Dr. Heine was a Fulbright Senior Researcher in Japan and twice won National Endowment for Humanities Fellowships plus funding from the American Academy of Religion and Association for Asian Studies in addition to the US Department of Education, the Japan Foundation and Freeman Foundation. He has conducted research on Zen Buddhism in relation to medieval and modern society primarily at Komazawa University in Tokyo. Heine has lectured there institutions in addition to Brown, Cambridge, Columbia, Emory, Florida, Free University, Harvard, Hawaii, Iowa, London, North Carolina, McGill, Ohio State, Oslo, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Stanford, UCLA, Yale, Zurich and many other conferences and institutions. He was chair of the national Japanese Religions Group and the Sacred Space in Asia Group, and he is editor of Japan Studies Review and a former book review editor for Japan for Philosophy East and West published by the University of Hawaii Press.
Dr. Heine’s research specialty is medieval East Asian religious studies, especially the transition of Zen Buddhism from China to Japan. In addition to 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and outstanding edited volumes, he has published thirty-five books, both monographs and edited volumes. Over a dozen of his books have been reviewed or noted in such publications as CHOICE, Chronical of Higher Education, Booklist, Library Journal, or Times Literary Supplement, in addition to multiple reviews in various academic journals or professional outlets.
The most recent books include From Chinese Chan to Japanese Zen: A Remarkable Century of Transmission and Transformation (Oxford); Zen and Material Culture (Oxford); Chan Rhetoric of Uncertainty in the Blue Cliff Record: Sharpening the Sword at the Dragon's Gate (Oxford); Zen Koans (Hawaii); Like Cats and Dogs: Contesting the Mu Kōan in Zen Buddhism (Oxford); Dōgen and Sōtō Zen: New Perspectives (Oxford); Dōgen: Textual and Historical Studies (Oxford); and Sacred High City, Sacred Low City: A Tale of Sacred Sites in Two Tokyo Neighborhoods (Oxford). Three books are forthcoming in 2020: Readings of Dōgen’s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Columbia); Flowers Blooming on a Withered Tree: Giun's Verse Comments on Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō (Oxford); Creating the World of Chan/ Sǒn /Zen: Chinese Chan Buddhism and its Spread throughout East Asia.
Other books include Zen Skin, Zen Marrow: Will the Real Zen Buddhism Please Stand Up? (Oxford); Did Dōgen Go to China? What He Wrote and When He Wrote It (Oxford); Opening a Mountain: Kōans of Zen Masters (Oxford); Shifting Shape, Shaping Text: Philosophy and Folklore in the Fox Kōan (Hawaii); The Zen Poetry of Dōgen: Verses From the Mountain of Eternal Peace (Tuttle); Dōgen and the Kōan Tradition: A Tale of Two Shōbōgenzō Texts (SUNY); Existential and Ontological Dimensions of Time in Heidegger and Dōgen (SUNY); The Zen Canon: Studies of Classic Zen Texts (Oxford). His book White Collar Zen: Using Zen Principles to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Your Career Goals (Oxford) was reviewed by the Harvard Business School, USA Today, and the Washington Post. For more detailed information on his books, please see here. (Source Accessed Jan 17, 2020)
Library Items
In a careful analysis of the historical and rhetorical basis of the literature, Steven Heine demonstrates that the Mu version of the case, preferred by advocates of the key-phrase approach, does not by any means constitute the final word concerning the meaning and significance of the Mu Koan. He shows that another canonical version, which gives both "Yes" and "No" responses, must be taken into account. Like Cats and Dogs offers critical insight and a new theoretical perspective on "the koan of koans." (Source: Oxford University Press)
Affiliations & relations
- Florida International University · workplace affiliation
