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Essential Zen Paperback – November 3, 1995

by Kazuaki Tanahashi (Author)

9 customer reviews

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The best collection of Zen wisdom and wit since Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: koans, sayings, poems, and stories by Eastern and American Zen teachers and students capture the delightful, challenging, mystifying, mind-stopping, outrageous, and scandalous heart of Zen.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Essential Zen stands as one of the happy paradoxes in which Zen abounds." -- 6890

"A pithy compendium of subtle dharmic jests . . . A tool kit for survival in samsara. I bow to its poetry, wit, and wisdom." -- Anne Waldman, director, Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa Institute

"I am grateful . . . for the gift of this splendid collection. Through [these] pages, the mind of Zen--permeable and particular, timeless and new-born, many and one--happily wanders. An ox eating flowers, flowers eating an ox--here, taste for yourself." -- Jane Hirshfield, editor of Women in Praise of the Sacred

About the Author

Kazuaki Tanahashi is an artist, translator, and writer whose books include Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dogen and Brush Mind.

Tensho David Schneider is an ordained Zen priest and the author of Street Zen.

Product details

Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (November 3, 1995)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062510460
ISBN-13: 978-0062510464
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.4 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 9 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #573,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #437 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Eastern > Buddhism > Zen > Philosophy
- #545 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Eastern > Buddhism > Zen > Spirituality
- #138226 in Books > Religion & Spirituality

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Delightful and informative.

June 16, 2014

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book is an easy read, with delightful stories, and full of humor and wit. It nicely captures the essence of Zen, and introduces the reader to a colorful cast of Zen characters. Free of tedious scholarship, it breezes right along, allowing the Zen masters to speak for themselves. A lovely way to start -- or end -- each day.

Comment

Sandra A. Branch

December 24, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Zen is difficult for me to understand and this book while interesting raises more questions than answers. I would recommend it for people interested in Zen.

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December 25, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Everything was great! Super service!

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March 3, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

And excellent & concise collection of Zen writings.

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Michael P. McGarry

A Wonderful Introduction to Zen

August 7, 2000

Format: Hardcover

Tanahashi & Schneider's anthology creates a sense of the thread running through Zen because ancient stories from the T'ang Dynasty (619-906) are juxtaposed with stories about Zen aspirants in modern America. They do a wonderful job of illuminating several traits unique to Zen, not by explaining them discursively, but rather by providing one illuminating story after another. For example, type of guidance a novice receives in Zen is virtually unparalleled in the world's spiritual systems. An explanation of everything unique to it would most likely be arcane and dry, hardly helpful to the outsider. Instead, this book tells stories, profound touchstones from the tradition. My favorite entry from the chapter "Skillful Guidance is a story about the interaction of the Zen Master Nanquan (Japanese: Nansen, 748-835) and a hopeful pupil looking for him.--- Nanquan was working on the mountain. A monk came by and asked him, "What is the way that leads to Nanquan?" The master raised his sickle and said, "I bought this sickle for thirty cents." The monk said, "I'm not asking about the sickle you bought for thirty cents. What is the way that leads to Nanquan?" The master said, "It feels good when I use it." (p. 10) --- One of the many virtues of that story is that, until our intuition opens to it, we are very much like the monk in the story, and Nanquan is teaching us as well. As I read the book, I felt that I was being taught by both ancient and modern Masters, and the miracle is, across thirteen centuries, they speak with one voice. Admittedly, not every selection will make sense to the beginner on a first reading, but that is one of the book's strengths - many passages become deeper with repeated readings. This is not a once-through quick read; this is a text from which new insights might emerge for years and years. It is a book that challenges you to grow, and it will remain relevant as you grow. For this reason, I recommend it not only to beginners, but to seasoned Zen practitioners as well.

17 people found this helpful

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When arrows meet head-on: no dust , no mirror

August 27, 2007

Format: Hardcover

Essential Zen comes thirty-seven years after the publication of Paul Rep's Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings (1957). The books are similar in that they both are collections of Zen writings highlighting the paradoxical and irreverent that is at the heart of Zen Buddhism.

