Classics of Buddhism and Zen Series

Volume Five of Classics of Buddhism and Zen represents the broad spectrum of Cleary’s interest in Buddhism—from Buddhist yoga and the Chinese Buddhist perspective on the I Ching to the most basic and universally loved of the Buddhist sutras, the Dhammapada.



The volume includes:

Dhammapada: The Sayings of Buddha
The famous collection of 423 verses of Buddhist wisdom that has been profoundly influential in every Buddhist school.

The Buddhist I Ching
The translation included in this volume is the only full-length interpretation of the I Ching by a Chinese Buddhist meditation master.

Stopping and Seeing: A Comprehensive Course in Buddhist Meditation
A monumental work written by sixth-century Buddhist master Chi-i. One of the most comprehensive manuals written on these two essential points of Buddhist meditation.

Entry into the Inconceivable: An Introduction to Hua-yen Buddhism
An introduction to the philosophy of the Hua-yen school of Buddhism, one of the cornerstones of East Asian Buddhist thought.

Buddhist Yoga: A Comprehensive Course
A landmark translation of the classical sourcebook of Buddhist yoga, the Sandhinirmochana-sutra, or "Scripture Unlocking the Mysteries," a revered text of the school of Buddhism known as Vijnanavada or Yogachara.

Volume Four of Classics of Buddhism and Zen features several essential works on the practice of Zen koans, including a complete translation of Gateless Barrier , a classic collection of Zen parables, paradoxes, and teaching stories. Also included is a collection of poetry from the Chinese Buddhist poet Wen-Siang.



The volume includes:

Transmission of Light: Zen in the Art of Enlightenment
This first complete modern translation of the classic Denkoroku illustrates how to attain satori.

Unlocking the Zen Koan
This translation of the koan classic Wumenguan also includes Cleary’s selection of comments by great Chinese Zen masters.

Original Face: An Anthology of Rinzai Zen
An anthology of Japanese Rinzai Zen from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

Timeless Spring: A Soto Zen Anthology
Contains sayings, informal talks, and public cases of important Soto Zen masters.

Zen Antics: 100 Stories of Enlightenment
Unlike many of the baffling dialogues between Zen masters preserved in koan literature, the stories retold here are pointedly simple but with a richness and subtlety that make them worth reading again and again.

Record of Things Heard: From the Treasury of the Eye of the True Teaching
This Zen classic is a collection of talks by the great Japanese Zen Master Dogen, founder of the Soto school.

Sleepless Nights: Verses for the Wakeful
Among the greatest masterpieces of the secular Buddhist poetry, these verses mock the folly of tyrants and celebrate the indomitability of life.

Volume Three of Classics of Buddhism and Zen contains translations of works by the key figures of Zen, including the Japanese master Dogen; Chinul, the twelfth-century Korean master; and Hakuin, founder of the Rinzai school. Also included are selections from the Prajnaparamita, or "Perfection of Wisdom" sutras, a key source of the Zen tradition.



The volume includes:

The Sutra of Hui-neng: Grand Master of Zen
Hui-neng was the sixth patriarch of Chinese Zen. His teachings are characterized by their striking immediacy and by their concern with direct insight into the essential nature of awareness. The Sutra of Hui-neng is accompanied by Hui-neng’s own commentary on the Diamond Sutra .

Dream Conversations on Buddhism and Zen
A collection of a renowned Japanese masters’ written replies to questions about the true nature of Zen.

Kensho: The Heart of Zen
Included here are some of the important texts focusing on the profound subtleties of this essential Zen awakening and the methods used in its realization.

Rational Zen: The Mind of Dogen Zenji
Contains selections from Dogen’s two masterworks, Shobogenzo and Eihei Koruko . Cleary’s commentary and compendium of authentic source materials enhance the reader’s insight into Dogen’s methods.

Zen and the Art of Insight
Thomas Cleary has gathered key selections from throughout the Prajnaparamita literature, accompanying each selection with commentary, to present the key teachings as exercises in learning freedom.

Volume Two of Classics of Buddhism and Zen contains teachings predominantly from the Japanese Zen tradition including the writings of Dogen, the founder and most venerated master of Japanese Zen. Also included is a translation of the Carya-Gita, a collection of the teachings of famous tantric masters who lived during the illustrious Pala dynasty of old Bengal—a text with striking parallels to the early Zen tradition.



The volume includes:

Teachings of Zen
This anthology presents talks, sayings, and records of heart-to-heart encounters to show the essence of Zen teaching through the words of the Zen masters themselves.

Zen Reader
This book is a collection of quotations from the great masters of Zen. The masters talk about the practicalities of Zen realization and primarily about waking up, seeing for yourself, and standing on your own two feet.

Zen Letters: Teachings of Yuanwu
Presented here are the teachings of the great Chinese master Yuanwu in direct person-to-person lessons, intimately revealing the inner workings of the psychology of enlightenment.

Shobogenzo: Zen Essays by Dogen
Dogen, the founder of Japanese Zen, presents a thorough recasting of Buddhism with a creative ingenuity that has never been matched in the subsequent literature of Japanese Zen.

The Ecstasy of Enlightenment
An inside look at the spiritual world of tantra, revealing noteworthy parallels between tantric Buddhism in old Bengal and the original Zen Buddhism of China.

Volume One of Classics of Buddhism and Zen contains teachings predominantly from the Chinese Zen (Chan) tradition, including the writings of revered Chinese masters such as Pai-chang, founder of the Chan monastic tradition; Huang-po, one of the forefathers of the Lin-chi-tsung or Rinzai school; Foyan, the great master of the twelfth-century Chinese Zen "renaissance"; and many others.



The volume includes:

Zen Lessons: The Art of Leadership
This guide to enlightened conduct for people in positions of authority is based on the teachings of several great Zen masters of China.

Zen Essence: The Science of Freedom
Drawn from the records of the great Chinese Zen masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, this collection represents the most open and direct forms of instruction in the entire Zen canon.

The Five Houses of Zen
These writings are widely considered to be preeminent among Zen literature.

Minding Mind: A Course in Basic Meditation
The meditation instructions in this book focus on attaining a state of true objectivity that enables the practitioner to use all other forms of meditation freely and consciously, without becoming fixated or obsessed.

Instant Zen
Presented here are the teachings of Foyan, who offers simple exercises in attention and thought designed to lead to insight into the real nature of self.