Download or read book Zen Koan as a Means of Attaining Enlightenment written by Dai Z. Suzuki and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2011-10-21 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zen Koan as a Means of Attaining Enlightenment Presents the history and application of the koan exercise—the means for realizing enlightenment—with depth and clarity. The koan system has effected a special development in Zen Buddhism, and is a unique contribution to the history of religious consciousness. When the importance of the koan is understood, it may be said that more than half of Zen is understood.
Download or read book Zen Koans written by Steven Heine and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” “Does a dog have Buddha-nature?” These cryptic expressions are among the best-known examples of koans, the confusing, often contradictory sayings that form the centerpiece of Zen Buddhist learning and training. Viewed as an ideal method for attaining and transmitting an unimpeded experience of enlightenment, they became the main object of study in Zen meditation, where their contemplation was meant to exhaust the capacity of the rational mind and the expressiveness of speech. Koan compilations, which include elegant poetic and eloquent prose commentaries on cryptic dialogues, are part of a great literary tradition in China, Japan, and Korea that appealed to intellectuals who sought spiritual fulfillment through interpreting elaborate rhetoric related to mysterious metaphysical exchanges. In this compact volume, Steven Heine, who has written extensively on Zen Buddhism and koans, introduces and analyzes the classic background of texts and rites and explores the contemporary significance of koans to illuminate the full implications of this ongoing tradition. He delves deeply into the inner structure of koan literature to uncover and interpret profound levels of metaphorical significance. At the same time, he takes the reader beyond the veil of vagueness and inscrutability to an understanding of how koan writings have been used in pre-modern East Asia and are coming to be evoked and implemented in modern American practice of Zen. By focusing on two main facets of the religious themes expressed in koan records—individual religious attainment and the role dialogues play in maintaining order in the monastic system—Zen Koans reveals the distinct yet interlocking levels of meaning reflected in different koan case records and helps make sense of the seemingly nonsensical. It is a book for anyone interested in untangling the web of words used in Zen exchanges and exploring their important place in the vast creative wellspring of East Asian religion and culture.
Download or read book The Zen Koan written by Isshu Miura and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 1966-10-19 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first scholarly examination in any language of the historical development and traditional method of koan study in Zen Buddhism. Foreword by Ruth Fuller Sasaki; Index; ink drawings by Hakuin Ekaku.A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.
Download or read book The Koan written by Steven Heine and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2000-04-20 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Koans are enigmatic spiritual formulas used for religious training in the Zen Buddhist tradition. Arguing that our understanding of the koan tradition has been severely limited, contributors to this collection examine previously unrecognized factors in the formation of this tradition, and highlight the rich complexity and diversity of koan practice and literature.
Download or read book The Hazy Moon of Enlightenment written by Bernie Glassman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-06-07 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Hazy Moon of Enlightenment takes the reader to the next level of Zen practice, exploring some of the more subtle and sophisticated topics in Zen. The first two parts of the book explore enlightenment and delusion: What is nature of enlightenement? What does it mean to describe enlightenment as sudden or gradual? What is the nature of delusion, and how can watch out for the particular delusion that masquerades as enlightenment? The third part looks at "enlightenment in action"--what it means for someone to living and acting in order with the deep wisdom of enlightenment, and how we can practice learning "learning how to be satisfied" and enjoy serenity and transquility. The final section is a moving and powerful firsthand account of one woman's solitary realization of the deepest truths--a story that can become an inspiration for all of us. The contributors to this volume include some the pioneering masters who were seminal in helping Zen take firm root in American soil.
Download or read book Zen Enlightenment written by Heinrich Dumoulin and published by Weatherhill, Incorporated. This book was released on 1979 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History and essence are tightly interwoven in Zen Buddhism. Zen Buddhists trace their school's way of enlightenment back to the terrains of India and the founder of the Buddhist religion, Shakyamuni. InZen Enlightenment: Origins and Meaning, Heinrich Dumoulin explains how Mahayana Buddhism, originating in the spiritual legacy of India, met with Chinese Taoism, an encounter essential to the birth of Zen, the meditation school of Mahayana. And there, primarily through the activity of the great masters of the T'ang period (618-906), Zen acquired its distinctly Chinese character. Beautiful quotations from Chinese Zen literature and nuanced chronicles of contemporary Zen students, along with compilations of koans and sayings of the masters, add color and perspective to the fascinating picture we have of the early Chinese Zen movement.
