Customer Reviews

Zen and the Psychology of Transformation: The Supreme Doctrine

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Zen is probably the most radical approach to existence devised through human history. Authentic Zen has nothing New Age or feel-good about it: it promises no comfort or self-aggrandizement, only absolute existential salvation, and THAT only have a laborious emptying out of the cup of ego that runneth over.

Most Zen masters refuse to discuss the discipline or explain it. Hubert Benoit takes the opposite, and for intellectually-inclined Westerners, the more accessible path, and discusses Zen in exhaustive detail in terms of psychology and philosophy--especially phenomenology and existentialism. I was skeptical of this approach until I actually read this book. Benoit writes at an extremely high level of abstraction (something quite alien to traditional Zen, which deals mainly in parables) but any experienced meditator will concur that practically every word Benoit writes rings with utter truth and fidelty to the workings of consciousness. He is clearly a man who has absorbed the Zen teachings and then examined the workings of his own mind with unfailing rigor and perceptiveness; he has taken those findings and translated them into language with a care and accuracy that nobody else, to my knowledge, has ever matched. The results are utterly profound.

Indispensable for anybody interested in Zen or the expansion of consciousness.

I have read this book several times over the course of five or so years; a rare occurence for me. The fact that Aldous Huxley writes the foreword should speak volumes in itself. In Huxley's own words this profound classic seeks to break through all that "obstructs the flow of life and grace and inspiration." A challenging read, but I doubt that you would regret having this book in your life. Consider it yeast!

Few of us have the opportunity to retreat into an actual monastic way of life for years and years in order to sink into the nature of Zen experience. Therefore, many branches of Zen, with their emphasis on monastic methods, are often somewhat anachronistic amid the modern world of busyness, speed, information, and seemingly continual bombardment from every direction. Hubert Benoit's Zen and the Psychology of Transformation goes back to the impetus of Zen--a philosophy called Chan that derived in China in the 7th century from an illiterate philosopher named Hui Neng--in order to offer a form of Zen that is fully possible in the context of modern life. Chan is not centered in sitting meditation, or in traditional zazen techniques, but rather simply in a restful type of introspection that leads one directly to the core of Zen experience. Benoit details the mechanics of this introspective life in poetic and technical form, and in a way that leaves one with a clear and simple knowledge of how one is to live one's life according to the restful life of Zen.

This book attempts to put Zen into the realm of western thinking. It has the right stuff. Unfortunately, it is sometimes very difficult to read and comprehend. Perhaps it is the translation from French, but I found the phrasing, punctuation, and some of the vocabulary very cumbersome.

Take a look at the excerpts on this page to see a sample of the style. Nonetheless, this book is a must read for anyone seriously investigating What Is.

There are many diamonds here, but you will need a pick and shovel.

