• This chapter discusses the Huayan Buddhism of Li Tongxuan. At the core of his Buddhism is the claim that sentient beings are equipped with exactly the same qualities as the Buddha. In his analysis of the 80-fascicle version of the Huayan Jing, Li claims that Huayan teaching is a subitist teaching that proposes the awakening in this lifetime. In this context, unlike “orthodox” Huayan thinkers, Li claims that the chapter “Entering the Realm of Reality” is the core of the Huayan Jing and that Sudha…Read more
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    Kwang-Sae Lee
    Journal of Chinese Philosophy 40 (1): 218-219. 2013.
  •  32
    Philosophy claims that its goal is to search for truth. The history of philosophy, however, demonstrates that this search for truth has not been free from the power dynamics of respective eras. In this article, I claim that the formation of modern East Asian philosophy is one occasion in which the power structure of the time was visibly reflected. The East–West power imbalance at the beginning of the modern period was both implicitly and explicitly imbedded in the formation of modern Buddhist ph…Read more
  •  2
    New Perspectives in Modern Korean Buddhism (edited book)
    with Hwansoo Ilmee Kim
    State University of New York. 2022.
  •  12
    Approaches to Chan, Son, and Zen Buddhism (edited book)
    with Albert Welber and Steven Heine
    State University of New York. 2022.
  •  160
  • The life and work of Kim Iryŏp (1896–1971) bear witness to Korea’s encounter with modernity. A prolific writer, Iryŏp reflected on identity and existential loneliness in her poems, short stories, and autobiographical essays. As a pioneering feminist intellectual, she dedicated herself to gender issues and understanding the changing role of women in Korean society. As an influential Buddhist nun, she examined religious teachings and strove to interpret modern human existence through a religious w…Read more
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    Why and how do women engage with Buddhism and philosophy? The present volume aims to answer these questions by examining the life and philosophy of a Korean Zen Buddhist nun, Kim Iryŏp (1896–1971). The daughter of a pastor, Iryŏp began questioning Christian doctrine as a teenager. In a few years, she became increasingly involved in women’s movements in Korea, speaking against society’s control of female sexuality and demanding sexual freedom and free divorce for women. While in her late twenties…Read more
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    This essay attempts a paradigmatic comparison between the fourfold worldview of Hua-yen Buddhism and the postmodern philosophy of Jean-François Lyotard. Employing a tension between centripetal and centrifugal forces as a structural underpinning of these two philosophies, the essay illuminates the liberating nature of Hua-yen Buddhism and postmodern thought together with the shadow of skepticism involved in endorsing a vision for a poly-lingual existence. Despite human beings' desire for a totali…Read more
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    Through a close analysis of Zen encounter dialogues and Huayan Buddhist philosophy, Buddhism and Postmodernity offers a new ethical paradigm for Buddhist-postmodern philosophy.
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    A TrajectoryIn an essay that is now a classic piece in understanding post-modern culture, Jean-François Lyotard wrote, “[e]clecticism is the degree zero of contemporary general culture: one listens to reggae, watches a western, eats McDonald’s food for lunch and local cuisine for dinner, wears Paris perfume in Tokyo and ‘retro’ clothes in Hong Kong” (Lyotard 1989: 76). The boundaries have become blurred in both positive and negative senses. Geographical borders have loosened through ever-increas…Read more
  •  95
    Merleau-Ponty and Buddhism (edited book)
    with Gereon Kopf
    Lexington Books. 2009.
    Merleau-Ponty and Buddhism explores a new mode of philosophizing through a comparative study of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology and philosophies of major Buddhist thinkers including Nagarjuna, Chinul, Dogen, Shinran, and Nishida Kitaro. The book offers an intercultural philosophy in which opposites intermingle in a chiasmic relationship, and which brings new understanding regarding the self and the self's relation with others in a globalized and multicultural world.
  •  2
    Comparative Political Theory and Cross-Cultural Philosophy explores new forms of philosophizing in the age of globalization by challenging the conventional border between the East and the West, as well as the traditional boundaries among different academic disciplines. This rich investigation demonstrates the importance of cross-cultural thinking in our reading of philosophical texts and explores how cross-cultural thinking transforms our understanding of the traditional philosophical paradigm.
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    Zen language in our time: The case of pojo Chinul's
    Philosophy East and West 55 (1): 80-98. 2005.
    : Zen philosophy of language is discussed by exploring the concepts of live anddeadwords,involvement with meaningand involvement with words, and the three mysterious gates as they are employed in Pojo Chinul's huatou meditation. A comparison is made betweenthe Zenuse of language and Merleau-Ponty's philosophy of visibility, Julia Kristeva's idea of the semiotic and the symbolic, and Kierkegaard's concept of anxiety, in an attempt to provide a paradigm to understand the Zen Buddhist vision
  •  15
    In Memoriam: Kwang‐Sae Lee
    Journal of Chinese Philosophy 40 (1): 218-219. 2013.
  •  60
    Zen and zen philosophy of language: A soteriological approach
    Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 1 (2): 209-228. 2002.
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  •  43
    Ethics of Tension: A Buddhist-Postmodern Ethical Paradigm
    Taiwan Journal of East Asian Studies 10 (19): 123-142. 2013.
    This essay considers an ethical paradigm that can be drawn from Buddhist and postmodern philosophy. Ethics is a practical branch of philosophy and an ethical paradigm is closely connected to the fundamental structure and tenets of a philosophical system. That ethics is a practical branch of philosophy also indicates that meaning and value of a certain ethical paradigm is directly related to the environments in which the paradigm is understood and practiced. In considering an ethical paradigm bas…Read more
  •  506
    Zen language in our time: The case of pojo Chinul's huatou meditation
    Philosophy East and West 55 (1): 80-98. 2005.
    Zen philosophy of language is discussed by exploring the concepts of live and dead words, involvement with meaning and involvement with words, and the three mysterious gates as they are employed in Pojo Chinul's huatou meditation. A comparison is made between the Zen use of language and Merleau-Ponty's philosophy of visibility, Julia Kristeva's idea of the semiotic and the symbolic, and Kierkegaard's concept of anxiety, in an attempt to provide a paradigm to understand the Zen Buddhist vision
  •  6
    Buddhisms and Deconstructions (edited book)
    Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2006.
    Buddhisms and Deconstructions considers the connection between Buddhism and Derridean deconstruction, focusing on the work of Robert Magliola. Fourteen distinguished contributors discuss deconstruction and various Buddhisms—Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese —followed by an afterword in which Magliola responds directly to his critics.