Download or read book Sitting with Koans written by John Daido Loori and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-06-04 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Zen tradition has just two main meditative practices: shikantaza, or "just sitting"; and introspection guided by the powerful Zen teaching stories called koans. Following in the tradition of The Art of Just Sitting (endorsed as a "A book we have needed for a long, long time"), this new anthology from John Daido Loori illuminates the subtle practice of koan study from many different points of view. Includes writings by: Robert Aitken William Bodiford Robert Buswell Roko Sherry Chayat Francis Dojun Cook Eihei Dogen Heinrich Dumoulin Hakuin Ekaku Victor Sogen Hori Keizan Jokin Philip Kapleau Chung-fen Ming-Pen Taizan Maezumi Dennis Genpo Merzel Soen Nakagawa Ruth Fuller Sasaki Sokei-an Sasaki Nyogen Senzaki Zenkei Shibayama Eido Shimano Philip Yampolsky Hakuun Yasutani Wayne Yokoyama Katsushiro Yoshizawa
Download or read book Living by Zen written by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki and published by Sanctum Books. This book was released on 2023-06-07 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains a number of essays which D.T. Suzuki wrote from time to time concerning the specificity and uniqueness of Zen Buddhism, or the school of Buddhism that values meditative practice more than philosophical thinking. This book may be considered as an introduction to Zen on account of the concern shown for such themes which a beginner needs to know.In the very first essay is explained as to what Zen way of life denotes. Many find it difficult to comprehend the language of Zen. That is the author has made an attempt at clarifying the Zen idea of a koan, which is a paradoxical question verging almost on absurdity. It is believed that enlightenment or satori comes to be once a koan is understood. The book offers a rich banquet to those who want to taste the flavour of the feast of Zen.
Download or read book Samurai Zen written by Trevor Leggett and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Samurai Zen brings together 100 of the rare riddles which represent the core spiritual discipline of Japan's ancient Samurai tradition. Dating from thirteenth-century records of Japan's Kamakura temples, and traditionally guarded with a reverent secrecy, they reflect the earliest manifestation of pure Zen in Japan. Created by Zen Masters for their warrior pupils, the Japanese Koans use incidents from everyday life - a broken tea-cup, a water-jar, a cloth - to bring the warrior pupils of the Samurai to the Zen realization. Their aim is to enable a widening of consciouness beyond the illusions of the limited self, and a joyful inspiration in life - a state that has been compared to being free under a blue sky after imprisonment.
Download or read book Law in the Time of Oxymora written by Rostam J. Neuwirth and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-16 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do different concepts like true lie, bad luck, honest thief, old news, spacetime, glocalization, symplexity, sustainable development, constant change, soft law, substantive due process, pure law, bureaucratic efficiency and global justice have in common? What connections do they share with innumerable paradoxes, like the ones of happiness, time, globalization, sex, and of free will and fate? Law in the Time of Oxymora provides answers to these conundrums by critically comparing the apparent rise in recent years of the use of rhetorical figures called "essentially oxymoronic concepts" (i.e. oxymoron, enantiosis and paradoxes) in the areas of art, science and law. Albeit to varying degrees, these concepts share the quality of giving expression to apparent contradictions. Through this quality, they also challenge the scientific paradigm rooted in the dualistic thinking and binary logic that is traditionally used in the West, as opposed to the East, where a paradoxical mode of thinking and fuzzy logic is said to have been cultivated. Following a review of oxymora and paradoxes in art and various scientific writings, hundreds of "hard cases" featuring oxymora and a comprehensive review of the legal literature are discussed, revealing evidence suggesting that the present scientific paradigm of dualism alone will no longer be able to tackle the challenges arising from increasing diversity and complexity coupled with an apparent acceleration of change. Law in the Time of Oxymora reaches the surprising conclusion that essentially oxymoronic concepts may inaugurate a new era of cognition, involving the ways the senses interact and how we reason, think and make decisions in law and in life.
