The Rhetoric of Immediacy

Know about the book -

The Rhetoric of Immediacy is written by Bernard Faure and published by Princeton University Press. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 1400844266 (ISBN 10) and 9781400844265 (ISBN 13).

Through a highly sensitive exploration of key concepts and metaphors, Bernard Faure guides Western readers in appreciating some of the more elusive aspects of the Chinese tradition of Chan Buddhism and its outgrowth, Japanese Zen. He focuses on Chan's insistence on "immediacy"--its denial of all traditional mediations, including scripture, ritual, good works--and yet shows how these mediations have always been present in Chan. Given this apparent duplicity in its discourse, Faure reveals how Chan structures its practice and doctrine on such mental paradigms as mediacy/immediacy, sudden/gradual, and center/margins.