure anything and everything. Because “…he can enjoy everything” . That’s how the book ends. The self must have authority “over all the body”. Zen IS the religion of the samurai. The book starts with a historical perspective of the two main currents of Zen: the Rinzei and the Soto traditions. It proceeds highlighting the parallels between a Zen monk and a samurai warrior. Many, indeed, acknowledges the author. Then, the steps for mental training are exposed. Ideal places for meditation, adequate sitting positions, foods etc are approached. I’ve found some irony [?] when the author compared the learning of Zen to the burglar and the son, who wanted to learn the tricks of the trade of his father. So his father took him to a place he was stealing from, at night. It happens, somehow, they were spotted; the father managed to escape but left the son locked inside a box. Zen is like that: you’ve got to figure it out, how to get out of the box; you’re (like) the son, trying to escape, unscathed; un-resentful. The superpowers issue is touched. It seems not that important in Zen, as they are in certain Chinese traditions. Suffice to say: life WITHIN is “divine”. You're really boxed. By the way, the son started scratching the box like a cat....

Review # 2 was written on 2020-01-11 00:00:00 Brian Connelly There is a LOT of vocabulary pertaining to Buddhism and Zen, which just makes you be lost in all that. There's really little about the relationship between Zen and Samurais and the whole Bushido philosophy. It builds the difference between Himayanism and Mahayanism, with the different approaches it has as a whole, but even then you get lost with all the sutras, mantras, and weird hindu names. This book was a dissapointment to be honest, and i only finished it because of my obsession that makes me finish all books once i start them.