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The multi-site replication study, Many Labs 2 (ML2), attempted to test whether population, site and setting variability moderates the likelihood of replication and effect size. The analysis concluded that sample location and setting did not substantially affect the replicability of findings. In this paper, we raise several issues with the ML2 approach to adjudicating the effect of culture that cast doubt on this conclusion. These theoretical and methodological problems (pre-registered at https://osf.io/6exr4) involve the: (1) selection of studies and sample sites for replication that are not theory-driven, (2) sampling of mostly WEIRD people around the world, (3) conflation of participants’ cultural backgrounds with the country where the samples came from, (4) use of the WEIRD backronym by decomposing it into a scale, and (5) application of a mean split of that WEIRD variable. Moreover, simulations reveal strikingly low statistical power for detecting cultural influences in a multi-side study designed like ML2. We propose methodologies to address problems (3) to( 5) by re-analyzing the ML2 dataset using an alternative approach. These results suggest that tackling only some of the design problems is insufficient to overcome the underlying theoretical and methodological deficiencies. We conclude with specific recommendations for assessing the role of population variability in future multi-site studies that address evidentiary value and effect size.

The second chapter examines is Dōgen’s overall view of language and expressivity as essential tools for disclosing Buddhist teachings, in addition to a detailed analysis of a few representative poems. Traditionally Dōgen’s poetry has been overlooked or neglected because he expressed a few sayings that indicate literary pursuit is a distraction from meditation and the role of versification is generally associated with the rival Rinzai sect rather than Dōgen’s own Sōtō sect. However, modern Japanese scholarship has recently shown that these stereotypes are misleading so that an appreciation of Dōgen’s poetry in both Chinese and Japanese styles is very useful and important for understanding the rhetoric in his major prose writings, including the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, the first eight volumes of the Extensive Record, and Dōgen’s Monastic Rules.

The third and most important chapter of the book is a bilingual version of Wisdom within Words including translations with comments for each of the 149 kanshi poems selected by Menzan, plus the final verse written by Menzan as a postscript for a total of 150 poems. In the opening section, the origins of the poems in the ten volumes of the Extensive Record are cited in a table that should be read in connection with a more detailed list provided in the Appendix. Then, the rendering of every verse is accompanied by the author’s remarks concerning when and where it was composed by Dōgen and its importance for understanding Zen spirituality as seen in relation to East Asian Buddhist thought and intellectual history. Also discussed in these explanations is a comparison of the version of the verse from Dōgen’s Extensive Record that is cited by Menzan with the alternative edition of the source text that often differs in wording or tone.

The first chapter examines the textual origins and diverse implications of Dōgen Sinitic poetry collection titled Wisdom within Words (Kuchūgen) as compiled in 1759 by the eminent Sōtō Zen scholar-monk Menzan along with his annotations and edited in recent years by Murakami Shindō. Some of the main topics discussed are how the poems were culled by Menzan from Dōgen’s ten-volume Extensive Record, a compendium of various prose and poetic writings that is extant in two versions, with Menzan using the edition first published in 1672 by Manzan, as well as the significance of the title of the poetry collection and the ways it is presented by Murakami’s book featuring many useful interpretative resources that help readers access the significance of the sometimes-obscure verses.

The final chapter contains a couple of dozen additional poems written by Dōgen that are not part of Menzan’s compilation but that I have selected from various parts of the Extensive Record, including sermons in volumes 1–7 plus 8, kōan comments in volume 9, and diverse poetic styles in volume 10. These materials are presented to supplement and complement the verses contained in Wisdom within Words by showing several different facets of Dōgen’s literary interests and writing skills. These are seen in relation to how he articulates the quest for enlightenment by encompassing particular examples of the universal meanings of spiritual realization in support of the conduct of a Zen adept and his assembly of monks during meditative practice, ceremonial occasions, or other particular activities.

A key prediction of Terror Management Theory is that people affirm their cultural worldview after they are reminded of death. This mortality salience (MS) hypothesis has been widely explored, yet the presence of questionable research practices may impact the replicability of this literature. We assess the evidential value of the MS hypothesis by conducting a pre-registered p-curve analysis of 860 published studies. Our results suggest that there are nonzero effects in this literature and that power is larger for studies conducted with multiple delays between the independent and dependent variables, for studies that test for main effects in comparison to those that test for interactions, and for studies conducted more recently. However, since the estimated average power of MS studies is 26%, direct replications are unlikely to succeed. We recommend researchers consider our evidence when planning their samples, and that they anticipate smaller effects by increasing their sample sizes.

