Customer Reviews

The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader (Ecco Companions)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Stories about zen masters and anecdotals are all very well. However, a view of their original work is needed to provide a well-rounded view of Zen. After searching for a simple book which did not dwell on the esoteric nor the speculative, I find this book very refreshing. Read the works expecting nothing, and their very meaning will jump out and hit you with the power of their simplicity and frankness. At a time when Zen has assumed such a complicated personna, and people are inundated with terminology which drives them away from such a great practice, this book comes across as a place where one can lay down under the shade of a big friendly tree,take the shoes off and wonder at the simple wisdom of the masters.

No less than Gary Snyder (aka. "Jaffy Ryder" of On the Road infamy) has prasied this as a great collection of Zen textual gems. Well, that Beat Generation crowd and hype aside...this actually IS a surprisingly engaging mix of Zen stories, characters, koans and poems, there is everything relevant about a collection like this. It speaks to the strong energizingly authentic life of Zen practice and perspective as a path to enlightenment and personal self-redemption. It also illuminates what is eternal about the Zen path by demonstrating how ancient sages expressed their relation to the universe from their own particular, unique vantage points.

When I first read through it, I didn't have the reading and practice familiarity to appreciate it fully, and probably still don't, however, now it seems a new book to me with new figures and sparkling new mysteries. It gets newer as time passes.

Get the hardcover edition. Take my word for it.

Worth every penny.

I just want to add my voice here. I have read widely in the popular literature on Zen and Chan and this is my favorite book. It combines history and original texts with a beautiful translating style. Really, if you want one book on Zen, this is it.

What a splendid way to begin each day by reading a short chapter or two in this well-structured and informative anthology. By providing some biographical and historical context for each entry, the editors provide a base from which to step off into more ethereal levels. I've read in Zen off and on for 40+years. This book is as useful and helpful as anything I've found. In their introduction, the editors themselves express a disdain for the
trend in recent decades to reduce Zen to a collection of pithy observations and hip greeting card sentiments. They were striving for accessible depth. Gary Snyder's comment on the cover that "this is the reader to carry with you on the Way" is as good a recommendation as one might hope for.