Comparison between specific forms of zen meditation with such contemporary non-zen Buddhist practice of nianfo/nembutsu ??. Would meditation and chanting together intensify the effect of either?

Purpose: The paper asks you to analyze in as much depth as possible one particular aspect of this course, of your own choosing (note that this paper asks for analysis, not argument).Your analysis is to be based on sources from scholarly journal articles and books from the past twenty years. These sources might well be included in the "references" sections of Wikipedia entries, which are sometimes excellent but sometimes not; your own research must not be limited to the material in Wikipedia or other such entries, but is to go directly to scholarly sources, as well as to primary materials themselves if you can read those.
The bibliography of specific sources should from the past twenty years (1994-2014).
Formalities: 10-12 pages, 1.5 spaced, left-justified only; your name, title of paper, and date at top of first text page, each page numbered consecutively, no title page or blank pages; bibliography of sources (only those cited in text) is not included in the minimum page count; direct quotations are not to exceed 5% of your total word count, and are to be run directly into the text rather than indented or centered; citations are to be run directly in text thus: (Kitagawa, 2008a: 143) (Author’s last name, publication date: page number), citation and bibliography format to conform to one of the major style formats (MLA, Chicago).