The Zen Reader

This book presents a thousand years of Zen teaching for the modern reader in a way that preserves the dynamic flavor of these talks, sayings, and records of heart-to-heart encounters. From the earliest adepts to the last of the great masters, "The Zen Reader" is a compendium of Zen at its best.
Zen has inspired and uplifted the minds of people in all walks of life, including famous artists, poets, and philosophers; political, religious, and military leaders; artisans, merchants, and agriculturists--both men and women, young and old. Not only did Buddhists of other schools study the impartial way of Zen, but so did followers of other religions, including Confucianists, Taoists, and Shintoists, using Zen techniques to rediscover their own traditions. The Zen masters presented here explain the principles, purposes, and practices of Zen, as well as the perils, pitfalls, and perversions. Self-understanding, methods of meditation, the use of koans, spiritual awakening, and integration with everyday life--all are found here in one volume.