Customer Reviews

Zen and Zen Classics

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The other volumes of Blyth are very hard to get. The collection of writings and extracts does a good job of condensing the essence of those volumes. The flavor of the writings is what I would call "Zen existentialism". I read the book from cover to cover with rapt attention about 25 years ago. What I got from the writings was about accepting myself and life as it is, meeting it directly, and cutting through every kind of theory to be with what really is. The gift of Zen is that, while emerging from the very heart of what Buddha taught, cuts through even the words of the Buddha to what he saw and even more important than what he saw is what we actually see, right here and right now.

Franck's "Zen and Zen Classics" is his editing of the writings of R. H. Blyth on Ch'an/Zen, which are otherwise out of print. It is a great book, specially since it contains the only in-print works of Blyth, who, Franck says, is the indispensible interpreter of Zen for the western mind, and that Blyth is the ever-open eye. This is a great book, and can lead to even greater ones by Blyth---if onlt they would print more.

This slim volume (123 pages) is the first of the five masterly volumes that R.H. Blyth wrote on the zen classics. It was published in 1960 by Hokuseidu Press in Japan. Blyth first asks, What is Zen? Then proceeds with a discussion of zen history from 1000BC to 750AD. He follows this with discourses on The Hsinhsinming (Shinjinmei), The Chengtaoke and the Platform Sutra. Throughout the book Blyth approaches zen with a clear, uncluttered mind,his clarity and sense of humour shine throughout this lucidly written book. I would urge all of you who are interested in Oriental literature to write to Hokusiedo and ask them to republish this splendid series of books.
"The blind one found the jewel;
The one without fingers picked it up;
The one with no neck put it on;
And the one with no voice praised it."

Franck's "Zen and Zen Classics" is his editing of the writings of R. H. Blyth on Ch'an/Zen, which are otherwise out of print. It is a great book, specially since it contains the only in-print works of Blyth, who Franck says is the indispensible interpreter of Zen for the western mind, and that Blyth is the ever-open eye. This is a great book, and can lead to even greater ones by Blyt---if onlt they would print more.

This book truly changed my life.. it open my eyes to the things that were already there all along.. if you are looking for yourself, start here...