Instant Zen: Waking Up in the Present

by Zen Master Foyan, Ch'ing-yüan, Foyan

Book Overview

Instant Zen presents the teachings of Foyan, a twelfth-century Chinese Zen master recognized as one of the greatest masters of the Song dynasty Zen renaissance in China. Returning to the uncomplicated... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1556431937
• ISBN13: 9781556431937
• Release Date: October 1994
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Like a finger pointing to the moon

This is a very good recording. It is not ABOUT zen. It IS zen. I have owned two coppies of this recording on cassett tape. I wore them both out, from playing them so much. I am glad to have found this recording on CD.

Recommended

I found the introduction especially useful as it points out the emergence and identification of Zen cults, and contrasts them to the simplest practice of Zen. The body of the book is in convenient 1 to 3 page short reads. The presentation is in a conversational prose. Common errors are addressed. After tripping over one section (Emancipation), I started reading it in parallel with Huang Po's commentary of the Diamond Sutra, which must be read very very slowly, (without missing the meaning of a single word), and doing this helped me. However, most of the passages are very down-to-earth. I can't say this is an "advanced" book. There is no "beginner" and "advanced" -- jump in wherever you like. This book is as good a place as any. I also recommend Huang Po, as he also gets immediately to the root and avoids common misconceptions.

Destined to be a Classic!

The 'grandmotherly kindness' of Foyan, a 12th Cent. Chinese Grand Master of Zen, comes through in this offering from Mr. Thomas Cleary, who's said to be one of the most respected translators in the field. He gets my vote! Mr. Cleary's selection of this text seems suited to our time in that it's from a Grand Master who '...was completely free of any desire for fame or followers and made no attempt to recruit disciples.' Accordingly, his is a 'take no prisoners' style (a complaint in another review) which, naturally, leads to a strong emphasis on self-reliance and (a most interesting kind of) practical advice. I say Refreshing! 'If you want to clarify this matter, you must arouse wonder and look into it. If you wonder deeply about this matter, transcendental knowledge will become manifest. Why? The task of the journey just requires the sense of doubt to cease. If you do not actively wonder, how can the sense of doubt cease?' (pg. 54)

A great book. My favorite Buddhist book. Pure Wisdom.

I am a Buddhist, have studied formally in all three main branches of Buddhism and was a monk during the most intense part of my study. I own hundreds of Buddhist texts, and if I could only own one book, this would be it. This is absolutely the clearest expression of Enlightenment I've encountered. Foyan is wonderously clear, avoids reliance on Koan's and historical cases (but has a few references to them), and instead, simply expresses Realization on his own, directly, brilliantly, in every sentence of this book. A previous reviewer wrote (in his excellent review) "Logical contradictions are purposely employed to get you to see something beyond logic", while there are a few statements like that, that is a slight misunderstanding of why most of the apparently "contadictions" are there. Instead these "contradictions" are direct expressions of the Truth of Reality, and that requires 1) that you see directly and don't confuse the labels for the reality itself and 2) that everything be seen simultaneously from both sides (the relative or functional view and the absolute). So a statement such as "you must have nonseeing right in seeing" or "all that is necessary is that there is no hearer or heard when you hear" is presenting both sides, not negating one with the other. However, there are statements such as "the ancients told you.. all sounds are Buddha's voice... You have misunderstood, supposing that all sounds are actually the voice of Buddha" that appears to be a contradiction, but again this is pointing out (POINTING not explaining) the diffence between the understanding and the perception of that truth. I've said much too much, the Zen Master would be beating me over the head with the stick by now. You will enjoy this book, and you will hear the voice of Enlightenment speaking across 9 centuries of time, if you get this book, you'll need no others, and eventually you can give this one away. My Highest recommendation.

Live in the land of thought yet untouched by thought....

Absorb these passages fully and you will need no other books on Zen. Of course, it might take a succession of time to fully absorb these passages. The book transcribes lectures from Foyan, who teaches autonomy, "I have no Zen for you to study!" and independence. Consequently, the text might appear difficult as Foyan purposely gives nothing to grasp at -- and if you do grasp you will experience a subtle whack to your intellect. Hint: Logical contradictions are purposely employed to get you to see something beyond logic.Just turn to a random passage at random moments of intuition and over time it will become clear. For the spiritually sharp, this should be the only book on Zen you will ever need. Then the need of itself will dissolve...