ORIGINAL TEACHINGS OF CH'AN BUDDHISM [Paperback]

It's old hat by now to remark (or joke) about the impenetrability of Zen Buddhism. Its defiance of logic and customary subject-object relationships has been both a barrier and an enticement to Westerners.
This is a book of selections from the Transmission of the Lamp, a collection of Ch'an writings that was put together in the 11th Century, a century before the teaching arrived in Japan.

The stories in this collection are spared quaintness by their very authenticity. You can hear the speakers, see the actions. What emerges is an insistence on a kind of apprehension that disavows subject/object and mind/mindless distinctions. Professor Chang's translation is just right (he got his degree at Columbia) and his metaphor of intuition as the ordinary mental act that brings us closest to no-mind is brilliant. The goal of immersion in direct reality seems, if not exactly at hand to be fluttering about the room, just out of reach.

If you would know the difference between teachers and theologians, here's the book for you, immediate and real.

Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine

Chang Chung-Yuan taught philosophy in Chinese universities before he came to the United States. He received a Ph.D. degree from Columbia University and has lectured at Columbia, Rutgers, and other American universities, as well as in Europe. At the time this 1969 book was published, he was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii.

He wrote in the Foreword, "'The Transmission of the Lamp,' from which the texts in this book are taken, consists mainly of more than a thousand kung-an, expressions of the inner experience and illumination of enlightened men, from the ancient patriarchs and masters to the disciples ... in the tenth century... The present work comprises translations of the fascicles of nineteen masters, representing the Five Schools of Ch'an Buddhism as well as the earliest known Ch'an teachings. Because these dialogues of irrelevant questions and answers may be new to the reader, I have written an interpretative introduction for each group of masters."

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"The questioner pressed, 'If there is nothing and no mind, then how can it be transmitted?' Huang-po answered, 'You have heard the expression "transmission of the mind" and so you think there must be something transmitted. You are wrong. Thus Bodhidharma said that when the nature of the mind is realized, is it not possible to express it verbally. Clearly, then, nothing is obtained in the transmission of the mind, or if anything is obtained, it is certainly not knowledge." (Pg. 85-86)
"Huai-jang took a piece of brick and began grinding it against a stone. When Ma-tsu asked why he ground the brick thus, Huai-jang answered that he was planning to make it into a mirror. Ma-tsu, surprised, demanded, 'How can you ever make a brick into a mirror by polishing it?' Huai-jang in turn asked, 'How can you ever achieve Buddhahood through meditation?'" (Pg. 131)
"This simple activity of the Ch'an monk, washing the dishes after eating gruel, is the most ordinary thing, the sort of activity that is completely spontaneous and requires no mental effort. When engaged in it, a man is free from assertion and negation. When one reaches this state of mind, one's inner power meets with no obstruction or limitations, and it was thus that the mind of Chao-chou's disciple was awakened." (Pg. 140)
"A monk asked, 'What is a word before it is said?' The Master replied, 'I answered you the moment before you asked the question.' The monk went on, 'What is this moment?' The Master replied, 'It is the same as the moment you asked the question.'" (Pg. 222)
"Let me tell you that anything you can directly point at will not will not lead you to the right trail. Really, you have not found, as yet, your entrance to Ch'an. You would do better to study and find out for yourself. Besides dressing, eating, moving bowels, releasing water, what else is there to do? There is no reason for you to create so many illusions." (Pg. 289)

A selection from the classic Zen scripture "Transmission of the Lamp" by a Chinese scholar using Japanese texts in consultation with prof DT Suzuki for an American audience of 1969 looking to satisfy the curiosity sparked by Alan Watts' lectures. I found a 1971 edition of this in a used bookstore 10 years ago, and would dearly love to get a hardbound version, but alas it seems it is out of print.

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