Poetry of Enlightenment: Poems by Ancient Ch'an Masters

By Cleo Qian, 聖嚴法師, Sheng Yen

Book Overview

For the masters of the Chan tradition, poetry was a form of creative expression, but even more than that, it was a primary vehicle for teaching. Here a modern master presents ten teaching poems from... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0960985417
• ISBN13: 9780960985418
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Dharma Drum Pubns
• Length: 103 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

A translation of Ch'an/Zen poetry, "the other side of Zen."

On the cover of this book, Master Sheng-yen discusses the overemphasis on the study of koans (kung-ans) and the deficit of literature available on Ch'an (Zen) poetry. The weakness is that "in reading a kung-an we get an objective story of what happened and we don't really know what was in the mind of the participants." On the other hand, "the purpose of these poems is different in that they specifically show you how to practice, what attitudes to cultivate and what pitfalls to be aware of."In this text, he provides a brief history of the poems and authors, and proceeds to translate the poems. They include "Calming the Mind," "The Mind King," "Faith in Mind" (commentary available in book "Faith in Mind"), "Song of Mind," "Song of Enlightenment" (commentary available in "Sword of Wisdom"), "Inquiry into Matching Halves" and "Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi" (commentary on both poems available in "The Infinite Mirror"), "Silent Illumination" and "Contemplating Mind" (commentary on both poems available in "Getting the Buddha Mind") and "On Clear Mind."This book is an excellent reference or preview of all of these poems. However, if you are like me, you may need a little more of an explanation. I highly recommend this book for someone who wants to get a taste of Ch'an (Zen) poetry. However, for someone who wants the added benefit of Master Sheng-yen's explanatory powers, I would recommend the above mentioned books to gain the greatest value from each poem.