Attaining the Way

Attaining the Way PDF Author: Master Sheng-Yen
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834825953
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
This is an inspiring guide to the practice of Chan (Chinese Zen) in the words of four great masters of that tradition. It includes teachings from contemporary masters Xuyun and Sheng Yen, and from Jiexian and Boshan of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Though the texts were written over a period of hundreds of years, they are all remarkably lucid and are perfect for beginners as well as more advanced practitioners today. All the main points of spiritual practice are covered: philosophical foundations, methods, approaches to problems and obstacles—all aimed at helping the student attain the way to enlightenment.

Attaining the Way

Attaining the Way PDF Author: Master Sheng-Yen
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834825953
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is an inspiring guide to the practice of Chan (Chinese Zen) in the words of four great masters of that tradition. It includes teachings from contemporary masters Xuyun and Sheng Yen, and from Jiexian and Boshan of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Though the texts were written over a period of hundreds of years, they are all remarkably lucid and are perfect for beginners as well as more advanced practitioners today. All the main points of spiritual practice are covered: philosophical foundations, methods, approaches to problems and obstacles—all aimed at helping the student attain the way to enlightenment.

China Root

China Root PDF Author: David Hinton
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 1611807131
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
A beautifully compelling and liberating guide to the original nature of Zen in ancient China by renowned author and translator David Hinton. Buddhism migrated from India to China in the first century C.E., and Ch'an (Japanese: Zen) is generally seen as China's most distinctive and enduring form of Buddhism. In China Root, however, David Hinton shows how Ch'an was in fact a Buddhist-influenced extension of Taoism, China's native system of spiritual philosophy. Unlike Indian Buddhism's abstract sensibility, Ch'an was grounded in an earthy and empirically-based vision. Exploring this vision, Hinton describes Ch'an as a kind of anti-Buddhism. A radical and wild practice aspiring to a deeply ecological liberation: the integration of individual consciousness with landscape and with a Cosmos seen as harmonious and alive. In China Root, Hinton describes this original form of Zen with his trademark clarity and elegance, each chapter exploring in enlightening ways a core Ch'an concept--such as meditation, mind, Buddha, awakening--as it was originally understood and practiced in ancient China. Finally, by examining a range of standard translations in the Appendix, Hinton reveals how this original understanding and practice of Ch'an/Zen is almost entirely missing in contemporary American Zen, because it was lost in Ch'an's migration from China through Japan and on to the West. Whether you practice Zen or not, taking this journey on the wings of Hinton's remarkable insight and powerful writing will transform how you understand yourself and the world.

The Way of Lao Tzu

The Way of Lao Tzu PDF Author: Wing-tsit Chan
Publisher: Ravenio Books
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
No one can understand China or be an intelligent citizen of the world without some knowledge of the Lao Tzu, also called the Tao-te ching (The Classic of the Way and Its Virtue), for it has modified Chinese life and thought throughout history and has become an integral part of world literature. Therefore any new light on it, however little, should prove to be helpful. There have been many translations of this little classic, some of them excellent. Most translators have treated it as an isolated document. Many have taken it as religious literature. A few have related it to ancient Chinese philosophy. But none has viewed it in the light of the entire history of Chinese thought. Furthermore, no translator has consulted extensively the many commentaries regarding the text, much less the thought. Finally, no translator has written a complete commentary from the perspective of the total history of Chinese philosophy. Besides, a comprehensive and critical account of the recent debates on Lao Tzu the man and Lao Tzu the book is long overdue. The present work is a humble attempt to fill these gaps. This 1963 work is organized as follows: I. The Philosophy of Tao 1. Historical Background and the Taoist Reaction 2. The Meaning of Tao 3. The Emphasis on Man and Virtue 4. Weakness and Simplicity 5. Unorthodox Techniques 6. Lao Tzu and Confucius Compared 7. Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu Compared 8. Influences on Neo-Taoism, Buddhism, and Neo-Confucianism 9. The Taoist Religion 10. Taoism in Chinese Life II. Lao Tzu, the Man 1. Traditional Accounts 2. Lao Tzu’s Birthplace and Names 3. Lao Tzu’s Occupation 4. Confucius’ visit to Lao Tzu 5. Lao Lai Tzu and Lao P’eng 6. The Grand Historian 7. Summary and Conclusion III. Lao Tzu, the Book 1. Reactions Against Tradition 2. Arguments About Contemporary References 3. Arguments About Style 4. Arguments About Terminology 5. Arguments About Ideas 7. Titles and Structure 8. Commentaries 9. Translations The Lao Tzu (Tao-te ching)