Uchiyama et al. question heritability estimates in a convincing manner. We offer additional arguments to further bolster their claims, highlighting methodological issues in heritability coefficients’ derivation, their misuse in various contexts, and their potential contributions to exacerbating common erroneous intuitions that have been shown to lead to deleterious social phenomena. We conclude that science should move away from using them.

This chapter provides a complete translation of Giun’s verse comments on the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye along with the original kanbun (Sino-Japanese) text composed in the fourteenth century, including the four-line verses and capping phrases written by Giun and those by Honkō from the eighteenth century. In addition, the preface by Giun is included. A complete list of the fascicles with the translation, romanization, and original characters is also presented. The chapter additionally features the author’s own interpretative remarks concerning Giun’s medieval commentary by highlighting the meaning and significance of each of the 60 fascicles and discussing the symbolism and ramification of key examples of Giun’s and Honkō’s poetic imagery. Reading through these materials highlights various literary motifs and religious themes that characterize the verse comments.

This chapter gives an overview of the origins, content, historical development, and important literary, religious, and philosophical implications of Giun’s Verse Comments on Dōgen’s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, which was written in 1329 and published a century later and remained a key component of Sōtō Zen intellectual life for several centuries during the medieval period. It explains how Giun made decisive contributions to the restoration of Sōtō Zen at a key turning point in its early institutional expansion. These developments followed a few decades of decline caused by intense intrafactional rivalries at Eiheiji as part of the aftermath of Dōgen’s death compounded by the impact of a devastating fire in 1297 that destroyed many of the monastery’s architectural and textual treasures. By the Edo period, the significance of Giun’s Verse Comments was eclipsed by the Prose Comments (Goshō) on Dōgen’s Treasury written by Senne and Kyōgō.

In considering the roots, basis, and aftermath of the Verse Comments, which was composed as a lyrical interpretation of the 60-fascicle edition of Dōgen’s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, several facts are well known about when and why it was written. However, many aspects of the historical context remain unclear in regard to the reasons for the textual production, so that there is no choice but to make some conjectures based on compelling literary and chronological evidence. Speculation about the formation and dissemination (or lack thereof) of Giun’s work in relation to the significance of the 60-fascicle edition should be argued by assessing traditional records along with contemporary research that has uncovered important archival materials for Treasury manuscripts previously unavailable to scholars. This chapter explains the evidence while summarizing recent theories about the possible rationale for how and why the Verse Comments was constructed.

This chapter features a representative selection of additional kanbun poems composed by Giun and several other prominent monk-poets from the Sōtō and Rinzai schools in China and Japan. The work of those monks is particularly relevant for providing a context by which to understand the crucial role played by the fifth Eiheiji abbot in shaping the early-medieval history of Zen’s approach to studying Dōgen’s Treasury by appropriating Chinese poetic sources, including interpretations of the doctrine of the Five Ranks, and embracing key elements of the boundary-crossing Wanshi-ha movement’s literary standpoint for Zen training. Following an introductory discussion, two main parts of the chapter cover more than twenty translated verses in all.

This volume, containing a translation, annotations, and historical studies of Giun’s (1200–1253) Verse Comments on Dōgen’s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shōbōgenzō honmokuju), represents the initial book-length contribution to a crucial though previously unnoticed sub-field in Japanese Buddhist studies involving text-historical and literary-philological examinations of a key example of the copious premodern collections of annotations and interpretations of the masterwork of Zen master Dōgen. It is the first study of the life and thought of Giun and of the 60-fascicle version of Dōgen’s masterwork, which are crucial for understanding the history of the Sōtō Zen Buddhist sect’s intellectual development. The main translation of this text consists of four-line verses and capping phrases composed by Giun, accompanied by additional capping phrases that were contributed by an eighteenth-century commentator, Katsusdō Honkō. The book also provides an examination of the background and influences exerted on and by Giun’s Verse Comments in relation to various aspects of Dōgen’s writings and Zen thought in China and Japan.

Spreading Buddha's Word in East Asia, a volume coedited by Jiang Wu and Lucille Chia based on the results of an international conference held at the University of Arizona in 2011, features finely d...

