Urs App

Urs App, born August 10, 1949 in Rorschach (Switzerland)

Urs App(born 1949 inRorschach, Switzerland) is a historian of ideas, religions, and philosophies with a special interest in the history and modes of interaction between East and West.

Biography

Urs App was born in 1949 in Rorschach on the Swiss shore of theLake of Constanceand studied inFreiburg,KyotoandPhiladelphiapsychology,philosophyandreligious studies.In 1989 he obtained a Ph.D. in Religious Studies (Chinese Buddhism) fromTemple Universityin Philadelphia. From 1989 to 1999 he was full professor ofBuddhismatHanazono UniversityinKyotoand Associate Director of the International Research Institute for Zen Buddhismat Hanazono University (Director Seizan YANAGIDA). He has since devoted himself to writing books and producing documentaries while engaging in research at various academic institutions in Asia and Europe, most recently at the Research Institute for Zen Culture(Zenbunka kenkyujo,Kyoto;2005–2007), theSwiss National Science Foundation(SNSF;2007–2010), the Scuola Italiana di Studi sull'Asia Orientale(Italian School of East Asian Studies,ISEAS; 2010-2011), and theÉcole Française d'Extrême-Orient(2012-).

Focuses of research areBuddhist studies(especiallyZen Buddhism), the history oforientalism,the history of the European discovery of Asian religions, the history of philosophy in East and West (in particular also Schopenhauer's reception of Asian religions and philosophies), and the exchange of ideas between Asia and the West.

Books

• Zen Meister Yunmen. Leben und Lehre des letzten Giganten der Zen-Klassik.Wil: UniversityMedia, 2018 (ISBN978-3-906000-29-9)
• Zen Master Yunmen. His Life and Essential Sayings.Boulder: Shambhala, 2018 (ISBN978-1-61180-559-8)
• Michel-Jean-François Ozeray and Urs App.The First Western Book on Buddhism and Buddha.Wil: UniversityMedia, 2017 (ISBN978-3-906000-27-5)
• Schopenhauer's Compass. An Introduction to Schopenhauer's Philosophy and its Origins.Wil: UniversityMedia, 2014 (ISBN978-3-906000-03-9)
• The Cult of Emptiness. The Western Discovery of Buddhist Thought and the Invention of Oriental Philosophy.Rorschach / Kyoto: UniversityMedia, 2012 (ISBN978-3-906000-09-1). (Listed among the best Buddhist books of 2012 by the Buddhadharma journal)
• Schopenhauers Kompass. Die Geburt einer Philosophie.Rorschach / Kyoto: UniversityMedia, 2011 (ISBN978-3-906000-08-4[hardcover] andISBN978-3-906000-02-2[paperback])
• Richard Wagner and Buddhism.Rorschach / Kyoto: UniversityMedia, 2011 (ISBN978-3-906000-00-8)
• The Birth of Orientalism.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010 (ISBN978-0-8122-4261-4)(Winner of the 2012 book prize of the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres)
• Arthur Schopenhauer and China.Sino-Platonic PapersNr. 200 (April 2010)(8,7 Mb PDF, 172 p.)
• William Jones's Ancient Theology.Sino-Platonic PapersNr. 191 (September 2009)(3.7 Mb PDF, 125 p.)
• Over twenty volumes of concordances of Chinese Zen texts.
• Richard Wagner und der Buddhismus: Liebe – Tragik.Zürich: Museum Rietberg, 1997. New, enlarged edition: Rorschach / Kyoto: UniversityMedia, 2011 (ISBN978-3-906000-10-7)
• Zen-Worte vom Wolkentor-Berg. Darlegungen und Gespräche des Zen-Meisters Yunmen Wenyan (864–949).Bern / München: Barth, 1994 (ISBN3-502-64640-6)
• Master Yunmen.New York: Kodansha International, 1994. (ISBN1-56836-004-5).
• Facets of the Life and Teaching of Chan Master Yunmen Wenyan (864-949).Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 342 pp. (Ph.D. dissertation, Temple University, 1989)

