Historical Background:

1)  Timeline:  A First Sketch

2) Notes on the Heian (c. 800 -1200) and the Kamakura Periods (1185-1333)
                  notes on Saicho (Tendai Buddhism-- Mt. Hiei) and
                                Kukai (Shingon Buddhism -- Mt. Koya),
                    and two great women authors --
                                Murasaki Shikibu (author of the Tale of Genji)  and
                                Sei Shonagon (author of the Pillow Book),
                    Zen masters Eisai (Rinzai Zen) and Dogen (Soto Zen),
                    devotional Buddhist Honen, Shinran and Nichiren
                    a preview of the Zen Masters Daito and Muso Soseki,
                        and much, much more!

3) Notes on the Ashikaga Period (1333- 1573) --
                Three Ashikaga Shoguns (Takauji, Yoshimitsu and Yoshimasa)
                           and three Zen Masters:  Daito, Muso Soseki, and Ikkyu

4) Notes on the Period of Three Strongmen (aka the Momoyama Period 1573-1615)
            and on Three Zen Masters of the Tokugawa Period (1615-1868) --
            The Three Strongmen are Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and
                Tokugawa Ieyasu; the Three Zen Masters of the Tokugawa Period are
                                    Bankei (contemporary of the great haiku master Basho),
                                    Hakuin and Ryokan

Philosophical Material:

1) East vs. West -- A first Sketch of Differences plus
              A Comparison of Lao Tzu and K'ung Tzu  (Confucius)

2) Buddhism: Introductory Remarks

3) The Eightfold Path as a Spiral Path -- How the Path Appears Differently
                                                                  at Different Stages on the Path
4) The Ten Oxherding Pictures

5) Zen Poems from Ikkyu ("Skeletons") and from Bankei ("Song of Original Mind")

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