Desde finales del siglo veinte se oyen las voces de los que proclaman que Dios ha restaurado el oficio del apostol en su iglesia. Muchos han abrazado esta 'Reforma Apostolica' y cambiado sus formas de gobierno eclesiastico en correspondencia. Otros han sentido que su ministerio es el de ser un 'apostol' y han buscado las formas para hacer de ello su realidad. En este libro, Jaime Mazurek examina con rigor y objetividad este movimiento desde la triple perspectiva de la historia, la hermeneutica y la teologia. El lector descubrira que hay mucho mas de fondo en la Restauracion Apostolica de lo que quizas pensaba."

Layman P'ang (740-808) was a Chan/Zen Buddhist who serves as a model for Buddhist practice for all those who choose to lead the spiritual life outside the bounds of institutionalized monasticism. He was a successful merchant, with a wife, son, and daughter, who gave up his possessions and wealth in order to study the Buddhist sutras-and he brought his family along with him. His family adopted the Zen life most enthusiastically, becoming extremely well-versed in Buddhist philosophy themselves, especially his daughter, Ling Zhao, who, from the stories about her, seems to have become an even greater Zen adept than her father.Layman P'ang is the source of one of the most famous sayings in the literature of Chinese Zen, a joyous statement about the miracle of everyday activities: How miraculous and wondrous! Hauling water and carrying firewood. The sayings of and stories about Layman P'ang contained in this classic text are charming, mysterious, and funny and will be an inspiration to spiritual practice for anyone.

There is a common misconception that to practice Zen is to practice meditation and nothing else. In truth, traditionally, the practice of meditation goes hand-in-hand with moral conduct. In "Invoking Reality," John Daido Loori, one of the leading Zen teachers in America today, presents and explains the ethical precepts of Zen as essential aspects of Zen training and development.
The Buddhist teachings on morality--the precepts--predate Zen, going all the way back to the Buddha himself. They describe, in essence, how a buddha, or awakened person, lives his or her life in the world.
Loori provides a modern interpretation of the precepts and discusses the ethical significance of these vows as guidelines for living. "Zen is a practice that takes place within the world," he says, "based on moral and ethical teachings that have been handed down from generation to generation." In his view, the Buddhist precepts form one of the most vital areas of spiritual practice.

"The Mystique of Transmission" is a close reading of a late-eighth-century Chan/Zen Buddhist hagiographical work, the "Lidai fabao ji" ( "Record of the Dharma-Jewel Through the Generations"), and is its first English translation. The text is the only remaining relic of the little-known Bao Tang Chan school of Sichuan, and combines a sectarian history of Buddhism and Chan in China with an account of the eighth-century Chan master Wuzhu in Sichuan.

Chinese religions scholar Wendi Adamek compares the "Lidai fabao ji" with other sources from the fourth through eighth centuries, chronicling changes in the doctrines and practices involved in transmitting medieval Chinese Buddhist teachings. While Adamek is concerned with familiar Chan themes like patriarchal genealogies and the ideology of sudden enlightenment, she also highlights topics that make "Lidai fabao ji" distinctive: formless practice, the inclusion of female practitioners, the influence of Daoist metaphysics, and connections with early Tibetan Buddhism.

The "Lidai fabao ji" was unearthed in the early twentieth century in the Mogao caves at the Silk Road oasis of Dunhuang in northwestern China. Discovery of the Dunhuang manuscripts has been compared with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as these documents have radically changed our understanding of medieval China and Buddhism. A crucial volume for students and scholars, "The Mystique of Transmission" offers a rare glimpse of a lost world and fills an important gap in the timeline of Chinese and Buddhist history.

Chan Buddhism has become paradigmatic of Buddhist spirituality. Known in Japan as Zen and in Korea as Son, it is one of the most strikingly iconoclastic spiritual traditions in the world. This succinct and lively work clearly expresses the meaning of Chan as it developed in China more than a thousand years ago and provides useful insights into the distinctive aims and forms of practice associated with the tradition, including its emphasis on the unity of wisdom and practice; the reality of ""sudden awakening""; the importance of meditation; the use of ""shock tactics""; the centrality of the teacher-student relationship; and the celebration of enlightenment narratives, or koans. Unlike many scholarly studies, which offer detailed perspectives on historical development, or guides for personal practice written by contemporary Buddhist teachers, this volume takes a middle path between these two approaches, weaving together both history and insight to convey to the general reader the conditions, energy, and creativity that characterize Chan. Following a survey of the birth and development of Chan, its practices and spirituality are fleshed out through stories and teachings drawn from the lives of four masters: Bodhidharma, Huineng, Mazu, and Linji. Finally, the meaning of Chan as a living spiritual tradition is addressed through a philosophical reading of its practice as the realization of wisdom, attentive mastery, and moral clarity.

