Urs App

Urs App (* 1949 in Rorschach ) is a Swiss researcher in the field of Buddhist Studies , Humanities , and the history of ideas , philosophy and the history of East-West relations.

Life

Urs App was born in Rorschach on Lake Constance in 1949 and studied psychology, philosophy and religious studies in Freiburg , Kyōto and Philadelphia . He received his PhD in 1989 from Temple University, Philadelphia, specializing in Chinese Buddhism. From 1989 to 1999 he was full professor of Buddhism at Hanazono University in Kyoto and deputy director of the International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism at the same university. Since then, he has been writing books, producing documentaries and doing research at various institutions in Asia and Europe, most recently at the Research Institute for Zen Culture (Zenbunka kenkyujo, Kyoto; 2005–2007), the Swiss National Fund for the Promotion of Scientific Research. the Scuola Italiana di Studi sull'Asia Orientale (Italian School of East Asian Studies, ISEAS; 2010–2011) and the École Française d'Extrême-Orient (2012-).

The main research areas of Urs App are the study of Buddhism (especially Zen Buddhism ), the history of Orientalism , the history of the European discovery of Asian religions, the history of philosophy in East and West (especially of Schopenhauer and his reception of Asian ideas) and the History of ideas in the Orient and Occident.

Publications (books only)

In addition to numerous journal articles, App has published a number of books on his research interests.

Zen master Yunmen. Life and teaching of the last giant of the Zen classic . Wil: UniversityMedia, 2018. ISBN 978-3-906000-29-9
Zen Master Yunmen. His Life and Essential Sayings . Boulder: Shambhala, 2018. ISBN 978-1-61180-559-8
Michel-Jean-François Ozeray and Urs App. The First Western Book on Buddhism and Buddha . Wil: UniversityMedia, 2017. ISBN 978-3-906000-27-5 .
Schopenhauer's Compass. An Introduction to Schopenhauer's Philosophy and its Origins . UniversityMedia, Wil 2014, ISBN 978-3-906000-03-9 , pp. 362 .
The Cult of Emptiness. The Western Discovery of Buddhist Thought and the Invention of Oriental Philosophy . Rorschach / Kyoto: UniversityMedia, 2012 ( ISBN 978-3-906000-09-1 ) (Best Buddhist books of the year 2012, Buddhadharma magazine)
Schopenhauer's compass . Rorschach / Kyoto: UniversityMedia, 2011 ( ISBN 978-3-906000-08-4 [hardback] and ISBN 978-3-906000-02-2 [paperback])
Richard Wagner and Buddhism . Rorschach / Kyoto: UniversityMedia, 2011 ( ISBN 978-3-906000-00-8 )
The Birth of Orientalism . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010 ( ISBN 978-0-8122-4261-4 ) (winner of the 2012 book prize of the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres)
Sino-Platonic Papers No. 200 (April 2010) (PDF file, 8.7 MB PDF, 172 pages) Arthur Schopenhauer and China. (PDF; 8.5 MB)
William Jones's Ancient Theology. Sino-Platonic Papers No. 191 (September 2009) (PDF file, 3.7 MB PDF, 125 pages)
Over twenty volumes of concordances of Chinese centexts.
Richard Wagner and Buddhism: Love - Tragedy. Zurich: Museum Rietberg, 1997. Extended new edition: Rorschach / Kyoto: UniversityMedia, 2011 ( ISBN 978-3-906000-10-7 )
Zen words from Cloud Gate Mountain. Explanations and discussions of the Zen master Yunmen Wenyan (864–949). Bern / Munich: Barth, 1994 ISBN 3-502-64640-6
Master Yunmen. New York: Kodansha International, 1994. ( ISBN 1-56836-004-5 ).
Facets of the Life and Teaching of Chan Master Yunmen Wenyan (864-949) (PDF; 17.4 MB). Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 342 S. (Ph. D. Dissertation, Temple University, 1989)
Urs App et al .: In memory of Prof. Yanagida Seizan (PDF, 1.4 MB, 73 pages).

Documentaries

Slow Photography: Koichiro Kurita . Documentary for the exhibition by the Japanese photographer Koichiro Kurita at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland ME, USA (2018).
Sengai . Documentary film for the exhibition at the Rietberg Museum Zurich about the Japanese Zen master and painter Sengai (2014).
The tea whisk . Documentary film for the bamboo exhibition in the Völkerkundemuseum of the University of Zurich (2003, 2014), in the Völkerkundemuseum Munich (2006) and at the drinking culture - cult drink exhibition at the Völkerkundemuseum of the University of Zurich (in collaboration with Monica Esposito)
On the way to Tōhaku's pine forest . Documentary for the Hasegawa Tōhaku art exhibition (2002) at the Rietberg Museum, Zurich (in collaboration with Monica Esposito)
Dangki . Documentary on the France 2 channel (in collaboration with Monica Esposito) (2001)
Oracle in China . Documentary for the oracle exhibition 2000 in the Rietberg Museum, Zurich (in collaboration with Monica Esposito)
Oracle in Japan . Documentary for the oracle exhibition 2000 in the Rietberg Museum, Zurich (in collaboration with Monica Esposito)
Chinese oracle children . Documentary for the oracle exhibition 2000 in the Rietberg Museum, Zurich (in collaboration with Monica Esposito)

CD-ROM

ZenBase CD1. Kyoto: International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism ( ISBN 4-938796-18-X ; world's earliest CD-ROM with over 80 Chinese Buddhist texts).