On Zen Practice - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0916820025 ISBN 13: 9780916820022

Publisher: Great Eastern Book Co, 1976

Synopsis

Book by

About this title

About the Author

Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi (1931-95) was a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher and roshi, and lineage holder in the Soto, Rinzai and Harada-Yasutani traditions of Zen. He combined the Rinzai use of koans and the Soto emphasis on shikantaza in his teachings, influenced by his years studying under Hakuun Yasutani in the Harada-Yasutani school. He founded or co-founded several institutions and practice centers, including the Zen Center of Los Angeles, White Plum Asanga, Yokoji Zen Mountain Center, and the Zen Mountain Monastery. Taizan Maezumi left behind twelve Dharma successors, appointed sixty-eight priests and gave Buddhist precepts to more than five hundred practitioners. Along with Zen teachers like Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, Seung Sahn Dae Soen Sa Nim, and Venerable Hsuan Hua, Maezumi greatly influenced the American Zen landscape. Several Dharma Successors of his-including Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, Dennis Merzel, John Daido Loori, Jan Chozen Bays, Gerry Shishin Wick, Charlotte Joko Beck, and William Nyogen Yeo-have gone on to found Zen communities of their own. Maezumi died unexpectedly while visiting Japan in 1995.

Bernard (Bernie) Tetsugen Glassman is a dharma heir to Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi. He is the founder of the Peacemaker Circle, the famous Greyston Mandala and the Greyston Bakery (featured on 60 Minutes). He is author of Infinite Circle and, with Jeff Bridges, The Dude and the Zen Master.

Robert Baker Dairyu Chotan Aitken Roshi (June 19, 1917 - August 5, 2010) was a Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He co-founded the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in 1959 together with his wife. Aitken received Dharma transmission from Koun Yamada in 1985 but decided to live as a layperson. He was a social activist advocating for social justice for gays, women and Native Hawaiians throughout his life, and was one of the original founders of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. He produced many Dharma heirs, including John Tarrant and Nelson Foster.

From Publishers Weekly

Zen Buddhism is renowned for its emphasis on the lineage of its teachers. This solid handbook, edited by the noted Bernie Glassman Roshi, pays tribute to his Zen master, Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi, who assisted in assembling the materials. Maezumi (Appreciate Your Life) was the founding abbot of the Zen Center of Los Angeles (ZCLA) and the successor to three major lines of Zen thought. Before Maezumi's death in 1995, the ZCLA published several anthologies of teachings to cover Zen essentials, known then as On Zen Practice, On Zen Practice II and The Way of Everyday Life. This serviceable and seasoned anthology draws from those 1970s collections of dharma talks and commentaries. It includes topics such as beginning practice, sitting, chanting, bowing and working with koans, and also expounds on various texts. The choices, including the foreword by the esteemed Aitken, come from nine contributors whose Zen devotion spans the last century. This collection is aptly named, for it indeed seeks to clarify Zen's manifestations in the body, breath and mind with generally very short essays in four sections. Appendices include the Zen precepts and a contact list of the White Plum Asanga (those who received the Dharma Transmission in Maezumi's lineage). A peculiar perfume of jumbled time lingers over this collection, but this in no way compromises its usefulness for beginners and adepts.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Great Eastern Book Co
• Publication date: 1976
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0916820025
• ISBN 13: 9780916820022
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Maezumi Hakuyu Taizan, Glassman Bernard Tetsugen