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Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen & Pre-Zen Writings
Zen Flesh Zen Bones A Collection of Zen PreZen Writings Author:Paul Reps (Editor) 101 ZEN STORIES — THE GATELESS GATE — 10 BULLS — CENTERING — Here, in one volume, are four original sources for Zen. The first book 101 Zen Stories, shadows the experiences of scores of Zen masters and students during the past seven hundred years. The second book, The Gateless Gate, is the famous Mumonkan, a collection of forty-eight Zen... more » koans, those ultimate riddles whose sincere contemplation may redeem the mind, open it, attain for it a second birth. Found in 10 Bulls is a commentary on the states of awareness, the progressive steps leading toward the instant of enlightenment. The illustrations to 10 Bulls are by one of Japan's leading wood-block artists. The fourth book, Centering, is a transcription from the ancient Sanskrit of a four-thousand-year-old teaching, still surviving in Kashmir, that may well be the roots of Zen.
For the reader already familiar with Zen, this book should serve as a desirable volume of source readings; for the reader not familiar with it, ZEN FLESH, ZEN BONES should be an ideal introduction.« less