In "Infinite Circle, "one of America's most distinctive Zen teachers takes a back-to-basics approach to Zen. Glassman illuminates three key teachings of Zen Buddhism, offering line-by-line commentary in clear, direct language:
1. " The Heart Sutra: "the Buddha's essential discourse on emptiness, a central sutra of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition.
2. "The Identity of Relative and Absolute": an eighth-century poem by Shih-t'ou His-ch'ien, a key text of the Soto Zen school.
3. The Zen precepts: the rules of conduct for laypeople and monks.

His commentaries are based on workshops he gave as Abbot of the Zen Community of New York, and they contain within them the principles that became the foundation for the Greyston Mandala of community development organizations and the Zen Peacemaker Order.

Here is a book on a topic of increasing interest among American students of Buddhism. "Dzogchen", the direct experience of enlightenment, is a practice from Tibetan Buddhism that is being explored by teachers of many different schools, from the Dalai Lama to best-selling author Lama Surya Das, to the popular leaders of the Insight Meditation Soceity such as Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein. Without claiming that dzogchen is easy to understand - much less to achieve - the authors present this seemingly esoteric idea in down-to-earth terms that anyone who is interest can understand. While remaining assiduously true to their Tibetan Lamas' precise instructions, the authors present these ancient teachings with directness, humor, and gentleness. "Roaring Silence" walks the reader through the meditation techniques that "enable us to side-step the bureaucracy of intellectual processes and experience ourselves directly". Surprisingly, the approach is very pragmatic. Offering an investigation of the necessary steps, the authors begin with how to prepare for the journey: the lama is essential, as is a sense of humour, inspiration, and determination.They continue by describing the path to realisation of dzogchen: from sitting meditation to the direct perception of reality. The chapters include exercises for exploring, for example, the presence of our awareness, a simple visualisation, the feeling of trying to "remain uninvolved" with mental activity for a period, with follow-up guidance on how to view our experiences - all with the caveat, "be kind to yourself, don't push yourself beyond your limits."

This collection of essays and lectures by D. T. Suzuki (1870-1966) covers a wide range, from Mahayana Buddhism generally and the Zen school in particular, to Japanese art and culture, to the relationship between Zen Buddhism and Western psychology. Suzuki, whose work has had a profound and lasting influence, communicates his insights clearly and energetically. The clarity of his presentation makes "The Awakening of Zen " a book for novice and scholar alike.

The Prajnaparamita ("perfection of wisdom") sutras are one of the great legacies of Mahayana Buddhism, giving eloquent expression to some of that school's central concerns: the perception of "shunyata," the essential emptiness of all phenomena; and the ideal of the bodhisattva, one who postpones his or her own enlightenment in order to work for the salvation of all beings.
The Prajnaparamita literature consists of a number of texts composed in Buddhist India between 100 BCE and 100 CE. Originally written in Sanskrit, but surviving today mostly in their Chinese versions, the texts are concerned with the experience of profound insight that cannot be conveyed by concepts or in intellectual terms. The material remains important today in Mahayana Buddhism and Zen.
Key selections from the Prajnaparamita literature are presented here, along with Thomas Cleary's illuminating commentary, as a means of demonstrating the intrinsic limitations of discursive thought, and of pointing to the profound wisdom that lies beyond it.
Included selections from:
"The Scripture on Perfect Insight Awakening to Essence" "The Essentials of the Great Scripture on Perfect Insight" "Treatise on the Great Scripture on Perfect Insight" "The Scripture on Perfect Insight for Benevolent Rulers" "Key Teachings on the Great Scripture of Perfect Insight" "The Questions of Suvikrantavikramin"

A classic text on what Zen thought had to offer the practising Western psychiatrist.

Maurine Stuart who died in 1990, was one of the few American women to practice Buddhism and become a Zen master. This book is a collection of her talks, drawing on her friendship with Japanese Zen teachers, earthy Zen stories, and her experiences as a concert pianist, to show how the inner meanings of Buddhism are clarified through practising nowness, unselfishness, compassion and goodwill. Stuart teaches that the Zen path is ruled by the experience of direct insight into the reality of the present moment.

This work is Storlie's memoir of growing up through the upheavals of the 1960s, a portrait of a generation that turned away from traditional culture and embraced a world of drug-induced states of consciousness, alternative lifestyles, and Eastern spirituality. It begins in Berkeley, experimenting among friends with Zen meditation and LSD. But when chemical enlightenment failed to ignite, Storlie retreated to the wilderness where he realized the importance of meditation practice. For many years Storlie studied under Shunryu Suzuki and Dainin Katagiri, both Zen masters. His intimate portraits of these men combine with accounts of three decades on the Dharma trail, to provide a vivid account of one man's search for meaning in modern America.

The best collection of Zen wisdom and wit since Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: koans, sayings, poems, and stories by Eastern and American Zen teachers and students capture the delightful, challenging, mystifying, mind-stopping, outrageous, and scandalous heart of Zen.