I would put this on the same shelf as Zen Flesh, but I would not take it down as often. (Then again I may. Who is to say?) The striking brilliance of Zen Flesh comes partly from its being the first meaty collection of Zen writings in English, but also because it included writings from the precursors of Zen in the Taoist and Vedic traditions. Essential Zen takes a slightly different, perhaps more sophisticated path. The writings are heavy with the paradox of Zen and with the contradictory nature of life. Thus we have Master So-and-so contradicting himself. Thus we have enlightenment coming upon the contradiction. Essential Zen also seems more esoteric. There is little in the book like the denotative guiding stories from Zen Bones. Tanahashi mentions the famous tea pouring into an overflowing cup story that appeared in Zen Bones, but one senses that such stories have become a bit too heavy-handed. Or maybe there is a kind of precious intellectualization creeping in here, a kind of anti-intellectual intellectualism! such as has happened with the short story since the days of O. Henry and Poe. Everything has become so, so precious and so, so subtle that perhaps only those with lots of experience can appreciate the nuances. In reaction I have came up with my own Zen poem this morning:

I am putting on clean underwear today
so that in case I drop dead
nobody will find skid marks in my shorts.

Schneider titles his introduction "Graffiti on Perfectly Good Paper," more or less defining the paradoxical nature of a book that collects Zen sayings: on the one hand the sayings are worth reading; on the other they are of so little value in terms of enlightenment that they waste perfectly good paper. Tanahashi entitles his introduction, "On Positive Emptiness" and refers to the "collective consciousness of the tradition." A graphic theme in the book is the circle drawn with black-inked calligraphy brush. The final sentence in the book (from Dogen) sums up what is meant: "Your continuous practice creates the circle of the way."

Consequently this is not an introduction to Zen sort of book. It is for sophisticates. Some of the writings are amazingly beautiful, such as the poem "Song of the Bright Mirror Samadhi" by Dongshan Liangjie on pages 63-66. It is he who asks, "When arrowheads meet head-on, is it only a matter of skill?"

I also liked this Zen haiku from Lou Hartman (p. 103):

Scalding coffee from a freezing cup.
At the rim no telling
Which is which.

This is also nice: "Issan Dorsey was asked, 'What is the essence of Zen art?' He replied, 'Nothing extra.'"

There is a wonderful piece called "Roshi" by Leonard Cohen in which he and the Roshi are drinking a bit too much Courvoisier. (pp. 133-134)

Finally here is a beautiful poem by Daigu Ryokan (p. 76):

This sick pale face doesn't brighten the mirror.
My white hair keeps getting all tangled.
With dry lips, I frequently think of water.
Body so grimy, in vain I wish to be clean.
Cold and heat immediately become noticeable.
Pulse is oddly confused and disordered.
I faintly hear woodcutters talking.
The second month is already half gone.

I am attracted to these poetic writings because Zen is essentially an art, the art of living. I am also attracted because there is in the very nature of life at its core a sense of paradox. We see this in the contradictory nature of the quantum that is both a particle and a wave, something our minds cannot comprehend.

3 people found this helpful

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Joel L. Gandelman

I beg to differ......

August 31, 2001

Format: Paperback

As sad as it makes me to say it, I can't agree that this book is good for anyone who is JUST starting to learn about Zen. Call me an ignorant illiterate (I will admit that!) but I read lots of books on various religions and here is how I would rate this book. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING ALREADY ABOU ZEN OR ARE WELL INTO IT: Four and a half to five stars. Lots of great excerpts from various authors, many of them Westerners. They're diverse in content and vary in length. So it's a great for collection anyone who already has some knowledge of Zen. IF YOU DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT ZEN: You'll have to skip a lot of the sections as you start reading them, and not because that is the subject's inherent nature. Someone who picked up this book to learn about Zen would definitely have to go and buy a few more books to figure out the meaning of a lot of the sections. BOTTOM LINE: If there had been a bit more explanation about each section before the excerpts this book would be the "essential" Zen. But anyone just learning will have to get other books first to truly grasp the essentials in this book.

12 people found this helpful

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