The following chapter on the roots of topica analyses a number of the larger epistemological and ethical issues raised by CB, in an attempt to reinterpret both 'criticalism' and 'topicalism' with reference to four key motifs in Zen tradition: experience (jikishi-ninshin: 'directly pointing to the human mind ' ) tradition (kyoge-betsuden: 'an independent transmission apart from written scriptures' ) language (furyu-moji or furyu-monji: 'not relying on words and letters' ) and enlightenment (kensho jobutsu: 'awakening to one's original Nature ' ). In addition, the development of so-called Imperial Way Zen (kodozen )-which represents in many respects the culmination of the 'false' Buddhism the Critical Buddhists attack-is examined. After a brief analysis of violence, warfare and social discrimination within Buddhism and specifically Japanese traditions, some important background to the context in which Critical Buddhism arose is recalled. Chapter 2 with the title 'Eye of the Storm: Historical and Political Context' is largely explanatory. The introduction provides the religious and philosophical context as well as the motivations and intentions of the study.

This study is made up of seven chapters, including the introduction and the conclusion. This study critically analyzes Critical Buddhism (hihan bukkyo hereafter: CB) as a philosophical and a religious movement it investigates the specific basis of CB, particularly the philosophical categories of critica and topica, vis-a-vis contemporary theories of knowledge and ethics, in order to re-situate CB within modern Japanese and Buddhist thought as well as in relation to current trends in contemporary Western thought.

Malleable Māra by Michael D. Nichols