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Summary: Small But A Divine Book
Review: This book is a compilation of four books. They are 101 Zen Stories, The Gateless Gate, 10 Bulls, & Centering. If readers are avid readers about Zen, you would have come across some of the stories in 101 Zen Stories. Truth to be told, there is another book offering in cartoon version which conveyed the stories mentioned here & I find them more accessible. At times, after we read the stories, our initial reaction would be huh? It takes time & much persistency, or intervention by unexpected people or incidents that we suddenly get it. Anyhow, by continuously reading those materials that those ideals can be reinforced within our mental state of mind. The Gateless Gate is a rendition of popular koans and again, it's quite difficult to understand especially when you are reading this by yourself. Anyhow, it's wonderful to read. 10 Bulls story is quite self-explanatory about find our source, our original thinking. The last book about Centering is derived from ancient Sanskrit manuscripts of Shiva answering Devi about Centering in 112 ways. Sorry about my ignorance but I reckon it's about sitting & breathing: as it is. Highly recommended.
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Summary: The Truth is the Truth
Review: This book should find a place on everyone's bookshelf.
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Summary: Captures the Zen spirit in its truest sense
Review: This collection of Zen stories and Koans truly shows the flavor of zen. An excellent addition to any collection of Zen works.Peter Coyote's voice is smooth and clear, which adds to the experience.
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Summary: Delightful
Review: This is an enormously enjoyable collection of short tales that help illustrate the essence of Zen - often in witty ways. Also included in this edition, I trust, are the wonderful woodcut illustrations known as "Ten Bulls."
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Summary: Best intoduction to Zen thought ever compiled
Review: This little classic ought to be read not only by anyone interested in Zen or Eastern religion in general, but by every person interested in any sort of serious spirituality. As a Roman Catholic, I have found it one of the three or four most helpful books of any sort I have ever read
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Summary: Worth a dozen other books on Zen
Review: This may be the most beloved of all Zen books in English. It is a little volume to treasure, to reread and to ponder, to take delight in and to laugh at and laugh with. It is a compilation of four smaller books: First there are 101 Zen stories. These are the best and most classic of the stories, many of them so familiar that they are now part of American culture as well as Zen culture. The stories constitute lessons in life, insights into our nature and ways to enlightenment or how one has wandered off the path--or better yet, how there is no path and no wandering. Unlike many Zen tales, which can be deeply mystifying to non-initiates, most of the ones presented here are luminous. Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki, who are the transcribers, begin with the famous tale of Zen master Nan-in overflowing a visiting professor's tea cup to illustrate how filled the professor is with himself, so filled he cannot learn anything new. Included are two of my favorites, (1) that of Tanzan and Ekido, the former a monk who carried a pretty girl across a muddy road and his monastic friend who could not let go of her in his mind; and (2) the parable attributed to the Buddha about a man hanging over a cliff holding onto a vine being gnawed on by two mice (one black and one white--yin and yang, perhaps), with a tiger above and another below, and a luscious strawberry. How sweet it tasted indeed! By the way I have recently learned that a variant of this story comes from the Mahabharata as reported by Georg Feuerstein in The Essence of Yoga (1974). There the mice are rats (still black and white) and the man is hanging from a tree over a pit in which waits a giant serpent. He is drinking honey. Next there is a presentation of the Buddhist classic about koans, their answers, and a commentary called "The Gateless Gate" by the Chinese master Ekai (also known as Mu-mon,1183-1260 c.e.). The spirit of The Gateless Gate" is irreverent and mischievous. The central idea is that the truth lies somewhere beyond the thesis and the antithesis--or, that which can be said and that which cannot be said do not include the whole of it. Most of Mu-mon's comments are deliberately non-rational, but here is one in the form of a poem that expresses the essence of Zen in a nutshell: It is too clear and so it is hard to see.
A dunce once searched for a fire with a lighted lantern.
Had he known what fire was,
He could have cooked his rice much sooner. The third book is the famous search for the bull from Taoism which ends in no bull, no search-all transcended, which is an allegory of life and a symbolic representation of learning to meditate. Zen has added here two extra frames which I will not comment on. The fourth book is something Reps calls "Centering" from an ancient Sanskrit manuscript. It is said to be four thousand years old and purports to be Shiva guiding Devi in enlightenment. There are 112 ways. Its yoga-becoming-Zen feel is really startling. Here are three examples: 8. Attention between eyebrows, let mind be before thought. Let form fill with breath-essence to the top of the head, and there <shower as light>. 15. Intone a sound, as a-u-m, slowly. As sound enters soundfulness, <so do you>. 26. Unminding mind, keep in the middle--<until>. The book title comes from a story about the first Zen patriarch, Bodhidharma, who rewarded a couple of his disciples for their apperception by saying the one has his flesh and the other had his bones. A third monk won the "contest" by remaining silent. About him, Bodhidharma said, "you have my marrow." All four books are wonderful, and there is not a speck of dust on any page.
