A Guide to Zen: Lessons from a Modern Master - Hardcover

Sekida, Katsuki

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 157731249X ISBN 13: 9781577312499

Publisher: New World Library, 2003

Synopsis

This book takes the formidable 100,000-word classic Zen Training by the great master Katsuki Sekida and extracts its finest gems. Marc Allen has carefully chosen the passages most relevant to today, producing a readable work of six chapters covering the basics of posture, breathing, and training, and presenting various pieces of Zen literature and meditation pictures. The result is a complete course in Zen from a modern master — as one would receive in a traditional Zen center — simply and beautifully written.

About this title

About the Author

Katsuki Sekida (1903 1987) began his practice in 1915 and had a deep experience of samadhi early in life. After training at monasteries in Japan, he taught at the Honolulu Zendo and Maui Zendo from 1963 to 1970 and at the London Zen Society from 1970 to 1972.

Marc Allen was a student of Sekida’s at the Maui Zendo and has been deeply influenced by his teachings ever since. A successful entrepreneur, author, and teacher, he lives in Northern California.

From Publishers Weekly

For Sekida, the attainment of samadhi, a "state in which the activity of consciousness-including all thought-ceases and absolute... stillness reigns," is intimately tied to one's body. The early chapters of this book, a condensed and edited version of Sekida's 1975 classic Zen Training, are devoted to detailed descriptions of practical concerns for the Zen student, such as breathing techniques and posture during meditation. By developing physical tension in a region of the abdomen known as the tanden (traditionally believed to be the center of human spiritual power) via these techniques, one generates a certain strong mental concentration, which, Sekida asserts, "ultimately proves to be spiritual power." He then turns his attention to teasing out subtly different states of samadhi, and a provocative discussion of "pure existence" itself. Finally, he offers a commentary on a time-honored piece of Zen literature, "In Search of the Missing Ox," a series of pictures symbolizing one's progress through Zen training. Here, Sekida shines: his descriptions focus first on each picture's general figurative lesson, then on how the picture serves as a specific demarcation of one's actual practice of Zen meditation. These descriptions, and Sekida's style overall, are simple and elegant, but the early portions of the book are too detailed for an introductory guide: discussions of the "expiratory reserve volume" (and the like) of one's breathing patterns beg the assistance of a teacher.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: New World Library
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 157731249X
• ISBN 13: 9781577312499
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160