Sun at Midnight: Poems and Sermons

by Musō Soseki

Book Overview

"An undisputed master."--The New York TimesLong out of print, this reissue is the first translation into English of the work of Muso Soseki, the thirteenth-century Zen roshi and founder of the rock... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 086547382X
• ISBN13: 9780865473829
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: North Point Press
• Length: 175 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Midnight in the Garden of Satori and Samsara

Right in this very book Muso Soseki (a very important Japanese Zen Rinzai monk of the "Five Mountains" milieu) quotes with approval a former Zen monk saying, "It is a pity that students with great capacity waste their whole lives reading widely in the native and foreign classics, cultivating the art of composition and in that way leaving no time for coming to see clearly into their Original Nature." Thus Muso would be the very last to complain about the fact that this translation of his poems and sermons is clearly intended for the serious American Zen practitioner and not for the scholar (of Japanese Religion, of Buddhism generally or Zen specifically, of Japanese literature, or whatnot). That said, no scholar has yet bothered to come forth with a more academically definitive treatment of this key figure in Zen Buddhist history, so this is it folks, take it or leave it. Still, a lot of hard work has gone into this book, and it shows. The introduction is very helpful, tracing Muso Soseki's biography with care and giving a very straightforward account of the theory and method of translation in what's to follow. This is an odd collaboration, in which Soiku Shigematsu translated the original text into rough, word-for-word English and Merwin reworked this into smooth, idiomatic English. While this gets the job done okay overall, it creates an odd, stilted syntax bordering perilously close to the unidiomatic in spots--this is true especially for the sermons. The poems themselves evince a subtle, quiet religiosity. They are elegant, but in a deep and resonant manner (as opposed to some of the more admittedly shallow work of some of his contemporaries). They are definitely Buddhist in theme--the poems treat of the monastic lifestyle, of the impact and nature of spiritual experience, and of friendships with other monks in the Dharma. There are 130 poems in all, so one gets a pretty good sense of Muso's range. The sermons are quite interesting in their own right and relevant to issues in Buddhist Studies under debate today (scholars take note!). There has been a lot of ink spilled on Zen Buddhism's ambiguous attitude towards reading, textuality, and scriptural study, and it is thus interesting that the first (and longest) sermon is a complicated discussion of this problem in which Muso grapples with the complexities of the issues involved (in dialogue with a tenaciously heckling monk). The second set of sermons show us Muso relating his religious views on gardening; a kind of cynical deconstructive instinct has led some in academia today to claim that the great temple gardens of Kyoto had no spiritual significance or symbolism. A few words from Muso Soseki here pretty much puncture that whole line of claptrap. Finally, we get to see the religious mentor in Muso, as he admonishes his disciples on the proper priorities for aspiring monks. So despite a few limitations, this highly interesting book gives us an invaluable glimpse of the religious views and