Tag Archives: Zen Buddhism

BOOKS: “Zen and the Ways” by Trevor Leggett

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Zen and the WaysZen and the Ways by Trevor Leggett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Open Library Page

This book is the most densely populated with interesting insights that I’ve read in some time. It’s not new, being first published in 1978, but it takes a variety of approaches to give the reader a better understanding of Zen and the application of Zen mind to martial arts and other activities that found benefit in stillness and clarity. By “the Ways,” Leggett is referring to those arts and activities benefiting from Zen, which include: tea ceremony, flower arranging, painting, poetry writing, and all manner of martial arts. [Often represented by ending “do” in Japanese.] (The latter are dealt with most extensively, but not exclusively.)

The book is arranged in six parts, the first half of which focus mostly upon Zen Buddhism and, particularly, the Kamakura school that found a huge following among warriors and other artists. Those first three chapters take a big to small approach, examining Zen from ever finer levels of detail, starting with an introduction to Zen Buddhism broadly, moving on to the Kamakura developments, and then finally focusing on one particular practice — that of Koans (stories that present riddles which the student can only “solve” in a non-intellectual fashion.)

The second half of the book investigates the ways Zen has been applied to various arts. This is where one sees the varied approaches used to explore the confluence of Zen and artistry. Part Four consists of a series of essays explaining concepts such as ri (universal truth) and ji (formal technique,) ki (vital energy,) and isshin (single-heartedness) / zanshin (lingering awareness.) Part Five consists of historic martial arts scrolls and excerpts, including Yagyu Munenori’s Art of War and Chozan Shisai’s “Tengu’s Guide to the Martial Arts.” The final part consists of stories that illustrate crucial ideas in a readable and memorable fashion.

I was extremely pleased to stumble across a copy of this book in a second-hand bookshop. I’d long ago heard a fascinating story about murders in Edo era Japan of high-level martial artists, all killed in the same manner. They never found the killer, but they figured out how the murders were done easily enough. The killer exploited his knowledge of that school’s techniques to lay a fake that exploited their own technique to create an opening. It’s a cautionary tale that drilling muscle memory is not the end-all be-all of martial arts, and that it can create its own problems. At any rate, I’d never been able to find the source… until now. There is a detailed discussion of it in this book.

For readers interested in how state of mind influences artistic performance, I’d highly recommend this book.

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BOOKS: “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma” Translation by Red Pine

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The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma (English and Chinese Edition)The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma by Bodhidharma
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Site

Bodhidharma was a Buddhist Monk who is credited with bringing an approach to Buddhism to China that would become Zen. This book presents four of his surviving lectures in their entirety: “Outline of Practice,” “Bloodstream Sermon,” “Wake-up Sermon,” and “Breakthrough Sermon.” It is a bilingual edition, featuring Traditional Chinese script juxtaposed with the English translation.

Bodhidharma was an intriguing and important character in the history of Buddhism, so much so that a legend has grown up around him that is in all likelihood substantially false. The most well-known element of the legend is that he taught monks the martial art that became Shaolin Kung Fu. (Historians refute the likelihood of this because there was no evidence of it in the documentation in the centuries immediately after Bodhidharma’s death. The story came along much later and caught on like gangbusters, so much so that it is routinely repeated today as if established fact. For elaboration, see Meir Shahar’s “The Shaolin Monastery.”) There is simply not a lot known about Bodhidharma (or even the extent which there was a Bodhidharma,) and what is known is not without controversy. Popular accounts put his homeland in Tamil Nadu, India, but dissenting accounts put it as far away as Persia (Iran.)

The reason I mention all this is because some potential readers may expect a kind of fabled story, full of kung fu and magic, and — in point of fact — these teachings offer a clear and straightforward approach to the practice of Buddhism. I’d highly recommend the book for readers interested in Buddhism, Zen, and meditational practices – generally. It is a clear and thought-provoking work. But, if you’re expecting a thrilling recitation of legend and woo-woo, this isn’t it.

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BOOKS: “Improv Wisdom” by Patricia Ryan Madson

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Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show UpImprov Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up by Patricia Ryan Madson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Website

One might expect this to be a book about how to perform improvisational comedy, but it’s better described as a philosophy of life that employs lessons from improv. There are books that take a much more tailored approach to building an improv act. This one, rather, broadens its target demographic from those interested in theater and comedy to everybody. It discusses applying lessons such as default to positivity (the famous “Yes, and…” of improv) both on and beyond the stage.

Each of the thirteen chapters is built around a maxim that might be heard in an improv theater or troupe. The crux of the matter is building the confidence and sense of freedom to be able to behave spontaneously in an environment that’s stressful and somewhat chaotic. Most of the lessons approach an aspect of the problem of surrender and free response action, though there are broader lessons such as the benefits of gratitude and helpfulness. While I call the book’s content a philosophy of life, the author doesn’t spend a lot of time drilling down into established philosophies, with the exception of Buddhism — specifically of the Zen variety. As one might imagine, Zen — with its emphasis on non-attachment and avoidance of overthinking — has a substantial overlap with the approach to living that Madson is proposing.

“Improv Wisdom” is set up as a self-help book, featuring not only lesson-based organization but also offering a few exercises in each chapter.

This is a quick read and might prove to be of great benefit to those who have never thought much about the challenges and lessons of improv. The book can’t be said to be groundbreaking in terms of the lessons it presents, but its focus on what improv elucidates about these lessons is interesting and unique.

