Mountains, Rivers, and the Great Earth: Reading Gary Snyder and DÅ gen in an Age of Ecological Crisis

Jason M. Wirth

ISBN 10: 1438465424 / ISBN 13: 9781438465425

Published by State University of New York Press, 2018

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # B9781438465425

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Mountains, Rivers, and the Great Earth: Reading Gary Snyder and DÅ gen in an Age of Ecological Crisis
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1438465424
• ISBN 13: 9781438465425
• Binding: Paperback / softback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 261 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Engages the global ecological crisis through a radical rethinking of what it means to inhabit the earth.

FINALIST for the 2017 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in the Philosophy category

Meditating on the work of American poet and environmental activist Gary Snyder and thirteenth-century Japanese Zen Master Eihei Dōgen, Jason M. Wirth draws out insights for understanding our relation to the planet's ongoing ecological crisis. He discusses what Dōgen calls "the Great Earth" and what Snyder calls "the Wild" as being comprised of the play of waters and mountains, emptiness and form, and then considers how these ideas can illuminate the spiritual and ethical dimensions of place. The book culminates in a discussion of earth democracy, a place-based sense of communion where all beings are interconnected and all beings matter. This radical rethinking of what it means to inhabit the earth will inspire lovers of Snyder's poetry, Zen practitioners, environmental philosophers, and anyone concerned about the global ecological crisis.

About the Author

Jason M. Wirth is Professor of Philosophy at Seattle University. He is the author of Schelling's Practice of the Wild: Time, Art, Imagination and The Conspiracy of Life: Meditations on Schelling and His Time; the translator of The Ages of the World by F. W. J. Schelling; and the coeditor (with Patrick Burke) of The Barbarian Principle: Merleau-Ponty, Schelling, and the Question of Nature, all published by SUNY Press.