The Five Ranks of Zen

A comprehensive and accessible guide to the Five Ranks, the pinnacle teaching of Zen Buddhism pointing to the path to true freedom.

The great Japanese Zen master Hakuin exclaimed, “How priceless is the merit gained through the step-by-step practice of the Five Ranks of Master Tozan!” Hakuin here refers to a teaching created by the Chinese Buddhist master Dongshan, known in Japanese as Zen Master Tozan, which is honored and studied in both Soto and Rinzai schools of Zen and is a gem of the classical Zen tradition. The ranks—pithy, provocative titles followed by Tozan’s brief poetic commentaries—serve as guides to a radical exploration of the experience of relative and absolute reality, the interpenetrating “Two Truths” of Mahayana Buddhism.

In The Five Ranks of Zen, American Zen teacher Shishin Wick offers an accessible entry point to each of the ranks, which Tozan created in two formulations: the first and better-known is the Five Ranks of the Relative and the Absolute; while the second set, called the Sequence of Merit, is an abbreviated form of the Ten Oxherding Pictures, a traditional formulation of the Zen spiritual journey. Wick presents multiple translations and offers commentary on the ranks’ titles and on Tozan’s renowned verses, as well as offering guidance on these teachings’ application in contemporary life and Zen practice. He emphasizes that, to truly plumb the depths of Tozan’s teachings, you must treat these teachings as Zen koans and make a thorough investigation using your entire body.

GERRY SHISHIN WICK ROSHI is a Dharma Successor of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. A student of both major lineages of Zen, Wick received transmission from Maezumi Roshi in 1990 after 24 years of Zen training under Maezumi, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and Sochu Suzuki Roshi. Shishin Roshi received a PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1967, and has worked as a university professor, science writer, journalist, oceanographer, software developer, and technical manager. He is the author of The Book of Equanimity, My American Zen Life, and coauthor of The Great Heart Way with Ilia Shinko Perez.