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Summary: Empty Your Cup
Review: What is Zen? If anyone tells you the answer to that then they are lying. Zen cannot be told because Zen neither is nor is not. Zen is not words, words only hint at Zen. Zen comes of itself, stays of itself. Zen is all around us, but we are blind to it. And when one knows Zen, "one observes one's passing as a petal falling from a flower." That is the outward result of Zen, to be infinitely serene in the face of everything. To we the unenlightened, Zen is downright baffling. And that's what most of this book is, simply baffling. I read it pages as a toddler handles a copy of War and Peace, not knowing quite how to respond, how to think. Perhaps that's my problem: I'm thinking. After all, Zen is not thought, Zen is just Zen. These stories are so simple, yet I cannot empty my cup, cannot rid myself of my own judgments, preconceptions, and desires. At least not yet. Imagine if you had an open mind; no...not that kind of open mind. I mean a truly open mind, a mind so open that everything which enters is not held in that mind, a mind that lets all things pass through it as the winds pass over the surface of the Earth. Do you know how difficult that is? Sit down for 5 minutes and try not to hold onto any thought that arises in your mind; let that thought go, for it is not you. The human mind in its unenlightened state is like a delusional schizophrenic monkey on crack that is locked up in a tiny cage. No--wait--it's much worse than that. But in order to begin your Zen, you must rid yourself of this state of mind. Let your mind become the open, fully blossomed thousand-petaled lotus of light that it is. Such is the essence of the first of 101 short stories about Zen masters and their students. The book is divided into four parts: 101 Zen stories, 48 koans comprising the Gateless Gate, the Bulls (stages of illumination), and Centering (meditational advice from Shiva in the form of 112 ways, taken from a four thousand year old Indian manuscript). The initial stories are, for the most part, fairly comprehendible because they all seem to have a moral or point to make. One of my favorites involves a monk who is given a fortune in order to build a temple. But the monk doesn't even bother to thank the wealthy merchant who made the donation. So the merchant confronts the monk, who replies "the giver should be thankful." This story is wonderfully instructive and practical because it is the very essence of ego-death: true wealth is obtained in giving to others, true poverty in giving to one's self. If the short stories are manageable, the 48 koans (stories to meditate on) are downright puzzling. In the first koan, a student asks his master, "does a dog have Buddha-nature?" The master replies "Mu," meaning "No Thing" (which is not the opposite of existence). That's it, that's the whole koan which the devoted student is supposed to meditate on in order to progress towards enlightenment! In meditating on "No Thing," one comes closer to enlightenment. These accounts aren't designed to be logical. In fact, they were specifically designed by teachers to stop the vague intellectual ponderings of their students. One of the stories describes a group of monks who are asked whether a stone exists inside or outside the mind of an observer. One of the monks, considering the inherently idealistic position of Buddhism, states that the stone exists inside the mind. The teacher responds: "Your head must feel very heavy if you are carrying around a stone like that in your mind." This does not mean that the stone is outside of the mind; rather, the stone is where you put it. You can choose to lug it around with you, or you can let it pass as any other thought. To consume one's self with never-ending philosophical musings is a waste of time; one must abandon precious logic if one is to progress spiritually. For the way to truth is an internal way, traversed amidst the muddy depths of the psyche, and ultimately leading beyond the bounds of all logical polychotomy. The Zen master Hoshin knew truth, as he expressed it in these poetic lines with his last dying breath: I came from brilliancy
And return to brilliancy.
What is this?
Kaa! With that, Hoshin was gone.
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Summary: A basic gift to friends
Review: When in doubt, give this book (small size version) as a gift. It is wonderful, truly. For a Zen beginner or just to have another copy for the car or train--it is the best.
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Summary: I've Owned A Dozen Copies During The Past 30 Years!
Review: Zen Flesh, Zen Bones came into print in the 1950s, when I was a child. I first discovered it in 1970, when I was a young man. One of my secretaries lent me her copy, and I kept it for myself. I bought this edition last year, as a middle-aged fart. I figure I've owned at least a dozen copies over the years. Some have been gifts from friends. Others, I've purchased for myself. I stole only the first copy, because I didn't want to run up against any karmic Repeat Offender Rule. It's the kind of book that seems to "walk away". Someone will see you reading Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, and they'll ask to borrow it. That's the last you'll see of it. Guaranteed. I've read it many times, often in a single sitting. I still remember the first time I sat down with it, and how it gave me a shimmering look into a world I had known little about--Zen Buddhism. At times, I still get back my "Beginner's Mind" when I re-read one of those Zen stories that I now know almost by heart. I cannot explain the why of that. Zen Flesh, Zen Bones contains perfect jewels of ancient stories that provide insight about life, about the world. Most of them are a half page in length--perhaps 100 words. The neat thing about this particular edition is that it's very compact. You can slip into into your pocket, say, when you're going fishing or hiking. It's inexpensive, too. So you won't be out a lot of money when a friend asks to "borrow" a copy and "forgets" to give it back.
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Summary: Ideal introduction
Review: Zen Flesh, Zen Bones To a student of Zen, it is unnecessary to introduce this book. For those folks reading about Zen for the first time, this is a collection of Zen and Pre-Zen writings. For the greater part, it allows you to explore with your own mind these great insights without a lot of left-brain interference. Oh yes, you get clues but no answers, because these must come from the fusion of the neurons in your own brain. I will have to admit that I no longer lend this book to anyone. It never comes back. My copy is old and has notations on every page, thoughts that occurred to me. While I was reading it for the first time a few years back, I had a dream. In the dream, I entered an ancient house and walked down into the black basement. As I opened each of a series of doors in this darkness, I would reach for the light in the center of the room. Light after light popped on. I am sure I do not have to interpret this dream for you. That is exactly what happened to the darkness in my mind: light after light illuminated my world. I was so excited I could hardly breathe. It was the beginning of a long flight towards freedom. The greatest part of this is you do not have to learn to meditate. Each teaching brings you closer and closer to solving the problem of your mind, that is, relating conscious to preconscious awareness, into your every day living. It offers the flesh and bones of Zen. The marrow is your discovery of yourself.
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