The Zen Works of Stonehouse: Poems and Talks of a Fourteenth-century Chinese HermitOne of the classic texts of Zen, essential for anyone interested in Zen practice and tradition. Stonehouse has been called "the greatest of all Zen monks who made poetry their medium of instruction." Until now his works have rarely been available in English. Now all of the hermit monk's poetry, including the major poetic works, "Mountain Poems" and "Gathas," as well as his most illuminating instructional talks, can be read in Pine's superb translations. According to Nelson Foster and Jack Shoemaker in The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader, "The ancient Taoist themes of simplicity, naturalness, and ease resound in Shih-wu's [Stonehouse's] writing, ringing out clearly within the Ch'an [Zen] setting. Everything in his mountain life that might seem a hardship to others-very plain food, crude and cramped quarters, dearth of human contact-Shih-wu celebrates as an outright virtue or at least preferable to what a city dweller can know.... Shih-wu packed his verses with practice pointers and encouragements, enticements and goads, allusions to sutras and Ch'an stories." With Red Pine's personal discovery in 1991 of the site of Stonehouse's former hut, this edition provides rare first-hand understanding of the spiritual and physical realm of Stonehouse's era. "Every Zen student will wish to own a copy."-Jim Harrison "An admirable achievement!"-Burton Watson Red Pine is the pen name of Bill Porter. Translator of numerous classical Chinese texts, he lives in Port Townsend, Washington. |
From inside the book
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Page 189
... practice Zen if you haven't yet fathomed your mind , or opened your eyes , or freed yourselves of pas- sion , or severed your attachment to life ? It's as if someone who could see entered a room that had been dark for a thousand years ...
... practice Zen if you haven't yet fathomed your mind , or opened your eyes , or freed yourselves of pas- sion , or severed your attachment to life ? It's as if someone who could see entered a room that had been dark for a thousand years ...
Page 219
... practice of morality , meditation , and wisdom will naturally be true . It will be as if the clouds vanished from the sky or the ocean's waves suddenly stilled . Once you reach this state , you are finally ready to practice Zen . You ...
... practice of morality , meditation , and wisdom will naturally be true . It will be as if the clouds vanished from the sky or the ocean's waves suddenly stilled . Once you reach this state , you are finally ready to practice Zen . You ...
Page 225
... Zen means / I'll hit him in the mouth with my whisk . ' This is an example of being unwilling to undertake anything in a hurry and waiting for the field of great repose to appear by itself . This is the fourth way to practice Zen and ...
... Zen means / I'll hit him in the mouth with my whisk . ' This is an example of being unwilling to undertake anything in a hurry and waiting for the field of great repose to appear by itself . This is the fourth way to practice Zen and ...
Other editions - View all
The Zen Works of Stonehouse: Poems and Talks of a 14th-Century Chinese Hermit No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
abbot arhats asked bamboo birds bloom Blue Cliff Record Bodhidharma bodhisattvas buddha Buddhist Chao-chou Chi-an Chinese Chuantenglu clouds cold cultivate the Tao Dharma disciple door east empty enlightened flowers Fuyuan Fuyuan Temple gate gatha Hangchou hermits high cliffs Hsiamushan Huang-po hundred inside Jambudvipa kalpa karma Kashyapa kilometers koans Kuei-shan Lake Taihu leaves Lin-chi lived lotus Ma-tsu Manjushri Master recalled meditation hall mind monastery monk's month moon Mount Sumeru Mountain Poems night ninth-century Zen master Nirvana old monk Pai-chang Patriarch peach pines Pinghu plant plum blossoms practice Zen rain realm rebirth refers rice River robe rocks Shakyamuni shines shrine hall Sky Lake someone spring staff Stonehouse Stonehouse's hut stove stream summer retreat summit Sutra T'ang Ta-mei Ta-yu talk Taoist teaching there's thoughts thousand trail trees Tushita visited wind window winter winter melon Yang-shan Yangtze Yuan dynasty zazen Zen monks