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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
an enticement to practice,
By Jennifer (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Whole World Is a Single Flower: 365 Kong-Ans for Everyday Life (Tuttle Library of Enlightenment) (Paperback)
I felt very sad when I read the review from someone in Winslow, Arizona. This person missed the point. I practice koans with one of the editors of this book, Jane McLaughlin-Dobisz, a Zen Master who received transmission from Zen Master Seung Sahn. She is a completely alive teacher who brings the teaching of this book alive in practice. The entire point of koan practice is to connect the teachings with everyday life, so that there is no separation between you and this world. This book presents some of these koans, or questions, to entice you to more deeply explore your mind before critical, analytical thinking. Zen Master Seung Sahn calls this your "don't know mind". By allowing yourself to be absorbed by these questions and respond from your gut, you may come to trust yourself, to believe in yourself. Through this belief, you will be able to participate in your life 100%, with compassion and vital presence. This is something that 100 books about Zen cannot give you. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in Zen practice, or koan practice, as an introduction to this centuries old path to cutting through the mind of opposites and returning to the source. If you have some idea about the path to enlightenment, you will have a big problem. This book may help you see through your ideas and wake up! I sit a seven day retreat every year and I read this book and it always helps me, I hope it will help you too.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In an ancient tradition,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Whole World Is a Single Flower: 365 Kong-Ans for Everyday Life (Tuttle Library of Enlightenment) (Paperback)
There are three classic collections of kong-ans (the Korean word; Japanese is koans, Chinese is kung-ans) from ancient China: the Mumonkan, the Blue Cliff record, and (less known) the Book of Serenity. They follow the same basic form: the kong-an (the word means public case, and it's generally a very short story, e.g.: "A monk asked Joju, does a dog have Buddha nature? Joju answered Mu.") is presented, followed by commentary. In the Mumonkan and the Blue Cliff record the commentary is by the book's compiler; in the Book of Serenity you get a grab bag of comments by various teachers. This book is a contemporary representation of that tradition, presenting a large number of classic kong-ans from the Korean tradition, as well as kong-ans based on poems or fragments of poems (e.g., there's a series of kong-ans from the Tao Te Ching) and derived from other traditions (including the Christian tradition). Each kong-an is followed by a question or series of questions, and then by a short commentary. (Historical note: Today we tend to identify the kong-an with the question, but traditionally it's the basic situation that's the kong-an.)Winslow AZ, who wrote the extremely negative review, is right on one point --- these stories, questions, and commentaries can seem incomprehensible if you read them the way you'd read, say, a review on Amazon.com. Well, hey, I'm a mathematician and mathematics papers are incomprehensible if you read them that way too. So, no, this isn't a book for people wanting an introduction to Zen Buddhism, whether philosophical or practical, and it isn't an analytical text for students working toward their PhD's either. What it is is the real thing, a contemporary snapshot of a living tradition, and that's its value. People practicing in the very particular tradition of the Kwan Um School of Zen refer to this book regularly, just as the Mumonkan and Blue Cliff Record (most or all of whose cases are incorporated here, but with different commentary) have been referred to regularly for over 1,000 years. Kong-ans resonate with some people and not with others; for those for whom they resonate they are invaluable. If you want a taste of the living tradition, whether as a practitioner or a scholar, check this book out.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Zen masterpiece, better for advanced students.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Whole World Is a Single Flower: 365 Kong-Ans for Everyday Life (Tuttle Library of Enlightenment) (Paperback)
The secret to understanding this book is to follow Zen Master Seung Sahn's advice and cut off all thinking. Zen Master Seung Sahn is a great contemporary Korean Zen Master who has been teaching in the West since 1972. He has an intimate appreciation of his Western students' minds, and also a profound understanding of the whole Zen tradition. The book will give a valuable question to the mind of those who have never practiced, but it will be most treasured by those with some experience of meditation. Kong-ans (Jap. koans) which might seem paradoxical at first are revealed as simple and illuminating to the mind which sheds its attachments. That is the beauty (and the frustration) of studying kong-ans with an experienced teacher. This book should enlighten as well as provoke. It also contains many heretofore unknown stories from the Korean Zen tradition, as well as Taoist and Christian Kong-ans. A rare find!
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