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Zen Masters of China presents more than 300 traditional Zen stories
and koans, far more than any other collection. Retelling them in
their proper place in Zen's historical journey through Chinese
Buddhist culture, it also tells a larger story: how, in taking the
first step east from India to China, Buddhism began to be Zen. The
stories of Zen are unlike any other writing, religious or
otherwise. Used for centuries by Zen teachers as aids to bring
about or deepen the experience of awakening, they have a freshness
that goes beyond religious practice and a mystery and authenticity
that appeal to a wide range of readers. Placed in chronological
order, these stories tell the story of Zen itself, how it traveled
from West to East with each Zen master to the next, but also how it
was transformed in that journey, from an Indian practice to
something different in Chinese Buddhism (Ch'an) and then more
different still in Japan (Zen). The fact that its transmission was
so human, from teacher to student in a long chain from West to
East, meant that the cultures it passed through inevitably changed
it. Zen Masters of China is first and foremost a collection of
mind-bending Zen stories and their wisdom. More than that, without
academic pretensions or baggage, it recounts the genealogy of Zen
Buddhism in China and, through koan and story, illuminates how Zen
became what it is today.
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