Zen master Dōgen 道元 (1200–1253), the founder of the Sōtō sect in medieval Japan, is often referred to as the leading classical philosopher in Japanese history and one of the foremost exponents of Mahayana Buddhist thought. His essays, sermons and poems on numerous Buddhist topics included in his main text, the Shōbōgenzō 正法眼蔵 (Treasury of the True Dharma-Eye), reflect an approach to religious experience based on a more philosophical analysis of topics such as time and temporality, impermanence and momentariness, the universality of Buddha-nature and naturalism, and the role of language and emotions in the experience of enlightenment, as well as practical matters such as ethics and the precepts or meditation and daily activity, than is generally found in the writings of most thinkers in the Japanese Zen school. The single main element in Dōgen’s unique approach to Buddhist theory and practice is his emphasis on the multiple meanings of “impermanence” (J. mujō 無常) in personal experience and as the basis for Buddhist metaphysics. In particular, he emphasizes the radical impermanence of each and every phenomenon and the need to attain spiritual realization by acknowledging and identifying, rather than resisting or denying, the ephemeral nature of reality. The notion of impermanence or the transiency of all aspects of human and natural existence has always been a fundamental feature of the Buddhist teaching since the sermons of the Buddha dealing with the doctrines of anātman (“non-self”) and anitya (“impermanence”) regarding the insubstantial, selfless nature of things. However, Dōgen repeatedly cautions against any subtle tendency to view ultimate reality––nirvāṇa or the universal “Buddha-nature” (J. busshō 仏性)––as an eternal realm separable from, or independent of, impermanence. Instead, he stresses that a full, unimpeded, and perpetually renewed experience of impermanence and of the unity of “being-time” (J. uji 有時) is the touchstone and framework of every aspect of Buddhist meditative training and spiritual realization. Other key doctrines related to this are the “spontaneous here-and-now manifestation of Zen enlightenment” (J. genjōkōan 現成公案), the “eternal moment of meditation” (J. gyōji no ima 行事の今), the “immediacy of awakening” (J. nikon 而今), and “impermanence-Buddha-nature” (J. mujō-busshō 無常仏性). In addition to looking at Dōgen’s poetic writings on aesthetic experience, later writings on karma and supernaturalism will be briefly examined for their contributions to his philosophical discussions of mystical awareness and the issues of commitment and responsibility involved in authentic religious practice.

Chan Buddhist philosophy as expressed in the Blue Cliff Record and related gongan case commentarial literature is primarily based on the notion of the instantaneous pivot moment, in which a master creates a profound turnaround experience reflecting his own liberation so as to reveal the deficient tendencies of his dialogue partner in a way that leads both parties to enhance their spiritual awareness. What are the implications of the pivot experience for understanding the overall Chan view of time and space? From the standpoint of temporality, Chan emphasizes the unity of momentary experience and continuity unbound yet not oblivious to sequential limitations. In terms of spatiality, the Chan pivot is a universal experience but is realized in particular manifestations of natural phenomena as perceived by an awakened observer.

Trained under Nakae Tōju, the founder of the Wang Yangming school (Yōmeigaku) of Confucian idealism during the Tokugawa era in Japan, Kumazawa Banzan is known for his eclectic and pragmatic philosophy emphasizing political and economic reforms. For example, he recommended that the shogunate take greater responsibility for promoting economic equity and prosperity by supporting rice production and storage as well as the use of rice as the medium of exchange. He advocated a form of government dedicated to the Confucian ideal of benevolence.

This chapter consists of three parts, each of which presents the philosophical contributions of an influential modern Japanese thinker closely affiliated with Rinzai Zen Buddhism: D. T. Suzuki (Jp. Suzuki Daisetsu), Hisamatsu Shin’ichi, and Masao Abe (Jp. Abe Masao). The first part focuses on the kernel of Suzuki’s “Zen thought,” namely the “logic of is/not” that he sees as underlying Zen koāns and teachings. The second part focuses on the key themes of Hisamatsu’s thought: his understanding of the “true self” in terms of a formless and thus completely unobjectifiable “absolute nothingness” and his claim that this true self is “absolute autonomous.” The third part provides an overview of Abe’s contributions to the philosophical analyses of Zen texts and teachings as well as to intrafaith (especially between Zen and Pure Land schools of Japanese Buddhism) and interfaith dialogue (especially between Mahayana Buddhism and Christianity).

According to the "Fox Koan", the second case in the "Wu-men Kuan Koan" collection, Zen master Pai-chang encounters a fox who claims to be a former abbot punished through endless reincarnations for denying the efficacy of karmic causality. Most traditional interpretations of the "Koan" focus on the philosophical issue of causality in relation to earlier Buddhist doctrines, such as independent origination and emptiness. This text examines the "Fox Koan" in relation to philosophical and institutional issues facing the Ch'an/Zen tradition in both Sung China and medieval and contemporary Japan. The author integrates his own philological analysis of the "Koan", textual analysis of the "Koan" collections and related literary genres in T'ang and Sung China, folkelore studies, and research on monastic codes and institutional history to craft this work.