Urs App


Urs App 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 the Lake of Constance and studied in Freiburg, Kyoto and Philadelphia psychology, philosophy and religious studies. In 1989 he obtained a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Temple University in Philadelphia.
From 1989 to 1999 he was full professor of Buddhism at Hanazono University in Kyoto and Associate Director of the International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism at Hanazono University. 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, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Scuola Italiana di Studi sull'Asia Orientale, and the École Française d'Extrême-Orient.
Focuses of research are Buddhist studies, the history of orientalism, the history of the European discovery of Asian religions, the history of philosophy in East and West, and the exchange of ideas between Asia and the West.

Books

  • The Mother of All Religions: The Genesis of Blavatsky's Theosophy: Ancient Theology, Orientalism, and Buddhism. East-West Discovery. Will, Switzerland & Paris: UniversityMedia, 2025.
  • Blavatsky on Buddhism: Interviews, Letters, and Papers. Will, Switzerland & Paris: UniversityMedia, 2023.
  • Zen Meister Yunmen. Leben und Lehre des letzten Giganten der Zen-Klassik. Wil, Switzerland & Paris: UniversityMedia, 2018
  • Zen Master Yunmen. His Life and Essential Sayings. Boulder: Shambhala, 2018
  • Michel-Jean-François Ozeray and Urs App.The First Western Book on Buddhism and Buddha. Wil: UniversityMedia, 2017
  • Schopenhauer's Compass. An Introduction to Schopenhauer's Philosophy and its Origins. Wil: UniversityMedia, 2014
  • The Cult of Emptiness. The Western Discovery of Buddhist Thought and the Invention of Oriental Philosophy. Rorschach / Kyoto: UniversityMedia, 2012.
  • Schopenhauers Kompass. Die Geburt einer Philosophie. Rorschach / Kyoto: UniversityMedia, 2011 Richard Wagner and Buddhism. Rorschach / Kyoto: UniversityMedia, 2011
  • The Birth of Orientalism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010
  • 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 Zen-Worte vom Wolkentor-Berg. Darlegungen und Gespräche des Zen-Meisters Yunmen Wenyan. Bern / München: Barth, 1994 Master Yunmen. New York: Kodansha International, 1994. .. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 342 pp.

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.Sengai. Documentary for the exhibition of works by the Japanese Zen master and painter Sengai at the Rietberg Museum, Zürich, Switzerland.Der Teebesen. Documentary film for the Japanese Bamboo objects exhibition in the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, at the Ethnological Museum Munich, and at the Trinkkultur - Kultgetränk exhibition at the Völkerkundemuseum of Zurich University, 20 June 2014 - 21 June 2015.On the Way to Tōhaku's Pine Forest. Documentary film for the Hasegawa Tōhaku art exhibition at the Rietberg Museum, Zürich Dangki. Documentary shown in 2001 on France 2.Oracles in China. Documentary shown at the Oracle exhibition 2000 at the Rietberg Museum, Zürich.Oracles in Japan. Documentary shown at the Oracle exhibition 2000 at the Rietberg Museum, Zürich.Chinese Oracle Kids. Documentary shown at the Oracle exhibition 2000 at the Rietberg Museum, Zürich.

CD-ROM

ZenBase CD1. Kyoto: International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism, 1995.

Selection of papers

  • ". In: Die Wahrheit ist nackt am schönsten. Arthur Schopenhauers philosophische Provokation, ed. by Michael Fleiter. Frankfurt: Institut für Stadtgeschichte / Societätsverlag, 2010, pp. 200-208.
  • ". In: Images of Tibet in the 19th and 20th Centuries, ed. by Monica Esposito. Paris: Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, 2008, pp. 11–70.
  • In Essays 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.
  • ". 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.
  • ". 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-Jahrbuch 87, pp. 15–31.
  • ". Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch 87, pp. 35–76.
  • ". Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch 84, pp. 13–39.
  • ". In Homo 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.
  • ". Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch 79, pp. 11–33.
  • " Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch 79, pp. 35–58.
  • ". Part 1: Before the Arrival in Japan, 1547-1549". Eastern Buddhist 30, no. 1, pp. 53–78. "Part 2: From Kagoshima to Yamaguchi, 1549-1551.” Eastern Buddhist 30, no. 2, pp. 214–44. "Part 3: From Yamaguchi to India, 1551-1552.” Eastern Buddhist 31, no. 1, pp. 40–71.
  • "Wuxinlun -- The Treatise on No-Mind." Zenbunka kenkyūsho kiyō 21 : pp. 1–68.
  • "Dun: A Chinese Concept as a Key to 'Mysticism' in East and West." The Eastern Buddhist Bd. XXVI No. 2, pp. 31–72.
  • "Reference Works for Chan Research. A selective annotated survey." Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 7, pp. 357–409.
  • ". Zenbunka kenkyūjo kiyō No. 17 : 1–90.