The Buddha's Teaching directly addresses the problems of birth, aging, sickness, and death, allowing its practitioners to transcend affliction. It is therefore the highest form of compassion. The heart of this teaching is Dhyana, sometimes called Zen or Chan. In this heart of Buddhism, it is understood that the ultimate compassion of the Buddha's Teaching is a self-evident truth that that can be realized in this life. The heart of this teaching is not foreign to Western mind because the fundamental human problems of birth, aging, sickness, and death are not foreign. However, when teachers' conduct and words do not match, there is a serious problem. Should Zen teachers be immune to the results of their actions, their transgressions buried to preserve teaching lines? Master Laughing Cloud is a Western lay practitioner who writes from the direct experience of more than forty years of arduous bare-knuckled practice that took the form of Western Zen, Chinese Chan, and, ultimately, Dhyana Buddhism. Taking The Buddha's Teaching is an odyssey of unlikely beginnings, courageous encounters, and overcoming betrayal through unrelenting practice. This approachable and sincere autobiography illuminates the way to realizing the nature of Self and Universe and how even when facing adversity, one can be a light unto oneself. In this present-day continuum of war, civil inequality, and financial instability, it is the greatest of blessings to come to the open gate of The Buddha's Teaching. If you aspire to fully enter The Great Way, this book is indispensable reading.

Four decades ago   aged twenty   the author experienced what he calls a  negative satori," a fundamental and irrefutable realization not of enlightenment, but of himself as a predicament only enlightenment could resolve. This, shaped by the hammer blows of a singular American professor, Richard DeMartino, brought him to Zen, and to Japan. Yet over time, of far greater import than his bungling efforts were the wonderful occupants of the Zen world he encountered: Toyoshima-san, the meditation Prometheus whose superhuman efforts astounded and inspired all while he remained impaled on the cliff's edge; the Thief, chief monastery monk who stole the world from whoever he encountered and whose yawns and the brushing of his teeth shot sparks of Absolute Meaning; Hisamatsu, the great lay Zen Master who at age 16 overheard a doctor tell his mother he'd be dead in six months, only to awaken ten years later and become the most delighted man in Japan; Bunko, the monk kind to others but ferocious with himself, whose daily state of Oneness in meditation left him dissatisfied because despite all exertion he could not crush it to pieces and break beyond it.These are among the sitters for the portraits in Reports From the Zen Wars, Steve Antinoff's attempt to bear witness to what for him has been The Greatest Show on Earth, price of admission one lotus position.

Buddhism is not Zen. Mindfulness is not Zen. Zazen meditation is not Zen. Zen is a name that began with Bodhidharma and includes the Zen Patriarchs of China and the Masters that followed him, such as Huang Po and Joshu and the others in the Mumonkan, and even Tung Shan. They taught no practices, no means and no attainment. As Joshu said, "We are all Patriarchs now that Bodhidharma has come." The Zen conversation is characterized by several memes, one of which is the Four Statements of Zen. These memes have largely been abandoned by those who claim to be Zen Buddhists today. Other memes include Negation (no teaching, no attainment, no wisdom), Zen Dialogue or Dharma Combat, Conceptual Thought, and of course Sudden Enlightenment. The Sudden Enlightenment meme is one of the most ignored memes in Zen. The majority of those claiming to teach Zen Buddhism are preaching the Buddhist religion. They preach a path to inner peace, they preach mindfulness, and they put their faith in a practice called zazen sitting meditation. They claim this is Zen. What Zen Masters taught any of this? In contrast, even a brief review of the Zen Masters that we all agree are the beginning of the lineage, Huang Po, Joshu, Mumon, these old men teach no sitting meditation, no inner peace, and only a sudden enlightenment that does not rely on any means and cannot be attained through any effort. This book contrasts the writings of the old Zen Masters with those today who claim to be Zen Buddhists, but are not Zen.