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Ikkyū’s Poetry: The John Steven’s Wild Ways Selection / Translation

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Wild Ways: Zen Poems of IkkyuWild Ways: Zen Poems of Ikkyu by Ikkyu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the John Stevens selection and translation of poetry from Ikkyū’s Crazy Cloud Anthology. Ikkyū was what might be called a mad sage of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism. He once showed up at a temple in his vagabond rags and was turned away, when he came back the next day in the ceremonial robes that revealed him as a preeminent monk and was subsequently treated like royalty, he took the robes off and told the abbot that it was apparently the robes that were honored and deserving of a meal. Ikkyū was known not only for his rejection of dogmatic and highfalutin approaches to Buddhism, but also for his love of sex, brothels, meat eating, and poetry. Much of the poetry touches on those two subjects (disdain for dogma and pretension and love of pleasure,) though there are also poems that explore nature and the kind of imagery one might be more likely to expect in Japanese poetry.

Ikkyū mostly wrote in quatrains, using a Chinese style of verse. Though Ikkyū was no more dogmatic about following poetic protocols than he was following monastic precepts, and often went with the flow.

I read the Stephen Berg translation, Crow with No Mouth several years ago. I would put this one on par with that one. There are actually several translated selections from the Crazy Cloud Anthology poems that are available. If you are interested in Ikkyū’s poetry, this is as good a place to start as any. It should be noted that while some of the poetry is around sexuality, it’s not particularly graphic but more suggestive.

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Crow Sound [Tanka]

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the sharp caw
 of a crow triggers a monk's
  enlightenment.
 a second crow responds.
 a sailor doesn't look up.

Ikkyū Limerick

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There was a Zen master named Ikkyū
   who was thought by many to be cuckoo. 
 He'd allow a toot
  on his very own flute.
 Which was unbecoming of flutists (& monks, too.)

Satori [Free Verse]

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It was a moment 
 of silent spaciousness.

In the midst of a fight,
 there was no enemy --
  just the effortless
   dance of the thing.

That moment 
 expanded to the infinite,
  & snapped back 
   to one tick after the tock.

Since then, 
 no catastrophe has felt 
  too great for a smile.

BOOK REVIEW: Singing and Dancing Are the Voice of the Law by Busshō Lahn

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Singing and Dancing Are the Voice of the Law: A Commentary on Hakuin's “Song of Zazen”Singing and Dancing Are the Voice of the Law: A Commentary on Hakuin’s “Song of Zazen” by Bussho Lahn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

Release Date: December 20, 2022 [In India, may be out in your area.]

This book consists of a collection of essays inspired by the poem, “Song of Zazen,” written by the 18th century Zen master, Hakuin. Hakuin’s poem is brief (about forty lines,) and the essays composed by a present-day Zen priest (Lahn) offer commentary on a stanza-by-stanza basis. The book is divided into fourteen chapters, though the final chapter isn’t a stanza commentary.

I enjoyed reading this book and learned a great deal from it. The book benefits from the fact that the author is not rigidly sectarian. Therefore, the book is not doctrinaire, which warms the reader to the teachings. It’s also useful because it allowed the author to freely draw examples and quotes from a variety of sources, some of which may be more familiar or relatable to neophyte readers.

The last chapter offers a discussion of the fundamentals of zazen (seated meditation) as well as some other ancillary information that may be useful to readers new to Zen Buddhism, its practices, and its sutras. If you’re interested in Zen Buddhist meditation and philosophy, you may want to give it a look.


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BOOK REVIEW: Dropping Ashes on the Buddha by Seung Sahn

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Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teachings of Zen Master Seung SahnDropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn by Seung Sahn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

This book’s one-hundred brief chapters mostly consist of interactions between the Korean Zen Buddhist teacher, Seung Sahn, and students of his. However, there are also some old Zen stories, and a few odds and ends: such as the transcript of a completely unproductive “dialogue” between Seung Sahn and a Hindu yogi. Some of the student-teacher interactions are epistolary, but others are face-to-face “dharma combat” or Q&A sessions (which also, ultimately, became dharma combat — given Seung Sahn’s teaching methods.) Dharma combat is a dialogue that resembles Socratic dialogue except that the goal isn’t to use logic and sound reasoning to persuade another, but rather to demonstrate a lack of attachment and proclivity to overintellectualize. It involves a lot of seemingly nonsensical answers and occasional shouting and slapping / hitting. It sounds unproductive, but the objective is to break established cognitive modes and to induce epiphany, rather than to build a rational argument.

It’s a thought provoking and informative book, if a bit repetitive. Most of the conversation revolves around less than a dozen ko-an [kong-an in Korean,] which are questions or statements that’re intended to provoke a kind of realization rather than to produce a straightforward / rational answer. It’s not a problem that there’s repetition, as these aren’t straightforward ways of thinking, and oftentimes it takes many varied looks at a ko-an to grasp what’s being conveyed. That said, I felt this book could’ve used some editing to streamline the dialogue a bit to make it feel a bit less punitively redundant.

If you’re interested in ko-an and dharma combat, this is a great book to look into. However, if you’re familiar with many of the popular ko-an and Zen stories, it may feel a bit redundant.


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Tōsui’s Rebuttal [Kyōka]

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the Zen monk Tōsui,
rebuked for handling manure,
plead not guilty
by reason of scrawny crops,
and kept spreading shit