I want to learn about Zen

I want to learn about Zen.

Which books do you recommend?

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zen mind beginners mind
arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/zenmind.pdf

also Alan Watts is considered a good entry, The Way of Zen

and of course DT Suzuki stuff is always recommended

>DT Suzuki
literally hitler

In this order:

1. Diamond Sutra.
2. Hui Neng's commentary on the Diamond Sutra.
3. Heart Sutra.
4. Transmission of the Lamp (at least a good chunk).
5. Mumonkan ("Gateless Gate").
6. Book of Serenity
7. Blue Cliff Record
8. The Sayings of Zen Master Joshu
9. Some Dogen. By now you should be doing some kind of practice, for example sitting meditation. Read the stuff in Abe & Waddell's collection of the essential Shobogezo and read, read, and reread "Genjokoan."
10. The Record of Linji. You're ready.

After around 3 or 4 you should read the SEP (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) article on Nagarjuna and also read a little bit about the Flower Ornament and Nirvana sutras. Also get familiar with the idea of "expedient means" as discussed in the Lotus Sutra. Don't forget this step. You probably will also want to check out the "inner chapters" of Zhuangzi, too.

Something like this order should serve you well, as it's very confusing at first. There's way more technical stuff (than even some of the ones on the end of that list) but all of those are essential and good places to start.

And remember, practice! I cannot stress how important practice is to study of Zen. Zen CANNOT be understood or learned about if one does not approach it with the right attitude and mind, since Zen is a philosophy in the true sense of the word: a melding of thought and action, which cannot be separated.

How in the fuck does one read a koan? One guy raises a fist and gets shit on, another does the same thing and is praised. What the hell?

there are sections in the koan collections about that :) his head is black, her head is white. 5-7 are largely commentary and verse as well

koans are much subtler than how they're usually taken, but they need to be worked up to in order to appreciate their subtlety.

The Way of Zen = enlightenment the book

just sit

Seconded for diamond sutra. The Lanka should be up there too

1/ read the Dao De Jing
2/ compare all available translations
3/ ????
4/ profit

the best way to ease yourself into zen is to read zen flesh zen bones.

this book contains 4 books:

101 zen stories (a japanese zen book)

the gateless gate (late chinese koan collection)

the ten bulls (a description of the process of enlightenment)

centering (a 4000 thousand year old indian text believed to be the early seeds of zen thought)

there is a distinction to be made between chinese and japanese zen. don't waste your time with the likes of dogen, who turned zen into a prayer based religion. the japanese bastardised zen like they bastardise everything. read the record of linji, swampland flowers (dahui) or the hsin hsin ming.

also zen poetry is worth getting into as well. zen is better described with poetry. there are loads of zen poem collections on amazon.

also an introduction to zen buddhism by DT suzuki is great too.

ewk?

no i'm not as militant as that guy. to dismiss everything he says because he's annoying is counterproductive, though.

Why Zen and not Theravada or something else?

?

>taoism
>zen

This. Ignore the rest.

Zen at War by Brian Daizen

>This is what Westerners think Zen is

Suzuki was a second rate scholar and Watts isn't even on the fucking map he is so garbage.

Critical Buddhism, Pruning the Bodhi Tree, and Seeing through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism

to dismiss all of his warped, unsubstantiated proselytizing (more often than not as extreme as flat out lies or obvious hypocrisy) isn't at all counterproductive though. which ends up being most of what he says...

...because he asked about getting started with Zen? He'll find his way to the Pali canon + others if he's really reading these books.

Oh! And I forgot! VIMALAKIRTII

While this book is good, it lacks a companion piece which accounts for its (many) faults. It shouldn't be read alone. It tends to straw man and warp its sources in many places to overstate its point. I don't see why this is necessary, since the point is valid.

pls don't make this thread about that fgt

he's probably one of the most successful trolls of all time. he succeeds consistently in pissing off everyone and he does all of said rusing on a zen forum. you can't make that shit up. it's incredible.

Seconding Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. Although having a dedicated copy of the Mumonkon with Wumen's prose and verse explanations is helpful. Also, Thich Nhat Hanh's commentary on the Diamond Sutra.

See if you can find a Zen temple in your area, go to a few sittings.

Dude seemed knowledgble on the subject so I figure I'd ask him what's the appeal of Zen over other buddhist tendencies.

Keep up user.

I'm not dismissive of the Dogen hypothesis, but if it's the same guy posting the same theory everywhere, I would become suspicious.

and rightly so but bear in mind that he wasn't the first person to espouse this idea.

Zen for Beginners

bookzz.org/dl/1223930/cd6b7b

He used to be. Then he did the same schtick for years on end. He spends way too much time doing it, to boot.

stick with the theravada

theravadans believe that you have to go through many different incarnations/lifetimes before you can succeed in doing what buddha did all those years ago. mahayana buddhists (of which zen buddhism is a school) believe that you can achieve enlightenment in this lifetime.

so do you believe in reincarnation?

To be fair "why Zen" isn't exactly the pinnacle of clarity...

I prefer Zen over the others because of its precise, rigorous yet flexible approach to nondualism. I could say a lot about why specifically but really I've been looking around at various religions and philosophies for a long time, and Zen is by far the most rigorous. By rigorous, I also mean nondualist, since I more or less accept the "existence" of an Infinite Truth. Yet Zen in particular remains here and does not wander off into heady abstractions. Of all Mahayana, I find Zen to be the most rigorously nondual in its understanding of "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form." (That ought to answer your question about Theravada as well. I have great respect for it, but it's just not my way of walking the Way, ya know?)

Currently, I am really struck by the parallelism between Man and Truth in Zen, that is, Man's mirroring of the Heavens on the stage of action, moment to moment encountering his ownmost truth in his everyday life. Due to the holistic tendencies of nonduality (i.e. a thing being empty means that it is "full" of other things, being relationally defined).

I could go on rambling but I think that answers your question.

He is in this form. Even some of the scholars he cites have explicitly distanced themselves from him.

Would strongly advise going to a temple and speaking with members of a Sangha. There are also more casual sitting groups if you want something less formal than a temple environment. Hell, start your own and just keep your back straight.