zen buddhism 9

 1) In your survey of the various Chinese canons from the Sanzang Project, why do you think Tetsugen selected the Jiaxing canon to use as a basis for his own edition in Japan? Next, think broadly: What does this tell you about the connections between text and practice? In other words, how can we see texts reflected in religious practices and how can we see practices confirm texts, generally? 

2) Read the final paragraph of “Carving the Scriptures” once more. How is the waning interest in the Testugen edition of the Buddhist canon an “end of a narrative”? What narrative is ending? Or is it? Next, think broadly: What does this tell us about the relationship between texts and ideas? In other words, how are bodies of knowledge mutable and how is this mutability dictated by text?