🙏

>Thanks for sharing your wisdom

You as well.

By the way, perhaps you may find benefit in learning the word kenshō, and as one last suggestion, perhaps you might enjoy someone like Huangbo, perhaps something like this.

Whereas this sub might perhaps tend towards a sort of rational, perhaps masculine, analysis based approach, some of the Zen adepts such as Huangbo might tend towards a more ... poetic or heart based, pithy approach, and maybe you would delight in it, if you’re inclined to check it out.

If you’re put off by too much dogma, he might be perfect ;)

Best wishes, as always.

Oh, no need to apologize anyway. There's just a lot of... backstory.

You'll need to couple source material like the below with the above historical scholarship if you want to come to a full understanding.

As for some primary sources:

Tang dynasty teachers who were students of Mazu (one of the most influential Zen teachers ever)

Dazhu (although, relevant)

Huangbo

Baizhang (this text is prohibitively expensive on Amazon, so look in local libraries.)

Song dynasty teachers

Yuanwu (1, 2)

Hongzhi (1, 2) (note, take Taigen dan Leighton's introduction to Cultivating the Empty Field with a grain of salt, as he's a shitty scholar. He basically just misrepresents Hongzhi and Dahui's relationship. See Schlutter's How Zen Became Zen for more details.)

Song dynasty kanhua Chan teachers (kanhua is the main approach to Zen in both Rinzai and Seon)

Dahui (Yuanwu's student)

Wumen

A Japanese Zen teacher

Bankei (1, 2)

A Korean Zen teacher

Daehaeng (1, 2, 3)

___

Note that this leaves out huge swathes of the literature, including all of the literature associated with the East Mountain teaching, the Northern school, the Oxhead school, Soto, most of Rinzai, Obaku, most of Seon, etc. Of course, some people with more fixed and essentialist ideas of what "Zen" is object to the idea that some of these other schools/lineages are actually "Zen". Use your own head. (I'm not saying they're necessarily wrong; I'm just saying that once you feel comfortable with the basics, start to think critically about Zen and your own study of it, including e.g. how you would decide which teachings to follow, and why.)

There's no roster of "Zen masters^TM " anywhere, so the above is a bit of a random mix of my own choosing.

While reading, note what people say and ask yourself questions -- where do they agree? Where do they disagree? If they disagree, should that be reconciled or not, and why?

Some more pointed questions to ask for each book: What can one do to reach awakening? What ways to reach awakening are preferred over others? What practices and doctrines are criticized? Is there any cultivation necessary at any point along the path? If yes, what is to be cultivated? If the teacher is talking about the teachings of earlier masters, are those teachers being represented accurately, or are extrinsic frameworks being laid onto them to fit the later teacher's presentation of Zen? If you had to sum up the teacher's teaching in a slogan, what would it be?

Really, the main thing is that you can think critically about what you're reading, but the above reading list and approach would give you a really solid foundation for the things people tend to talk about on this forum.

Ever read Joshu or Huangbo?

I only suggest those because I'm reading Joshu again right now, and Huangbo is a BAD MOTHERFUCKER.

https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Teaching-Huang-Po-Transmission/dp/0802150926

https://www.amazon.com/Recorded-Sayings-Zen-Master-Joshu/dp/157062870X

Read Huangbo. Approach him like a house on fire.

https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Teaching-Huang-Po-Transmission/dp/0802150926

The problem is that primary sources are almost invariably misunderstood or taken in a shallow perspective if one is not also receiving guidance and doing practice. When the teachings are put into perspective through direct experience, which happens through the correct application of effort and activity, then they can gradually be digested. But trying to get it from a book often enough has something of an opposite effect: the mind gets hung up on concepts and less able to perceive truth directly.

If you insist on reading, I implore you to avoid koan collections until you are actually trained in the practice and assigned the work by your teacher. Speculation about koans is the worst of the worst, a common hell-pit of Zen, which we see so often on these very forums. It not only creates a huge block for the one doing the speculating, it muddies the waters for countless others dipping their toes in. Speculation leads to false pride, posturing, and a house of cards that at some point will be torn down.

