Empty Cloud

by Xuyun, Charles Luk, Yun Xu, et al.

This is an example product description. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1852300310
• ISBN13: 9781852300319
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Element Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Good Book, and a Good Man...but...

I could beat him up. (at least in a finger fight.) PS. Olde guy, we don't sacrifice no fingers no more in moksha. We consider if God gave 'em to us, we'll use 'em. But thanks for your hard work! "The ridding oneself of a portion of one's defilements is a gaining of a measure of enlightenment." -- (Reverend Master Xu Yun)

"Like the light of moon when it emerges from the clouds . . ."

Yes. Extraordinary. Many years have passed since I read the Autobiography of Xu Yun (Empty Cloud), an experience that proved for me a spiritual awakening. As the initial reviewer has given an excellent, comprehensive overview - including the mind-boggling duration of the Master's life (all the more remarkable when one considers the contexts of the turbulent times in which he lived - 1840-1959), I would like to share my personal, perhaps idiosyncratic, reflections on what makes his life-rendering one of the great and most edifying masterworks, a book which ought to be far more widely read. Xu Yun regarded the Surangama Sutra as the definitive Buddhist text. I read a bit of the Surangama Sutra and was surprised to find that it involves a radically substantialist metaphysics, demonology - a later Mahayana development - not the sort of down-to-earth empiricism the Buddha taught directly as recorded in the Tipitaka, at least according to my limited understanding. The interpretation of the Dharma espoused here accounts for Xu Yun's extraordinary vigilance and his severe spiritual practice. To use the term "austerity" seems euphemistic when describing his practice. He recalls the early years of his aspiration when he lived solely on pine needles (not nuts, needles) and water, roaming the mountains of Southern China and meditating. He then entered a monastery and initiated formal practice. He claims that the year he spent studying the Surangama Sutra was more productive than the totality of his previous life and practice. We can see that Xu Yun lived his long life on the razor's edge, and his devotion to the dharma, extreme and transcendent as it was, was tested at every step. Xu Yun made a number of grueling pilgrimages through the mountains in winter, which defy imagination, barefoot and lightly clad in patched monk's robes. Like John Muir, he was made of the sternest stuff, incredibly tough, with supra-human cold and hunger tolerance, and singular devotion paralleled only in the lives of the highest adepts of any tradition. He would meditate in mountain caves in the dead of winter for months at a time and acquired the ability to transcend the normal life of the senses. There is some speculation that Xu Yun was motivated in his spiritual quest by the pain of tremendous guilt. He deals with this view in the book, particularly in the appended poem "Song of the Skin Bag". This strange title, a double entendre, refers in part to the fact that he was literally ripped from his mother's womb, which clung to and covered him like a body length caul at birth, causing her death (the assumption is that she suffered a prolapse). This poem he wrote in his 19th year (1858/59) when he fully renounced the world and began his noted pilgrimage. The poem eloquently states in universal terms the reasons we should adhere to the Dharma. "Clearly good and evil karmas are infallible, so why/Rely on falsehood instead of practicing the truth?" "Frustrations of a th

Biography of an exemplary Buddhist

In the course of a long-life, spanning almost 120 years, Xu-yun (1840-1959)had become something of a living legend. By the time of his passing in 1959, Xu-yun was the most renowned Zen Buddhist in China. Hence this biography makes fascinating reading. It details the struggles - as well as the rewards, of a life dedicated to the Dharma. Philip Kapleau Roshi used to read portions of this book to his students to inspire them and provide spurs for practice. Born around the time of the Opium Wars - Xu-yun's life spanned some of the most violent upheavals China had ever witnessed -what with being occupied by several foreign powers, the formation of the Republic, then civil war, leaving China under Communist rule. Few of China's modernisers - communist or otherwise, were sympathetic to Buddhism, leaving the fate of the Sangha uncertain. Unlike the days of yore, when official patronage and funding could be counted on, these were hard times. Hence, Xu-yun's endeavours to restore Chinese Buddhism or bring about a revival seem all that more remarkable. Similar challenges had been encountered by the eminent Ming master Han-shan, so Xu-yun came to be known as "Han-shan come-again." This book also documents Xu-yun's pilgrimages and travels - for the most part on foot, to neighbouring Buddhist lands - India, Tibet, Burma, Thailand etc. While in Thailand, the King was so impressed by Xu-yun, he became a personal disciple of the master. On a practical note, supplementary material has been added,detailing Xu-yun's instructions on Ch'an/Zen practice, at the Jade Buddha temple, Shanghai. These were highly practical and can be put to use anywhere. Master Xu-yun's inspiring story deserves a place in every Buddhist library.