Customer Reviews

Poetry of Enlightenment: Poems by Ancient Ch'an Masters

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On the cover of this book, Master Sheng-yen discusses the overemphasis on the study of koans (kung-ans) and the deficit of literature available on Ch'an (Zen) poetry. The weakness is that "in reading a kung-an we get an objective story of what happened and we don't really know what was in the mind of the participants." On the other hand, "the purpose of these poems is different in that they specifically show you how to practice, what attitudes to cultivate and what pitfalls to be aware of."

In this text, he provides a brief history of the poems and authors, and proceeds to translate the poems. They include "Calming the Mind," "The Mind King," "Faith in Mind" (commentary available in book "Faith in Mind"), "Song of Mind," "Song of Enlightenment" (commentary available in "Sword of Wisdom"), "Inquiry into Matching Halves" and "Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi" (commentary on both poems available in "The Infinite Mirror"), "Silent Illumination" and "Contemplating Mind" (commentary on both poems available in "Getting the Buddha Mind") and "On Clear Mind."

This book is an excellent reference or preview of all of these poems. However, if you are like me, you may need a little more of an explanation. I highly recommend this book for someone who wants to get a taste of Ch'an (Zen) poetry. However, for someone who wants the added benefit of Master Sheng-yen's explanatory powers, I would recommend the above mentioned books to gain the greatest value from each poem.

My take on this book is different than the other reviewers.
As a practitioner of Samatha Vipassana and by Samatha I mean, Jhana; I see this beautiful volume of poems as being the expression of each writers practice. It is wonderful that Sheng Yen put this together and being the Master of Samadhi that he was share his own insights into what he learned from these poems. Truley there are different views for entering samadhi, even among jhana practitioners, though methods carry some similarity, teachers have different styles for delivering those methods to students. WHen I read these poems I have the experience of each teachers method and the insights they arrived at by following their method. I do not have the experience of it going beyond that, since what qualifies for enlightenment varies amongst Chan and Zen schools. I rely more on Shakyamuni's 7 factors myself. I also feel that there is a lot of truth in Mr. Ikeda's review on this book.
I have a deep respect for Master Sheng Yen as years ago I was deeply inspired to practice Chan method seriously through the transcribed talks in Faith in Mind. I learned a lot from Sheng Yen and felt his books are infinitely more practical and clear than the writings by other zen or chan masters today. This book however is Poems from early Chan Masters with commentary by Sheng Yen. If your someone who loves the silence of the mind, if you love the Dao De Ching and writings which are not the expression of the intellect but of the exploration of the nature of consciousness outside of thought then you will enjoy this book as I have.

it was a great pleasure to read some of the classic ch'an/zen poetry on the matter of enlightenment. i wish i could read more of this type of thing. Master Shen has really done a wonderful thing by producing this little book for people in enlish. it is not always possible to be happy in this life, whether enlightened or not, and i only hope that he will have happiness in the latter years of his life and a peaceful birth. thank you master shen.

Many people will enjoy reading these Ch'an gathas (verses). However, in places, I felt certain misgivings about the commentary material. For instance, I wondered if the dismissive remarks (p. 45)about Yung-chia's iJpn. Yoka Daishi) T'ien-tai (Jpn. Tendai) background were justified, as if the merits of the 'Cheng Tao Ke' or 'Song of Enlightenment' had to be seen wholly as the fruit of Yung-chia's Ch'an training.@True, Yung-chia confessed that he had formerly devoted excessive attention to sutras and shastras etc. However, like a number of early Ch'an masters, Yung-Chia embraced a joint T'ien-tai/Ch'an practice. The T'ien-tai 'triple insight' and 'combined triple insight' (a Chinese adaption of samatha-vipsayana) refers to a dynamic practice, complementary to Ch'an. Hence, while Yung-chia certainly extolls Ch'an in his famous gatha, the 'Song of Enlightenment' could equally well be seen as a reflection of T'ien-tai based insight. Tao-yuan's 'Transmission of the Lamp' (Chuan Teng Lu) - technically a Ch'an school document, included several T'ien-tai masters. The picture here is not quite so black and white as we might suppose. The more 'formal' aspects of T'ien-t'ai are another matter.

Again, I was puzzled by the remarks about the Ts'ao-tung school's 'wu-wei' or 'Five Ranks' (p. 74) suggesting that they 'all have the same basis in enlightenment.' What is that supposed to mean? Though the Ts'ao-tung teaching alludes to 'five ranks,' what it boils down to, in practice, is a 'three way interplay' between - the 'guest' position, the 'host' position - and the host-in-host.' These are distinct phases of insight, and it is only in the final stage - that the distinctions, hitherto coined in the teaching - dissolve away. These shifts of emphasis are clearly emphasised in other Ts'ao-tung gathas - omitted from - or not found in, Sheng-yen's collection. Masters Tung-shan and Ts'ao-shan devised this teaching to help their students mature in their training. Hence, it seems misleading to generalise about it with amorphous distinctions.

A final point. A number of these gathas or verses have been translated before - with supplementary material closely connected with them. Whether as a token of respect to the translators - or as a matter of practical relevance to the reader, acknowledgement of this would have been fitting.