Two original texts that come to mind as basis for the study of Zen are The Zen Teaching Of Bodhidharma translated by Red Pine, and The Zen Teaching Of Huang Po translated by John Blofeld.

Bodhidharma was the First (Chinese) Patriarch of Zen. His teaching is quite foundational. The teaching of Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch, was quite formative and represented an evolution from Bodhidharma's view, but without commentary it tends to be less accessible than that of the later Master Huang Po. By Huang Po's time, Zen had already evolved a great deal, and had split into factions with their own perspectives, training, and method.

Note that the Huang Po translator, Blofeld, sometimes gets the concept wrong, because he himself hadn't achieved that depth of training and insight. The translation suffers from shallow view at times; but someone experienced in right practice can trace the words back to their original intent and make sense of the translation.

Other primary sources from the Golden Age Of Zen include the aforementioned Hui Neng, Pai Chang, Hui Hai, and Ta Hui. Very evolved teachings can be found with Chinul in Korea and, sometimes considered the peak, Dogen in Japan. Several others along the way left their distinctive mark, such as Hakuin.

To distinguish between the teachings and understand them in a way that is useful for practice and life, first, receiving teaching and making gradual progress in practice are essential; second, understanding the difference between the three types of Zen (Patriarchal/Ancestral, Doctrinal, and Tathagata) would be very helpful. This is where the western-white-people commentators come in, bridging the gap between a view that is by nature beyond words, and the mind of the common person seeking to understand -- including the rigid or naive conceptualization of those who haven't yet made much progress in practice.

Please take to heart that a minute of practice is better than ten hours of reading, and that "one time seeing is better than a thousand times hearing". We shake our heads at those who try to get something beyond words by pursuing words.

Be aware of r/Buddhism as a resource. I recommend avoiding r/zen, which has devolved into a shitty mire of confusion, speculation, and posturing.

An upvote is an abstract hug of sorts.

On a more serious note, if you are really interested in what I was trying to convey, instead of just for the sake of winning an online argument, then I would recommend reading some zen literature. Huang Po, for example. Just don't visit the subreddit, or they'll drive you mad. They drive anyone mad.

Okay, I will tell you some things about me.

First, I ghosted everyone that knew me as a Blue Pill guy. Now, an inherent part of ghosting is being alone. When most people tell you they are independent, it's fucking bullshit. Emerson wrote a great deal on self-reliance.

Here is an essay by Emerson on the subject of self-reliance. It is both a great introduction to his views and how beautifully he writes.
http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm

Here is a collection of Emerson's essays. Ignore the 1 star review, which is for the Kindle version of the book, but heed it and buy the physical book instead of the Kindle version.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1598530844/

Emerson was friend and mentor to Thoreau, who wrote the following account of his two-year stay in a cabin near Walden Pond. One of Thoreau's goals was self-sufficiency.
http://www.amazon.com/Walden-A-Fully-Annotated-Edition/dp/0300104669

Here is some further reading.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0762415339/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1492777862/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0199291152/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0802150926/

You mention you are going to be a radiographer soon. Now, I have seen said on TRP that some here do not see the point in film, but I fucking love film. Now, there is one film in particular that I think relates to your situation incredibly. That is Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ikiru/
Ikiru is about a Japanese man who, near the end of his life, learns he has a terminal disease. He has, up to that point, wasted his whole life at his government job. Learning of his illness inspires in the main character a will to change, and seeing him undergo that inspires change in those around him. But, and this is another lesson to be learned from the film, we see that the main character's transformation has no lasting effect on those around him. Change has to come from within.

Another film seriously worth watching is Whiplash. I saw it mentioned in this subreddit in passing and am glad I did.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7d_jQycdQGo

If you want me to elaborate on the things that I didn't, ask. I have a lot more film recommendations, but cannot recommend any more books, as I do not read that much. I don't recommend any music as I would consider most of what I listen to to be blue pill.