Download or read book The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School written by Tōrei and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 1996 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the teachings of the great Zen Master Hakuin Zenji, The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School is an essential guide to Rinzai Zen training. It was written by Torei Enji Zenji (1720-1792), Hakuin's dharma successor. In this book, Master Torei begins by providing a concise history of the Rinzai school and lineage. He then details all the important aspects of Zen practice, most notably great faith, great doubt, and great determination. He also provides explanations of koan study and zazen (meditation) as a means of attaining true satori (enlightenment.). This edition includes extensive commentary by Master Daibi, providing both essential background information and clarification of several Buddhist concepts unfamiliar to the general reader. The result is an invaluable record of traditional Zen training.
Download or read book Teachings of Zen written by Thomas Cleary and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 1997-12-16 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zen Buddhism emerged in China some fifteen centuries ago and remained the most dynamic and influential spiritual movement in Asia for more than a millennium. Though the teachings of the first Zen masters are sometimes considered innovation, they were actually a return to the core of Buddhist teaching and to an understanding of the importance of the personal experience of enlightenment. This anthology presents talks, sayings, and records of heart-to-heart encounters to show the essence of Zen teaching through the words of the Zen masters themselves. The selections have been made from the voluminous Zen canon for their accessibility, their clarity, and above all their practical effectiveness in fostering insight.
Download or read book The Matter of Zen written by Paul Wienpahl and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-05 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, first published in 1964, concerns the practice of Zen Buddhism. The practice is a particular form of meditation. In Japan, the only country in which it is any longer seriously pursued, the practice is called zazen. The author directs attention to zazen because it is being overlooked in the current interest in Zen.
Download or read book The Book of Equanimity written by Gerry Shishin Wick and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2005-03-15 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thought-provoking collection of Zen koans culls the wisdom of thisnfluencial brand of Buddhism to present a series of "teaching stories" thatresent spiritual wisdom in interesting ways. Original.
Download or read book Ten Gates written by Zen Master Seung Sahn and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2007-08-14 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zen is famous for koans (called kong-ans in Korean, and in this book), those bizarre and seemingly unanswerable questions Zen masters pose to their students to check their realization (such as “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”). Fear of koans keeps some people from ever giving Zen practice a try. But here, through the experience of seeing a modern Zen master work with his students, you can see what koan training is really like: It’s a skillful, lively practice for attaining wisdom. This book presents the system of ten koans that Zen Master Seung Sahn came to call the “Ten Gates.” These koans represent the basic types one will encounter in any course of study. Each of the ten gates, or koans, is illuminated by actual interchanges between Zen Master Seung Sahn and his students that show what the practice is all about: it is above all a process of coming to trust one’s own wisdom, and of manifesting that wisdom in every koan-like situation life presents us with. For more information on the author, Zen Master Seung Sahn, visit his website at www.kwanumzen.com.
Download or read book Sound Of 1 Hand written by Out Of Print and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 1975-12-17 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When The Sound of the One Hand came out in Japan in 1916 it caused a scandal. Zen was a secretive practice, its wisdom relayed from master to novice in strictest privacy. That a handbook existed recording not only the riddling koans that are central to Zen teaching but also detailing the answers to them seemed to mark Zen as rote, not revelatory. For all that, The Sound of the One Hand opens the door to Zen like no other book. Including koans that go back to the master who first brought the koan teaching method from China to Japan in the eighteenth century, this book offers, in the words of the translator, editor, and Zen initiate Yoel Hoffmann, the clearest, most detailed, and most correct picture of Zen that can be found. What we have here is an extraordinary introduction to Zen thought as lived thought, a treasury of problems, paradoxes, and performance that will appeal to artists, writers, and philosophers as well as Buddhists and students of religion."