Throughout Zen history, stories and anecdotes of Zen masters and their students have been used as teaching devices to exemplify the enlightened spirit. Unlike many of the baffling dialogues between Zen masters preserved in the koan literature, the stories retold here are penetratingly simple but with a richness and subtlety that make them worth reading again and again. This collection includes more than one hundred such stories--many appearing here in English for the first time--drawn from a wide variety of sources and involving some of the best-known Zen masters, such as Hakuin, Bankei, and Shosan. Also presented are stories and anecdotes involving famous Zen artists and poets, such as Sengai and Basho.

Zen Buddhism is perhaps best known for its emphasis on meditation, and probably no figure in the history of Zen is more closely associated with meditation practice than the thirteenth-century Japanese master Dogen, founder of the Soto school. This study examines the historical and religious character of the practice as it is described in Dogen's own meditation texts, introducing new materials and original perspectives on one of the most influential spiritual traditions of East Asian civilization. The Soto version of Zen meditation is known as "just sitting," a practice in which, through the cultivation of the subtle state of "nonthinking," the meditator is said to be brought into perfect accord with the higher consciousness of the "Buddha mind" inherent in all beings. This study examines the historical and religious character of the practice as it is described in Dogen's own meditation texts, introducing new materials and original perspectives on one of the most influential spiritual traditions of East Asian civilization.

The radical challenge of Zen Buddhism is to drop all assumptions and prejudices and experience the truth directly. American Zen teacher Dennis Genpo Merzel brings new life to this ancient wisdom through his commentaries on a classic Chinese Zen scripture, "Verses on Faith-Mind".

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author, an extraordinary story of redemption in the darkest of places. Jarvis Jay Masters's early life was a horror story whose outline we know too well. Born in Long Beach, California, his house was filled with crack, alcohol, physical abuse, and men who paid his mother for sex. He and his siblings were split up and sent to foster care when he was five, and he progressed quickly to juvenile detention, car theft, armed robbery, and ultimately San Quentin. While in prison, he was set up for the murder of a guard - a conviction which landed him on death row, where he's been since 1990. At the time of his murder trial, he was held in solitary confinement, torn by rage and anxiety, felled by headaches, seizures, and panic attacks. A criminal investigator repeatedly offered to teach him breathing exercises which he repeatedly refused, until desperation moved him. With uncanny clarity, David Sheff describes Masters's gradual but profound transformation from a man dedicated to hurting others to one who has prevented violence on the prison yard, counselled high school kids by mail, and helped prisoners -and even guards - find meaning in their lives. Along the way, Masters becomes drawn to the Buddhist principles - compassion, sacrifice, and living in the moment -and gains the admiration of Buddhists worldwide. And while he is still in San Quentin and still on death row, he shows us all how to ease our everyday suffering, relish the light that surrounds us, and endure the tragedies that befall us all.

Attention, self-consciousness, insight, wisdom, emotional maturity: how Zen teachings can illuminate the way our brains function and vice-versa. When neurology researcher James Austin began Zen training, he found that his medical education was inadequate. During the past three decades, he has been at the cutting edge of both Zen and neuroscience, constantly discovering new examples of how these two large fields each illuminate the other. Now, in Selfless Insight, Austin arrives at a fresh synthesis, one that invokes the latest brain research to explain the basis for meditative states and clarifies what Zen awakening implies for our understanding of consciousness. Austin, author of the widely read Zen and the Brain, reminds us why Zen meditation is not only mindfully attentive but evolves to become increasingly selfless and intuitive. Meditators are gradually learning how to replace over-emotionality with calm, clear objective comprehension. In this new book, Austin discusses how meditation trains our attention, reprogramming it toward subtle forms of awareness that are more openly mindful. He explains how our maladaptive notions of self are rooted in interactive brain functions. And he describes how, after the extraordinary, deep states of kensho-satori strike off the roots of the self, a flash of transforming insight-wisdom leads toward ways of living more harmoniously and selflessly. Selfless Insight is the capstone to Austin's journey both as a creative neuroscientist and as a Zen practitioner. His quest has spanned an era of unprecedented progress in brain research and has helped define the exciting new field of contemplative neuroscience.

Who are you? When are you? What were you conscious of a moment ago? This groundbreaking book sees acclaimed psychologist Susan Blackmore combining the latest scientific theories about mind, self, and consciousness with a lifetime s practice of Zen. Framed by ten critical questions derived from Zen teachings and designed to expand your understanding and experience of consciousness, Zen and the Art of Consciousness doesn t offer final - or easy - answers, but instead provides an inspiring exploration of how intellectual enquiry and meditation can tackle some of today s greatest scientific mysteries.

Explores how Soto monks between the 13th and 16th centuries developed new forms of monastic organization and Zen instructions and new applications for Zen rituals within lay life; how these innovations helped shape rural society; and how remnants of them remain in the modern Soto school, now the largest Buddhist organization in modern Japan.