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È poco noto che Richard Wagner fu tra i primi occidentali ad apprezzare il buddismo e il primo grande artista europeo ad ispirarsi a questa religione. Nel 1856, nel pieno della sua creatività, l'artista 33enne lesse il suo primo libro sul buddismo. Follemente innamorato di Mathilde Wesendonck, una donna bellissima ma felicemente sposata, concepì due progetti d'opera profondamente legati tra loro: Tristan und Isolde, che poi compose e mise in scena, e Die Sieger (I vincitori), un'opera basata su una leggenda indiana del Buddha tradotta dal sanscrito. Questi due progetti rispecchiano il desiderio ardente di Wagner di consumare il suo amore e la necessità della rinuncia.Il progetto dell'opera buddista occupò la mente di Wagner per decenni, fino alla sua morte nel 1883. Infatti, le ultime parole del compositore riguardavano la figura del Buddha del suo scenario e il suo rapporto con le donne. Urs App, autore di The Birth of Orientalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010) e di The Cult of Emptiness (2012), storico di fama mondiale della scoperta occidentale del buddismo, racconta la storia dell'incontro creativo di Richard Wagner con il buddismo e spiega le ultime parole del compositore.Come storico delle idee, l'autore si è da tempo interessato ai plagi storici e alle frodi letterarie. L'uso estensivo senza autorizzazione del suo libro Richard Wagner and Buddhism (2011) da parte di Giorgio Tagliabue in Wagner e il nirvana (Roma: Albatros, 2022) è un caso da manuale per lo studio del plagio. Per facilitare tale studio, la traduzione italiana dell'intero libro di App è accostata al suo plagio.

What distinguishes human beings from other animals and creatures, and what does religion-in particular, Zen Buddhism-have to do with human nature ?In this book, Richard DeMartino (1922-2013), the pre-eminent Western Zen thinker of the 20th century presents the Zen understanding of man and his problematic nature ("human beings do not know who they are"); of awakening to his true nature (True Self); and of the Zen path leading to this Self-awakening. DeMartino's analysis in this book of the resolution to man's fundamental problem, and of the basic features of Zen methodology to achieve this goal, constitute his fullest discussion of these topics.Though teaching at Temple University in Philadelphia for some twenty years until his retirement in 1986, DeMartino was a reclusive thinker who shunned the limelight and was known to few outside the circle of his colleagues and students in Philadelphia. The present volume contains Richard DeMartino's hitherto unpublished Ph. D. dissertation of 1969. While other writings of his (published in 2021 and 2022) discuss some topics in greater detail, DeMartino's doctoral dissertation contains his unequalled comprehensive discussion of Zen. With this book, UniversityMedia's trilogy of Richard DeMartino's main writings is complete:Human Nature and Zen (2021). ISBN 978-3-906000-17-6Zen Encounters (2022). ISBN 978-3-906000-22-0The Zen Understanding of Man (2023). ISBN 978-3-906000-32-9

Buddha, in the first of his Four Noble Truths, states that "All is suffering." What does he mean by that? Is this starting point of Buddhism in any way connected with human nature? Is there such a nature at all? What sets us humans apart from other animals? And how is this difference related to religion?In this book, the fruit of a life-long quest, Richard DeMartino explains what makes us members of the species homo sapiens sapiens unique: we are conscious of being conscious. This reflective consciousness or self-consciousness forms the basis of our personhood, of our identity as an "I." Irrespective of sex, nationality, race, age, etc., being a self-aware "I" or "self" is what makes us human. But how is this related to the first Noble Truth? To be a self-aware subject-"I" implies facing objects-including myself-to which I am inextricably bound and yet from which I am alienated. Along with other religions and philosophies of Oriental origin (such as Advaita Vedanta), Zen Buddhism calls the human being's constitutive subject-object matrix "duality," and identifies this duality as man's root problem. This book focuses on the initial nature and the basic problem of the human person. The resolution to this problem-Non-duality or Awakening to the self-less Self-is a major theme of the companion volume Zen Encounters (ISBN 978-3-906000-22-0) containing Dr. DeMartino's seminal essays and conversations. Richard DeMartino (1922-2013), Zen practitioner and thinker, long-time student of D.T. Suzuki, Shin'ichi Hisamatsu, Paul Tillich, and Reinhold Niebuhr, and co-author (along with D.T. Suzuki and Erich Fromm) of the classic Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis, was senior associate professor of religion at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.

Meister Yunmen Wenyan (864-949), der Gründer einer der fünf Schulen des chinesischen Zen (Chan), war ein Gigant unter den großen Meistern des Zen im alten China. Als letzter Vertreter der Klassik des Zen wurde er zum meistzitierten Protagonisten aller K¿an-Sammlungen. In seinen Darlegungen und Gesprächen, vom Sinologen und Japanologen Urs App in repräsentativer Auswahl originalgetreu und kongenial ins Deutsche übertragen, kommen der Geist und die besondere Eigenart des Zen so klar zum Ausdruck wie in kaum einem anderen Zen-Text. Der alte Meister tritt uns hier in seiner ganzen Kantigkeit und alle Konventionen sprengenden Spontaneität entgegen und fordert uns heraus, ihm ins Reich der grenzenlosen Freiheit zu folgen.