***Note*** This is an update of a review I wrote in 1999 ......
Few of us have the opportunity to retreat into an actual monastic way of life for years and years in order to sink into the nature of Zen experience. Therefore, many branches of Zen, with their emphasis on monastic methods, are often somewhat anachronistic amid the modern world of busyness, speed, information, and seemingly continual bombardment from every direction. Hubert Benoit's Zen and the Psychology of Transformation goes back to the impetus of Zen--a philosophy called Chan that derived in China in the 7th century from an illiterate philosopher named Hui Neng--in order to offer a form of Zen that is fully possible in the context of modern life. Chan is not centered in sitting meditation, or in traditional zazen techniques, but rather simply in a restful type of introspection that leads one directly to the core of Zen experience. Benoit details the mechanics of this introspective life in poetic and technical form, and in a way that leaves one with a clear and simple knowledge of how one is to live one's life according to the restful life of Zen.
Hubert Benoit, like the Greeks and other thinkers before him, was a philosopher dedicated to the study of nature-as-a-whole. Often such thinkers choose to conduct such an expansive study through a single, chosen aspect of nature. The Greeks used, among other things, Logos. Modern physicists often use atoms, as did the Greek Democritus. Modern biologists use such vehicles as the cell, the macromolecule, or evolutionary theory. For some modern mathematicians, the fractal or the topological structure is used. In many ways, these areas overlap one another. The mind is another instrument that can be adopted for this study. To Benoit, as to many modern thinkers, the mind is simply another aspect of nature, much like an insectile or anthropoid form, or much like a cause, an effect, a black-hole singularity, a volume of space, an atom of light, or a duration of time--all different aspects of nature. Benoit's vehicle for investigating the mind--and therefore morphology of reality--was not biology, math, or physics, but Chan Buddhism, the earliest form of Zen; however, he dabbled also with Western Philosophy, the Greeks, conceptual science, and other areas in order to carry out his very personal, rational-inquiry. Benoit has nearly nothing to do with the popular, degenerate form of Buddhism commonly known as "American Zen" or "Western Buddhism," which is one of the main engines of the New Age Movement. Chan, being the original form of Zen, is nearly unrecognizable to the rest of the modern, socially-oriented Buddhist forms. It is however, very much aligned with archaic Taoism, as invented by Lao tsu.
Chan, in its ancient form, is bent on enlightenment. Yet it simultaneously claims that enlightenment does not exist. Contradictions such as this abound in Chan, and to the outsider, initially Chan will appear to be a wholly nihilistic, anti-social philosophy replete with allegorical tales of violence and destructive insanity, self mutilation and self torment, and monks lambasting each other even to the point of death. These elements are of no consequence to the serious student of Chan.

Benoit is brave to get to the heart of Zen in a way that is not usually done by Chan masters. Excellent translation by someone who knows the stuff, who himself is an authority onthe subject.

This book simply tells you how to look at your true nature. That's all. Each chapter is independent of other and approaches this difficult task of looking within from fresh angles.

Only problem is that it requires some prerequisite in the subject or at least an honest and deep desire to know who you are.

Hubert Benoit takes an ineffible subject (Zen) and elaborates extensively on it. I have a lot of highlighting in my 15 year old copy and I STILL open it up and read it over after all these years. Do yourself a favor and read this book..it may take a couple of attempts to get through but doing so can change your life.

This book has the ultra-practical as well as the mega-analytical...a nice synergy of East and West.

I rate it right up there with the Tao Te Ching, anything by D.T. Suzuki, the Dhammapada, and Zen Flesh, Zen Bones.

I can honestly say that if I hadn't just happened to come across this book in a bookstore 8 years ago, my life would be absolutely nothing like it is today. It helped me gain direction and the tools to decipher reality during the period of my most confused and lost days. I can tell you for a fact that it was a godsend and in perfect form. The message is presented in a logic and reason sense and is brilliantly portrayed and put across 'person to person' and 'soul to soul' and it's illustrated and reasoned so well that it really is impossible to disagree with. Benoit is a genius and an amazing writer and his logic and delivery in this book are truly 'rock solid'. I wish I could thank him for what it has done for me.

This is one of the clearest and most helpful Zen books. Although you will have to read it serveral times, Benoit is a true Zen 'grandmother'.

All of his books will help one open what is natural in all things. Yes, the Buddha Nature or true self. Books can shine some light but as Buddha's last words were " be a lamp into oneself, make our own path". If we can realize that the ego is not who we are, we have a foot on the path. Books allow an awareness to see the errors. Living the reality that we are "One With All Things", there are two feet on the path. Practice formal meditation and being truly Alive as we once were are key points. Plus a guide or mentor.

As one whom these studies have helped me see the errors over a 50 year lifetime, the best of many, many books is the one below. Hee,hee and the cheapest.

Be mindful of one thing, please - It was 3 tries before I could really follow the depth of this book. I needed to read a few before I could follow the depth of the "best book on the subject of what is closer than my nose"

Books yes, but one needs to realize all we look to be we already are or have. So, there is no path, we are already here, just asleep to who we are and how we fit into " all that is". Does the cat try to be something it is not? No, it is just cat or has cat-ness, just as this being has Rob-ness.

Zen and the Psychology of Transformation: The Supreme Doctrine Hubert Benoit