Those aren't books of instruction, ewk. They are popular collections of certain people's enlightenment encounters.

Is Red Pine's translation of Bodhidharma not a direct teaching? Are letters of practice instructions from Foyan, Yuanwu, and Hongzhi not direct teachings? I suppose that Takuan Soho's instructions to Munenori on maintaining no-mind in daily life doesn't count either?

Why is it better for novices to dive deep into stories about Gutei's finger or think about whether the flag moves or not than it is to read directly from Huangpo? Isn't that like asking a baby to chew a piece of meat?

Dogen is difficult. Try:

• Instant Zen
  
• The Zen Teachings of Huang Po
  
  
  

I'd recommend reading Huang Po, he's one of my very favorites. (PDF here.)

He had some very lucid thing to say about the nature of awakening.

About six months ago, on a whim, I bought the incredibly powerful and brilliant book The Zen Teachings of Huang Po. I almost always buy my spiritual books 'new,' but decided to buy a used version this time. Picked a random used book seller on Amazon and clicked purchase.

Fast forward to a week later. The book arrives. As I read it, I begin to really resonate with what I'm reading. It makes a ton of sense, it's powerfully stated, a really wonderful translation. And I begin to notice around page 30 some highlights from the person who owned the book before me. Around page 50 or so, I notice that this person uses their highlighter exactly the way I use it: the skinny edge for underlining, the fat edge for highlighting, and the tip for writing in the margins. "Hell yeah, random stranger!", I think.

I keep reading. The book is opening my very soul up. A profound sense of deja-vu begins to take me over. "Wait... wait a second... I've read this book before. I've read this before." I flip forward in the book, my intuition telling me to look for more writing in the margins. I come across something that makes me stop cold. I've not only read this before.. I've read this exact book before! This was my book!

I randomly bought a used version of a book and had a copy sent to me that I had previously owned. Which is strange enough. But the strangest part, imo, is that, even though I undoubtedly read and wrote in this copy, I cannot remember when I owned it, or why I gave it away. I never sell books -- or at least I thought I never did. The case of the boomerang Zen book is one of the strangest, unresolved events that I've ever heard of.

I'd suggest you read some Huang Po.
I think you can find a PDF of it online, somewhere.

> correct your sloppy asymptotic learning curve

Half an upvote for feigned erudition. Now if only you could apply the same diligence to actual study.

>the source is Blofeld

the channel is Blofeld, the source is probably http://www.amazon.com/The-Zen-Teaching-Huang-Transmission/dp/0802150926

>you start by sitting in the correct posture, letting go of thoughts and ignoring sensations, casting away both internal and external.

This was the teaching of the Buddhist sect formed in the Song dynasty that claimed Huangbo in their lineage.

But the message of Huangbo and his family is not the same. The message had to be modified in order to make a sect. How do you make a sect out of what the zen characters were pointing at?

I suppose it would be tragic to lose the essence of that old Song period sect. But that is a problem for the Buddhists, not those interested in the zen characters. The zen characters had no stake in these Buddhist sects.

When you see these sermons, outside of the context of a conversation, it is often the work of someone with pious intentions and results in an after the fact prescription like:

>According to the Master, you start by sitting in the correct posture, letting go of thoughts and ignoring sensations, casting away both internal and external. "This alone is liberation." After that you can extend Zen to all other aspects of life

See how it happens? I've done it myself. Trying to roll out the red carpet, trying to accommodate the tourist who walked in hoping to get a snapshot. Making it easy to understand. Upaya! The two paths!

Take another look. This text you refer to was originally compiled by Pei Xiu against Huangpo's wishes. Pei Xiu meant well, but its obvious that the text mischaracterizes Huangpo in more that one instance.

I don't think its possible to come up with a Sunday School version of zen.