Documentary films

• Slow Photography: Koichiro Kurita.Documentary film for the exhibition of the Japanese photographer Koichiro Kurita at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, US (2018).
• Sengai.Documentary for the exhibition of works by the Japanese Zen master and painter Sengai at the Rietberg Museum, Zürich, Switzerland (2014).
• Der Teebesen.Documentary film for the Japanese Bamboo objects exhibition in the Ethnographic Museumof theUniversity of Zurich,Switzerland (2003),at the Ethnological Museum Munich (Völkerkundemuseum München, 2006), and at theTrinkkultur - Kultgetränkexhibition at the Völkerkundemuseum of Zurich University, 20 June 2014 - 21 June 2015(in collaboration with Monica Esposito).
• On the Way to Tōhaku's Pine Forest.Documentary film for the Hasegawa Tōhaku art exhibition (2002) at theRietberg Museum,Zürich(in collaboration with Monica Esposito)
• Dangki.Documentary shown in 2001 on France 2 (in collaboration with Monica Esposito).
• Oracles in China.Documentary shown at the Oracle exhibition 2000 at the Rietberg Museum,Zürich(in collaboration with Monica Esposito).
• Oracles in Japan.Documentary shown at the Oracle exhibition 2000 at the Rietberg Museum,Zürich(in collaboration with Monica Esposito).
• Chinese Oracle Kids.Documentary shown at the Oracle exhibition 2000 at the Rietberg Museum,Zürich(in collaboration with Monica Esposito).

CD-ROM

ZenBaseCD1 (1995)

• ZenBase CD1.Kyoto: International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism, 1995 (ISBN4-938796-18-X;pioneering CD-ROM with over eighty Chinese Zen texts).

Selection of papers

• "Schopenhauers Nirwana ".In:Die Wahrheit ist nackt am schönsten. Arthur Schopenhauers philosophische Provokation,ed. by Michael Fleiter. Frankfurt: Institut für Stadtgeschichte / Societätsverlag, 2010, pp. 200-208.
• "The Tibet of Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer ".In:Images of Tibet in the 19th and 20th Centuries,ed. by Monica Esposito.Paris: Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, 2008, pp. 11–70.
• "How Amida got into the Upanishads: An Orientalist’s Nightmare".InEssays on East Asian Religion and Culture,ed. by Christian Wittern und Lishan Shi. Kyoto: Editorial Committee for the Festschrift in Honour of Nishiwaki Tsuneki, 2007, pp. 11–33.
• "OUM – Das erste Wort von Schopenhauers Lieblingsbuch ".In:Das Tier, das du jetzt tötest, bist du selbst... Arthur Schopenhauer und Indien,ed. by Jochen Stollberg. Frankfurt: Vittorio Klostermann, 2006, pp. 36–50.
• "NICHTS. Das letzte Wort von Schopenhauers Hauptwerk ".In:Das Tier, das du jetzt tötest, bist du selbst... Arthur Schopenhauer und Indien,ed. by Jochen Stollberg. Frankfurt: Vittorio Klostermann, 2006, pp. 51–60.
• "Schopenhauer's India Notes of 1811 ".Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch87 (2006), pp. 15–31.
• "Schopenhauer's Initial Encounter with Indian Thought ".Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch87 (2006), pp. 35–76.
• "Notizen Schopenhauers zu Ost-, Nord- und Südostasien vom Sommersemester 1811 ".Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch84 (2003), pp. 13–39.
• "Die Entdeckung des Zen ".InHomo Medietas. Aufsätze zu Religiosität, Literatur und Denkformen des Menschen vom Mittelalter bis in die Neuzeit,ed. by Claudia Brinker-von der Heyde. Bern: Peter Lang, 1999, pp. 13–26.
• "Notes and Excerpts by Schopenhauer Related to Volumes 1 - 9 of the Asiatick Researches ".Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch79 (1998), pp. 11–33.
• "Schopenhauers Begegnung mit dem Buddhismus. "Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch79 (1998), pp. 35–58.
• "St. Francis Xavier's Discovery of Japanese Buddhism.Part 1: Before the Arrival in Japan, 1547-1549 ".Eastern Buddhist30, no. 1 (1997), pp. 53–78. "Part 2: From Kagoshima to Yamaguchi, 1549-1551.”Eastern Buddhist30, no. 2 (1997), pp. 214–44. "Part 3: From Yamaguchi to India, 1551-1552.”Eastern Buddhist31, no. 1 (1998), pp. 40–71.
• "Wuxinlun -- The Treatise on No-Mind."Zenbunka kenkyūsho kiyō21 (1995): pp. 1–68.
• "Dun: A Chinese Concept as a Key to 'Mysticism' in East and West."The Eastern BuddhistBd. XXVI No. 2 (Fall 1993), pp. 31–72.
• "Reference Works for Chan Research. A selective annotated survey."Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie7 (1993–94), pp. 357–409.
• "The Making of a Chan Record ".Zenbunka kenkyūjo kiyō(Annual Report from the Institute of Zen Studies) No. 17 (May 1991): 1–90.