Zen Masters Of China: The First Step East

“We do not read a book like this for information or knowledge but to awaken a higher part of the mind, a part that in most of us is asleep.” ―from the foreword by Albert Low

The stories of Zen are unlike any other writing, religious or otherwise. used for centuries by Zen teachers as aids to bring about or deepen the experience of awakening, they have a freshness that goes beyond religious practice and a mystery and authenticity that appeal to a wide range of readers.

Placed in chronological order, these stories tell the story of Zen itself, how it traveled from West to East with each Zen master to the next, but also how it was transformed in that journey, from an indian practice to something different in Chinese buddhism (Ch’an) and then more different still in Japan (Zen). The fact that its transmission was so human, from teacher to student in a long chain from West to East, meant that the cultures it passed through inevitably changed it.

Zen Masters of China is first and foremost a collection of mind-bending Zen stories and their wisdom. More than that, without academic pretensions or baggage, it recounts the genealogy of Zen buddhism in China and, through koan and story, illuminates how Zen became what it is today.