Zen Classics: Formative Texts in the History of Zen Buddhism

This is a companion volume to The Koan and The Zen Canon, by the same editors. The first volume collected original essays on koan collections, recorded sayings of individual masters, histories of major schools, and compilations of monastic regulations. The second focuses on the early history of Zen in China, providing overview assessments of many of the most important canonical texts that set the Zen tradition in motion throughout East Asia. Zen Classics will follow that historical movement, focusing primarily on texts from Korea and Japan that brought this Buddhist movement to fruition. Although enormously diverse in style and structure all of the texts and genres of texts considered here were fundamental to the unfolding of Zen in East Asia. The range of genres reveals the varieties of Zen practice, from rules of daily practice to sermons and meditation manuals. The all new essays in this volume will be contributed by an international team of distinguished scholars of Buddhism. It is aimed at broad audience including college students, Zen practitioners, and scholars of East Asian history, religion, and culture, as well as specialists in Buddhist history.brSteven Heine is Professor of Religious Studies and History and Director of Asian Studies at Florida International University. He has published extensively on Buddhism, including Opening a Mountain: Koans of the Zen Masters (OUP, 2002), and Buddhism in the Modern World: Adaptations of an Ancient TraditionOUP, 2003), coedited with Charles S. Prebish. Dale S. Wright is David B. and Mary H. Gamble Professor of Religious Studies and Asian Studies at Occidental College. He is the coeditor, with Steven Heine, of The Koan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism (OUP, 2000) and The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts (OUP, 2004). Dr. Heine was recently awarded the Kauffman Professorship in Entrepreneurship Studies at the Florida International University Business School.br