Zen Sourcebook: Traditional Documents from China, Korea, and Japan Review

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Zen Sourcebook: Traditional Documents from China, Korea, and Japan ReviewThere are, of course, many collections that document the early days of Ch'an/Zen Buddhism. This is the first I've seen that includes talks and writings of Korean masters, as well as those from China and Japan.
The editors have created new translations of many of the texts. I found these translations to be energetic and spacious, opening new vistas into some of these old cases and records.
I read the book cover to cover and discovered a remarkable unity of teaching across tradition and country. Here's one excerpt, from the writings of the seminal Korean teacher, Chinul:
"The three worlds are burning with suffering like a house on fire. How long can we endure this? The best way to escape the wheel of suffering is to seek Buddhahood, but before you seek Buddhahood you should know that Buddha is nothing but your own mind. Do not look for your mind far away: it is within this body of yours."
Finally, the brief introduction contains the best short history of Zen that I've ever seen. Every serious Zen student should read this book, cover to cover.
[...]Zen Sourcebook: Traditional Documents from China, Korea, and Japan Overview

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Zen Baggage: A Pilgrimage to China Review

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Zen Baggage: A Pilgrimage to China ReviewZen Baggage: A Pilgrimage to China by Bill Porter is a tedious travelogue told by a grumpy old man. However, as he carries his baggage of tea and books through the interior of China, Porter slowly reveals himself to be a man of Zen as I understand his understanding of Zen: a mind at work in the everyday world.
Meditating makes Porter's knees hurt, and he actually prefers being on the outside of the meditation hall. And although respecting the ceremonies and rituals practiced by the Zen Buddhist monks and nuns, he'd much rather take a nap.
In the everyday world, Porter grumbles about headaches, backaches, and allergies to dust as he travels by bus, train, taxi, motorcycle, mini-van, or tractor through frigid cold, tropical heat, or torrential rain. But before it all becomes too tiresome, he finds a delicious pumpkin cookie, a skillful masseuse, or an impressive PhD student who peels mangoes for him with a Uighur knife pulled from her boot.
Porter enjoys wild mushrooms, hot baths, gooseberry wine, afternoon naps, Iron Goddess tea, and an occasional fun-sized Snickers -- all providing much-needed breaks from his traveling and journaling. Writing about his pilgrimage to the ancient temples and grave sites of Zen patriarchs, Porter brings to light his mind, a mind at work in the everyday world, the everyday world of China, that is.
Along roads that end in dusty wasteland or muddy ruts, he is one porter who carries his Zen baggage lightly. And who's to say that Bodhidharma wasn't just another grumpy old man from the West?Porter, Bill. Zen Baggage: A Pilgrimage to China. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2009.Zen Baggage: A Pilgrimage to China Overview

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The Surangama Sutra (Leng Yen Ching: Chinese Rendering by Master Paramiti of Central North India at Chih Chih Monastery, Canton, China, Ad 705 Review

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The Surangama Sutra (Leng Yen Ching: Chinese Rendering by Master Paramiti of Central North India at Chih Chih Monastery, Canton, China, Ad 705 ReviewThis text is a meaningful guide to Mahayana meditation practice. The Famous Ming Ch'an (Zen)master, Han-shan, used the Surangama Sutra to check his own progress with meditation - and wrote an extensive commentary on its practical meaning. What makes this particular translation valuable, is that incor-porates key-elements from Master Han-shan's commentary.
The Surangama Sutra is very complementary to the Lankavatara Sutra, explaining much left unexplained, in the former - concerning the role of the 'Alaya-vijnana' (store conscious-ness). In the Surangama Sutra, the Buddha asks twenty five bodhisattvas to outline their favoured methods of meditation, which all converge - insofar as they entail transforming sense-data into wisdom, breaking up the influence of the alaya
or 'store consciousness' - to reveal the true mind.
This all quite practical. It is impossible to concentrate on - and sublimate,all six sense-organs and sense data, at once. Skilfully, then, this sutra teaches that - if one source of sense/data is sublimated - the other five will also be subli-mated, for they share one and the same root. Each Bodhisattva thus details a method of meditation, focusing on sight, touch, taste etc. The method most praised by the Buddha - and reco- mmended for the present Dharma-age,is that of sublimating the sense of 'hearing' - as advocated by Avalokitesvara. The sense of 'hearing' is the most pervasive, and therefore, likely to maximize the opportunity for insight. Viewed negatively, of course - the impact of 'sound,' unwelcome 'noise,' is what many meditators wish to avoid, most of all. It is fascinating then, to find that it is this very 'devil' - which has been singled out - as especially helpful. It blows large holes in the misguided notion that Buddhist meditation is about AVOIDING sense data. It is not - it is about SUBLIMATING sense data. In fact, eminent masters like Han-shan purposely chose to prac-tice by roaring cataracts - to develop their meditation. The optimistic note here, then, is that very the 'things' which SEEM to be obstacles to Buddhist meditation, may well prove to be the biggest boon, if we direct our meditation aright. This is brilliant stuff and pre-eminently useful. It helps explain those Ch'an (Zen) stories, recounting experiences of awakening, upon the impact of a random noise, shout etc. But this has its own dynamic. Without the direct 'inner-cause' - the inner potentiality aroused by Ch'an or parallel methods, no amount of external 'causes' could trigger enlightenment).
The Surangama Sutra (Leng Yen Ching: Chinese Rendering by Master Paramiti of Central North India at Chih Chih Monastery, Canton, China, Ad 705 Overview

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