Taking the Path of Zen - Softcover

Aitken, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0865470804 ISBN 13: 9780865470804

Publisher: North Point Press, 1982

Synopsis

There is a fine art to presenting complex ideas with simplicity and insight, in a manner that both guides and inspires. In Taking the Path of Zen Robert Aitken presents the practice, lifestyle, rationale, and ideology of Zen Buddhism with remarkable clarity.

The foundation of Zen is the practice of zazen, or mediation, and Aitken Roshi insists that everything flows from the center. He discusses correct breathing, posture, routine, teacher-student relations, and koan study, as well as common problems and milestones encountered in the process. Throughout the book the author returns to zazen, offering further advice and more advanced techniques. The orientation extends to various religious attitudes and includes detailed discussions of the Three Treasures and the Ten Precepts of Zen Buddhism.
Taking the Path of Zen will serve as orientation and guide for anyone who is drawn to the ways of Zen, from the simply curious to the serious Zen student.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Aitken (1917-2010) was Roshi of the Diamond Sangha in Honolulu and the author of Taking the Path of Zen and The Mind of Clover. His introduction to Zen came in a Japanese prison camp during World War II, after he was captured as a civilian in Guam. R. H. Blyth, author of Zen in English Literature, was imprisoned in the same camp, and in this unlikely setting Aitken began the first of several important apprenticeships. After the war Aitken returned often to Japan to study. He became friends with D. T. Suzuki, and studied with Nagakawa Soen Roshi and Yasutani Hakuun Roshi. In 1959 Robert Aitken and his wife, Anne, established a Zen organization, the Diamond Sangha. Aitken was given the title "Roshi" and authorized to teach by Yamada Koun Roshi in 1974.

From the Back Cover

"I welcome with great pleasure Robert Aitken Roshi's introduction to Zen practice, Taking the Path of Zen. I feel this will be a valuable source of information and inspiration both for those who have a passing interest in the subject and those who have determined to set out on the path of Zen themselves.

As an American who has trained in Zen practice for many years Aitken Roshi has a special understanding of the problems and questions which plague Western students of Zen. His book will thus be a godsend for people who have sought an introduction to Zen in their own language, free of the foreignisms that cultural differences can produce.

It is my sincere wish that this work will gain the wide readership it so deserves." -Yamada Koun Roshi

Reviews

A good introductory text by one of the founding fathers of American Zen, this covers the basic teaching of Zen, including an emphasis on proper meditation practice.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Taking the Path of Zen

By Robert Aitken

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Copyright © 1982 Diamond Sangha
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-86547-080-4

Contents

Title Page, 
Copyright Notice, 
Dedication, 
Preface, 
Epigraph, 
CHAPTER ONE: Fundamentals, 
CHAPTER TWO: Method, 
CHAPTER THREE: Appropriate Means, 
CHAPTER FOUR: Delusions and Pitfalls, 
CHAPTER FIVE: Attitudes in Religious Practice, 
CHAPTER SIX: The Three Treasures, 
CHAPTER SEVEN: The Ten Grave Precepts, 
CHAPTER EIGHT: Establishing the Practice, 
CHAPTER NINE: The Koan Mu, 
Prajña Paramita Hrdaya Sutra (The Heart Sutra), 
Hakuin Zenji's "Song of Zazen", 
APPENDIX: Willy-Nilly Zen, 
Table of Chinese-Japanese Equivalents, 
Notes, 
Glossary, 
Bibliography of Zen Buddhist Titles in Paper Covers, 
About the Author, 
Copyright, 

CHAPTER 1

Fundamentals

I beg to urge you, everyone:
life-and-death is a grave matter,
all things pass quickly away;
each of us must be completely alert:
never neglectful, never indulgent.

This is the evening message of sesshin (the Zen retreat), called out by a senior member of the assembly just before lights-out. It expresses three concerns of the Zen student: first, being alive is an important responsibility; second, we have little time to fulfill that responsibility; and third, rigorous practice is necessary for fulfillment.

Our model is Shakyamuni Buddha. Known as the founder of Buddhism, he lived in India more than 2,500 years ago — but religion is fundamentally not a matter of history. I recall a course in Buddhism given by Dr. D.T. Suzuki at the University of Hawaii a long time ago. He began the course by telling the story of Shakyamuni. He did not tell it as history or biography, but as the story of Everyone — the story of you and me.

The Buddha was born a prince and it was predicted that he would become either a great religious leader or a great emperor. His father, the king, preferred to see his boy become a great emperor, so he had him trained in the arts of the warrior and the statesman. He also provided the comforts and entertainment appropriate to the station of a young prince — fine food and clothing, and the rest of it.

This is your story and mine. When we are young, we are all little princes and princesses. We are each of us the center of the universe. In fact, our mouths are the center, and everything enters therein. We are guided by our parents toward a sense of responsibility, but despite the program set up about us, we emerge, each in our own way, as individual inquirers.

The Buddha's program of power and ease palled for him before he was thirty. It is said that despite his father's efforts to protect him from the realities of suffering, he was witness to sickness, old age, and death. Once, he glimpsed the figure of a monk in the palace compound and asked about him. Pondering deeply, he questioned his purpose in the world. Finally he left his little family in care of his father to seek his spiritual fortune in the forest.

You can imagine the difficulty of this decision. Everything that anyone might hold dear, a beautiful spouse, a baby child, a career as a beneficent ruler — all given up in a search that could well lead nowhere. His decision was rooted in profound concern for all beings. Why should there be suffering in the world? Why should there be the weakness of old age? Why should there be death? And what in the life of a monk might resolve such doubts? These questions plagued the young Gautama. He recognized

Edition details

• Publisher: North Point Press
• Publication date: 1982
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0865470804
• ISBN 13: 9780865470804
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 149