( 8 reviews )
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Posted: Oct 2 2008
I balked at paying the asking price for this very slim book, especially because, while the Introduction and Notes are helpful, and it's good to have the poems (though Chinese Buddhist verse, telegraphic and full of technical terms, is notoriously hard to transfer to other languages,) essentially you are buying the book for Master Hung-chih's "Practice Instructions," a mere 28 pages! Having bought the book and read it a number of times I realise that it would be a bargain at any price. This book is a jewel. It is said that the elegance of the original Chinese can't be conveyed in translation. If this is the case it must be truly sublime, because even in English the prose reads like translucent poetry. I can't think of any other spiritual writing, outside of the world of Sufism, that combines profundity with beauty of style to quite the same degree. A classic of koan Zen like the "Blue Cliff Record" is a fabulous mine of unsurpassed wisdom and curious lore: Zen, Buddhist, Taoist, literary, historical, folkloric. But it is also so abstruse as to be all but inaccessible outside of the context of institutional Zen monasticism. This book, on the other hand, comes from the other stream of Zen, the school of Silent Illumination, and it has something to offer everyone, from the most advanced practitioner to the newest beginner who can only bathe in its atmosphere of beauty and wonder. I can't overpraise this book. I wish I had more than five stars to award. If you're interested in Zen, or Buddhism, or meditation, and you don't own this book, buy it immediately. If I could keep only one book on Zen, this would be the book I would choose. One of Master Hung-chih's crammed, poetic, evocative paragraphs is worth all the work of modern Western "Nondualists" put together. This is the Real Thing.
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Posted: Oct 2 2008
At first I balked at paying the asking price for this very slim book. It's good to have the poems (though Chinese Buddhist verse, telegraphic and full of technical terms, is notoriously hard to translate.) The Introduction and Notes are also helpful, but you mainly buy the book for Master Hung-chih's "Practice Instructions," a mere 28 pages! Having bought the book and read it a number of times I realise that it would be a bargain at any price. This book is a jewel. It's said that the elegance of the original Chinese can't be conveyed in translation. If this is the case it must be truly sublime, because even in English the prose reads like translucent poetry. I can't think of any other spiritual writing outside of the world of Sufism that combines profundity with beauty of style to quite the same degree. A classic of koan Zen like the "Blue Cliff Record" is a fabulous mine of unsurpassed wisdom and curious lore: Zen, Buddhist, Taoist, literary, historical, folkloric. But its extreme difficulty makes it all but inaccessible outside of the context of institutional Zen monasticism. This book, on the other hand, comes from the other stream of Zen, the school of Silent Illumination, and it has something to offer everyone, from the most advanced practitioner to the newest beginner who can only bathe in its atmosphere of beauty and wonder. I can't overpraise this book. I wish I had more than five stars to award. If you're interested in Zen, or Buddhism, or meditation, and you don't own this book, buy it immediately. If I could keep only one book on Zen, this would be the book I would choose. One of Master Hung-chih's crammed, poetic, evocative paragraphs is worth several dozen books by modern Western "Nondualists" put together.
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Posted: Oct 2 2008
At first I balked at paying the asking price for this very slim book. It's good to have the poems (though Chinese Buddhist verse, telegraphic and full of technical terms, is notoriously hard to translate.) The Introduction and Notes are also helpful, but you mainly buy the book for Master Hung-chih's "Practice Instructions," a mere 28 pages! Having bought the book and read it a number of times I realise that it would be a bargain at any price. This book is a jewel. It's said that the elegance of the original Chinese can't be conveyed in translation. If this is the case it must be truly sublime, because even in English the prose reads like translucent poetry. I can't think of any other spiritual writing outside of the world of Sufism that combines profundity with beauty of style to quite the same degree. A classic of koan Zen like the "Blue Cliff Record" is a fabulous mine of wisdom, but its extreme difficulty makes it all but inaccessible outside of the context of institutional Zen monasticism. But this book comes from the other stream of Zen, the school of Silent Illumination, and it has something to offer everyone from the most advanced practitioner to the newest beginner who can only bathe in its atmosphere of beauty and wonder. Poetry is able somehow to express the inexpressible, and the boundless silent truth of Zen is conveyed more clearly by these luminous phrases than by anything else I've ever read. I can't overpraise this book. I wish I had more than five stars to award. If you're interested in Zen, or Buddhism, or meditation, and you don't own this book, buy it immediately. If I could keep only one book on Zen, this would be the book. One of Master Hung-chih's crammed, poetic, evocative paragraphs is worth several dozen books by lesser writers.
