Customer Reviews

Beyond Thinking: A Guide to Zen Meditation

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This book contains translated fascicles from Dogen Zenji's Shobogenzo, a massive and inscrutable philosophical work regarding the nature of life and reality.

Within are some of the most popular, influential, and profound selections of the Shobogenzo regarding zazen meditation practice, which can be everything from somewhat confusing to utterly nonsensical to anyone without a store of background knowledge in Zen Buddhism.

As a consequence, this book is best geared towards those who already have a significant understanding of the language and style of Zen. It is definitely not for someone who has never encountered Buddhist or Zen thought before.

That said, Dogen Zenji's philosophy is unsurpassed in its depth and influence in Japanese Zen and, to a large extent, Western Zen as well. The Shobogenzo, written in the 1200's, is still studied and revered today as one of the most brilliant works ever written regarding Buddhist philosophy and practice. Many Zen teachers have dedicated themselves exclusively to Dogen's thought.

This book, though it does not contain other seminal fascicles such as the Genjokoan, is a great resource to anyone interested in reading not second-hand explanations, but selected translations from one of the most famous teachers and reformers of Zen Buddhism.

This is definitely an advanced book on practice. To learn meditation out of this book is not recommended --- the author lived in the 13th century. Reading this book gives insights, realizations, and wonderful ideas on the practice of meditation to those who have a grounding in the process.

Eihei Dôgen was the founder of the Sôtô School and surely the greatest figure in the history of Japanese Zen. His enormous "Shôbôgenzô" or "Treasury of the True Dharma Eye", is probably the greatest single work of Zen literature, the record of one of the most enlightened minds known to us. This book collects the sections related to meditation, with a few pieces on the same subject from elsewhere, though it's far from a straightforward "guide to meditation".

Some have criticised this book for being hard to understand. But why would you buy a book about things you understand already? The pieces intended for beginners are in the first section, "Entering Zazen." Go on from there. Don't think of this as a book to polish off quickly, but as a precious possession to accompany you through life, revealing more and more of itself.

When you're a child, you see scenes of grown-ups or teenagers kissing on TV or in the movies and you think, "Ew yuck, I'm never going to do that when I grow up." You haven't yet had the experiences that will make sense of this for you. The same with Dôgen-zenji. As your practice deepens, you will find that things you were mystified by become as clear as day. Maybe some things you'll never get to understand, but that's no problem: Dôgen's endless probing subtlety reflects the profundity of the way things are. Still, as other reviewers have said, this is Not a book for anyone with only a casual interest in Zen.

As in other books by this translator, the idiom is somewhat curious: but it's not easy turning fluid, intricate and elliptical Classical Japanese into modern English. I think a good balance has been struck between clarity and retaining the flavour of the original: I have seen far worse versions of some of these pieces. The texts, especially in the latter sections, are dense with references to Zen lore, but as in "Moon in a Dewdrop" a comprehensive glossary has been provided

The book "Beyond Thinking" is a collection of writings by the Zen Master Eihei Dogen that has been edited and pieced together by Kazuaki Tanahashi. The result is a book split into four sections teaching on "Entering Zazen", "Zazen Experience", "Zazen in Community", and "Zazen Through the Seasons". This book offers wisdom, guidance, and specific instructions on almost every aspect of sitting meditation. It is intended for just about any audience who is interested in Zazen, from practicing monks to new people who have never heard of the practice before. The book starts with instructions for sitting and some fairly basic explanation of the ideology behind it. This continues through the first two-thirds of the work into the "Zazen Experience" section, which delves deeper into teachings and ways of understanding Zazen. Starting in the "Zazen in Community" section, however, we see a change to a much more specific route of study. This section offers instructions for every action you would take while living in a monastic community, from times for sitting to how to properly use the restroom or wash your face. The last section is the shortest and gives a detail of the ceremonies and teachings connected to specific times of the year.

Due to the intense nature of its rules and regulations this book would be incredibly helpful for someone who is familiar with the approach and already practicing, but would cause confusion and possibly frustration for the casual or beginning reader. As this work is a composition of other writings, it essentially relies on the authority of Zen Master Dogen, from whom these teachings are taken. In the introduction, Norman Fischer explains that Dogen's traditionalist teachings have been followed and studied for the almost 800 years it has been since his death, and this would lead most readers to accept the authority of Dogen's writing. Fischer also explains that it is this traditionalist approach that posits all of the specific rules and regulations surrounding Zazen. These rules make an excellent guidebook for the experienced practitioner, and offer an authoritative collection of ways to do things within the monastic community. Even the earlier sections of the book offer a good base of understanding for beginners, and most of the ideas are explained in an easy-to-follow manner. As the book moves on, the specific customs and practices become almost overwhelming, and very intimidating to new readers. Personally, I would be afraid to try to approach a monastic experience because I would be so afraid to do something wrong.

This intimidation comes in part from the authority of Dogen and in part from the language used to talk about the rules. Reading any work by a very prestigious author can be intimidating, especially for readers who are new to the field of study; readers often do not want to misinterpret the book, and so avoid reading higher-level works until they are comfortable with some basic ideas. The second part, the language, also causes new readers to shy away from the later material in this book because it is so serious. For example, in the section on "Regulations for the Auxiliary Cloud Hall" on pages 99-102 there are lists of regulations stated as "Do not", followed by a reason. This language makes the admonitions seem much more serious and dire than they probably are. Most of these rules are simply so that you do not disturb the peace of the other monks around you, but the way they are written makes them seem extremely important. Other rules are so arbitrary that you have to wonder why they could possibly be necessary. For instance, "Do not enter or leave with your hands hanging down" (Dogen 101). What could be the need for this? As a new reader without much experience in Zen, this particular statement left me confused and looking for answers. I am sure that a more experienced reader would know the reason for this, and see this rule as more of a reminder of something he already knows. For this reason, I think this book is well-written, but probably should be intended more for use by people who already practice Zazen and know the basics.

Listen to Dogen Zenji's dharma with this book. The writings of this master are timeless. Not easy to read - requires some effort, but there are morsals of teachings buried within.
Ed

The book is nicely organized and contains a lot of good information, but reading it is just too painful for me. The sentence structure is awkward, and a lot of the words ("steadfastly") and phrases ("nourish the seed") used just come across as cheesy. I'm sure they're all significant in some special way, but reading this without already having familiarity with this type of jargon is probably not worth the effort.

For those braver than I am, the last 30 pages of this 180 page book consists of a glossary for you to look up all the terms, phrases, people, and places in. That way when you see a paragraph such as "Touzi,* Great Master Ciji of Shu Region, was once asked by a monk, 'Is there a dragon* singing in a withered tree?*'" you can go to the back of the book and look up each asterisked term to find out who Touzi is, what a "dragon" is supposed to represent, and that a "withered tree" is "Sitting in stillness."

GOOD BOOK. EVAN THOUGH IT GETS TO DEEP FOR ME BUT I ENJOYED AND UNDERSTOOD A LOT OF IT. AND HAVE SOMPTHING TO REREAD AND WORK ON. GOOD ZEN, JUST BE.

Hi:
This book is awesome. If you want to understand Zen meditation, Dogen is the best, and this book prove it.