Book

The Zen Teaching of Huang-Po

Incense

Shoyeido Illusions premium low smoke incense
Incense Bowl
White Ash (to hold up the incense in the bowl)

Sitting Cushion

Buckwheat Zafu

The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

http://www.amazon.com/The-Zen-Teaching-Huang-Transmission/dp/0802150926

fundies gonna have to find other ways to revolt

some zen

i recommend huang po.

The Zen Teaching of Huang Po is short and very straightforward unlike some Zen books. It has been the single most important book I've read without a doubt.

I've read a couple books by Shunryu Suzuki and found them very helpful. "Zen Mind Beginners Mind" is a book I read and reread many times, each time getting a bit more out of it.

I honestly don't know anything about Seung Sahn or Sawaki or other contemporary teachers. My teacher was Joshu Sasaki Roshi.

When I first started looking into Zen, I was a bit paranoid. Having been raised by very strict atheists who put down all things religions or spiritual, I wanted to be sure I was on the right track of authentic Zen and not in danger of ending up in a cult.

I decided very early on that reading books that have been tested by centuries of time was the safest and so I avoided most modern authors for the first 2 years.

If you enjoy ancient literature, I highly recommend reading a couple of the old sutras. They are often easier to read than some modern shit and they are AMAZING considering how long ago they were written.

My favorites so far as the Surangama Sutra and the Lankavatara Sutra.

Heh. You'll hear that People's History is biased. His intention was to give fuel for a socialist revolution. That's true. What's more important to learn is that everything is biased. The dream of an unbiased media is that. Even when trying to be objective with facts, there's still the question of which facts to use, which leads to subjectivity and bias. In the end, there is no such thing as objective truth (that's a fun rabbit hole to follow)

So in this case "Yes and," those fuckers are still beholden to shareholders, boards, public opinion, etc. Not only does everyone answer to someone, the ironic truth is that the more power you have, the more people you must answer to.

I read this one: https://www.amazon.ca/Zen-Teaching-Huang-Po-Transmission-Mind/dp/0802150926/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474053415&sr=8-1-fkmr2&keywords=zen+teachings+of+huang+bo

thank you again for your replies; very well articulated, very helpful to me

I would like to ask you for your favorite resources on how to enhance mindfulness/awareness.

Mine are E Tolle's The Power Of Now and Stillness Speaks.

I listened to Alan Watts Out Of Your Mind and Do You Do It or Does It Do You?: How to Let the Universe Meditate You, and read his The Way Of Zen. I liked the book very much, did not enjoy much the audios. I went right back to listening to E Tolle audiobooks, mainly his TPON.

Also, I am reading the The Zen Teaching of Huang Po

What about you? What do you definitely think I should listen to or read?

"It is that which you see before you. Begin to reason about it and you at once fall into error." Zen Master Huang Po, from this superb book

Zen is super confusing at times, which might frustrate the inquirer. Also, there's a lot of seemingly contradictory information, and a lot of the zen masters actually admonished meditation. Without context it's a little unclear as to why, aside from the fact that they didn't want their disciples to meditate for the sake of blissing out. That said, I'd wholly recommend this book, since it's very lucid:

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Essence-Shambhala-Dragon-Editions/dp/1570625883/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464891954&sr=8-1&keywords=zen+science+of+freedom

Foyan is featured in it, and his book is fantastic as well:

http://www.amazon.com/Instant-Zen-Waking-Up-Present/dp/1556431937/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464892102&sr=8-1&keywords=instant+zen

For something a little more challenging but great, go with:

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Teaching-Huang-Po-Transmission/dp/0802150926/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464892139&sr=8-1&keywords=zen+teachings+of+huang+po

Have fun!

I would suggest reading a few zen books. Be careful, because some of the words are supposed to be vice grips that trap you, but you will read things that cause you to wonder, thus growing your mind, and zen is not about the religious aspects of Buddhism so much as the tangible, concrete, here-and-now perceptions of deeper and deeper wisdom. I can give you . . . four recommendations of zen books that I really enjoyed.

Zen Bridge

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Don't Be A Jerk

The Zen Teaching of Huang Po