Product Description

The Blue Cliff Record is a classic text of Zen Buddhism, designed to assist in the activation of dormant human potential. The core of this extraordinary work is a collection of one hundred traditional citations and stories (known as gongan in Chinese and koans in Japanese and English) that have been selected for their ability to bring about insight and enlightenment. Though The Blue Cliff Record has been available in English for many years, authentic traditions of commentary on the text have been unavailable to the public, indeed unavailable even to most specialists in the field—until now. This new work by Thomas Cleary fills the gap in the East-West transmission of Zen lore with commentaries by two of the greatest Zen masters of early modern Japan, Hakuin Ekaku of the Rinzai sect of Zen (1685–1768) and Tenkei Denson of the Soto sect of Zen (1648–1735). Hakuin and Tenkei were two of the towering figures in Zen during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This new translation of The Blue Cliff Record featuring their newly translated commentary is sure to shed new light on the meaning of this central Zen text.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1920800 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-30
• Released on: 2001-01-30
• Original language: Japanese
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

From Amazon.com
The Blue Cliff Record is a collection of Chinese koan, cryptic Zen stories that point the way to enlightenment. Monks would (and still do) spend days, months, even years on a single koan, ruminating over it, plumbing its depths--not trying to figure it out, but letting it open a door inside of them. Over the centuries, masters have attempted to help the process along by adding their own remarks. Translator Thomas Cleary tells us that two of the most important commentators on the Blue Cliff Record have been the Japanese Hakuin Ekaku of the Rinzai lineage and Tenkei Denson of the Soto. In Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record, Cleary includes the core elements of the original Blue Cliff Record and selections from the extensive work of these two commentators. The result is not exactly a CliffsNotes, as the reading is still arduous. Even the comments can be cryptic and in need of comment. But the more fingers pointing at the moon, the easier it is to find. --Brian Bruya

Review
"These commentaries make the challenges of the Zen masters available to the spiritually courageous among us." – Bodhi Tree Book Review