Essential Chan Buddhism

Essential Chan Buddhism PDF Author: Guo Jun
Publisher: Monkfish Book Publishing
ISBN: 0983358915
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
An inspiring introduction to Chan Buddhism in a value-priced hardcover edition. Perfect for daily spiritual guidance and gifts.

The Essence of Chan

The Essence of Chan PDF Author: Guo Gu
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834843080
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
Clear and illuminating commentary on one of Bodhidharma’s most important texts—designed to help Chan practitioners apply timeless and essential advice to their practice Legend has it that more than a thousand years ago an Indian Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma arrived in China. His approach to teaching was unlike that of any of the Buddhist missionaries who had come to China before him. He confounded the emperor with cryptic dialogues, traveled the country, lived in a cave in the mountains, and eventually paved the way for a unique and illuminating approach to Buddhist teachings that would later spread across the whole of East Asia in the form of Chan—later to be known as Seon in Korean, Thien in Vietnamese, and Zen in Japanese. This book, a translation and commentary on one of Bodhidharma’s most important texts, explores Bodhidharma’s revolutionary teachings in English. Guo Gu weaves his commentary through modern and relatable contexts, showing that this centuries-old wisdom is just as crucial for life now as it was when it first came to be. Masterfully translated and accompanied by helpful insights to supplement daily practice, The Essence of Chan is the perfect guide for those new to Chan, those returning, or those who have been practicing for years.

Shattering the Great Doubt

Shattering the Great Doubt PDF Author: Sheng Yen
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834826674
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Huatou is a skillful method for breaking through the prison of mental habits into the spacious mind of enlightenment. The huatou is a confounding question much like a Zen koan. Typical ones are "What is wu [nothingness]?" or "What was my original face before birth-and-death?" But a huatou is unlike a koan in that the aim is not to come up with an answer. The practice is simple: ask yourself your huatou relentlessly, in meditation as well as in every other activity. Don't give up on it; don't try to think your way to an answer. Resolve to live with the sensation of doubt that arises, and it will pervade your entire existence with a sense of profound wonder, ultimately leading to the shattering of the sense of an independent self. Master Sheng Yen brings the traditional practice to life in this practical guide based on talks he gave during a series of huatou retreats. He teaches the method in detail, giving advice for dealing with the typical pitfalls and problems that arise, and answering retreat participants' questions as they experience the practice themselves. He then offers commentary on four classic huatou texts, grounding his instructions in the teaching of the great Chan masters.

Two Visions of the Way

Two Visions of the Way PDF Author: Alan K. L. Chan
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791498727
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description


