Zen's Chinese Heritage -- The Masters & Their Teachings - Softcover

Ferguson, Andrew

4.27

67 ratings by Goodreads

9780861711635: Zen's Chinese Heritage -- The Masters & Their Teachings

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0861711637 ISBN 13: 9780861711635

Publisher: Wisdom Publications, 2000

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Zen's Chinese Heritage surveys twenty-five generations of enlightened Buddhist teachers through brief biographies and starkly beautiful prose and poetry from Chinese Zen sources. Andrew Ferguson moves chronologically through successive generations of Zen masters, supplementing their core teachings with history, biography, and poetry. The result is an organic understanding of the tradition's evolution as a religious, literary, and historical force. Capturing the austere beauty of the Zen masters' manner of teaching — their earthy style, humor, and humanity — Zen's Chinese Heritage is an intimate and profound human portrait of the enlightened Zen ancients, and an unprecedented look into the depths of this rich cultural heritage. The book includes a deluxe fold-out lineage chart of the Zen ancestors.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

The history of Zen can be almost as perplexing as its cryptic koan. In many accounts of Zen history, it is hard to tell who is Chinese and who is Japanese, who lived in the 6th century and who in the 16th. Andy Ferguson attempts to clear the air once and for all. In Zen's Chinese Heritage, he organizes all of the Chinese Zen masters from Bodhidharma at the turn of the 5th century to Huikai in the 13th century, presenting their core records and writings in chronological order by generation--25 generations in all. Drawing from Wudeng Huiyan (Compendium of Five Lamps) and other records, Ferguson translates the classic Zen teachings (including dialogues, anecdotes, and koan) in spare, straightforward language. He also presents an expertly arranged foldout lineage chart of the Zen ancestors, with cross-referencing by Japanese, Chinese pinyin, and Chinese Wade-Giles transcriptions. Ferguson's work is not only a priceless treasury of Zen literature but also a road map to the history of Zen. --Brian Bruya

About the Author:

A member of the San Francisco Zen Center, Andrew Ferguson is a writer and translator who lives in Petaluma, California.

Steven Heine is an authority on Japanese religion and society, especially the history of Zen Buddhism and the life and works of Dogen. He has published two dozen books, including Did Dogen Go to China? and Zen Skin, Zen Marrow.

Reb Anderson Roshi moved to San Francisco in 1967 to study Zen Buddhism with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, who ordained him as a priest in 1970. Since then, he has continued to practice at the San Francisco Zen Center, where he served as abbot from 1986 to 1995 and is now a senior dharma teacher. Anderson Roshi lectures and leads retreats around the world, and is the author of Warm Smiles from Cold Mountains and Being Upright. He lives with his family and friends at Green Dragon Temple, Green Gulch Farm, near Muir Beach, in Northern California.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.