Chan Before Chan

Chan Before Chan PDF Author: Eric M. Greene
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824884434
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
What is Buddhist meditation? What is going on—and what should be going on—behind the closed or lowered eyelids of the Buddha or Buddhist adept seated in meditation? And in what ways and to what ends have the answers to these questions mattered for Buddhists themselves? Focusing on early medieval China, this book takes up these questions through a cultural history of the earliest traditions of Buddhist meditation (chan), before the rise of the Chan (Zen) School in the eighth century. In sharp contrast to what would become typical in the later Chan School, early Chinese Buddhists approached the ancient Buddhist practice of meditation primarily as a way of gaining access to a world of enigmatic but potentially meaningful visionary experiences. In Chan Before Chan, Eric Greene brings this approach to meditation to life with a focus on how medieval Chinese Buddhists interpreted their own and others’ visionary experiences and the nature of the authority they ascribed to them. Drawing from hagiography, ritual manuals, material culture, and the many hitherto rarely studied meditation manuals translated from Indic sources into Chinese or composed in China in the 400s, Greene argues that during this era meditation and the mastery of meditation came for the first time to occupy a real place in the Chinese Buddhist social world. Heirs to wider traditions that had been shared across India and Central Asia, early medieval Chinese Buddhists conceived of “chan” as something that would produce a special state of visionary sensitivity. The concrete visionary experiences that resulted from meditation were understood as things that could then be interpreted, by a qualified master, as indicative of the mediator’s purity or impurity. Buddhist meditation, though an elite discipline that only a small number of Chinese Buddhists themselves undertook, was thus in practice and in theory constitutively integrated into the cultic worlds of divination and “repentance” (chanhui) that were so important within the medieval Chinese religious world as a whole.

Chinkstar

Chinkstar PDF Author: Jon Chan Simpson
Publisher: Coach House Books
ISBN: 1770564055
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Everything was about to change. In less than forty-eight hours guy'd be taking the stage in Vancouver, owning an audience meant for some all-hype-no-talent young-money rapper, spitting next-level truths that'd have A&Rs scrapping for him coast to coast. He'd ink some paper and drop an album on the world it didn't even know it had been waiting for. All with game and swag to spare. This was the edge, the almost there, and we knew it. Chinksta rap is all the rage in small-town Alberta. And the king of Chinksta is King Kwong, high-schooler Run's older brother. Run isn't a fan of Kwong's music—or personality, really. But when Kwong goes missing the night before his crowning performance and his mom gets wounded in crossfire, Run finds himself, with his sidekick, Ali, in the middle of a violent battle between rival Chinese rap gangs, on the run from his crush's behemoth brother, and rethinking his feelings about his family and their history, his hatred of "rice-rap," and what it means to be Asian. With imaginAsian and a flair for the rap lyric, Jon Chan Simpson mashes up the (graphicless) graphic novel and the second-generation-immigrant narrative to forge a bold new vision of what the novel can be. Jonathan Chan Simpson grew up in Red Deer, Alberta, and lives in Toronto, Ontario. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto's MA creative writing program, and his work has been featured in Ricepaper magazine.

Awakened Cosmos

Awakened Cosmos PDF Author: David Hinton
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834842408
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
A deep and radically original exploration of Taoist and Ch'an (Zen) Buddhist wisdom through the lens of the life and work of Tu Fu, widely considered China's greatest classical poet. What is consciousness but the Cosmos awakened to itself? This question is fundamental to the Taoist and Ch'an (Zen) Buddhist worldview that shapes classical Chinese poetry. A uniquely conceived biography, Awakened Cosmos illuminates that worldview through the life and work of Tu Fu (712-770 C.E.), China's greatest classical poet. Tu Fu's writing traces his life from periods of relative normalcy to years spent as an impoverished refugee amid the devastation of civil war. Exploring key poems to guide the reader through Tu Fu's dramatic life, Awakened Cosmos reveals Taoist/Ch'an insight deeply lived across the full range of human experience. Each chapter presents a poem in three stages: first, the original Chinese; then, an English translation in Hinton's masterful style; and finally, a lyrical essay that discusses the untranslatable philosophical dimensions of the poem. The result is nothing short of remarkable: a biography of the Cosmos awakened to itself in the form of a magisterial poet alive in T'ang Dynasty China. Thirty years ago, David Hinton published America's first full-length translation of Tu Fu's work. Awakened Cosmos is published simultaneously with a newly translated and substantially expanded version of that landmark translation: The Selected Poems of Tu Fu: Expanded and Newly Translated (New Directions).