The Pocket Zen Reader

by Thomas Cleary

Zen has inspired and uplifted the minds of people in all walks of artists, poets, and philosophers; political, religious, and military leaders; men and women, young and old. Buddhists from other schools studied the impartial way of Zen. So did followers of other religions, including Confucianists, Taoists, and Shintoists—and, in our own time, Christians and Jews—who have used Zen techniques to rediscover their own traditions.



Here are a thousand years of Zen teaching, presented for the modern reader in a way that preserves the dynamic flavor of these talks, sayings, and records of heart-to-heart encounters. From the earliest adepts to the last of the great masters, The Pocket Zen Reader is a compendium of Zen at its best. Here are Zen's principles, purposes, and practices, its perils, pitfalls, and perversions. Self-understanding, methods of meditation, the use of koans, spiritual awakening, and integration with everyday life are all found here in one small volume. This miniature book is an abridgment of Cleary's larger Zen collection, Teachings of Zen.

Genres: Religion, Buddhism, Spirituality

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Dr. Thomas Francis Cleary, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University; J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley), was a prolific translator of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Muslim classics, with a particular emphasis on popular translations of Mahāyāna works relevant to the Chan, Zen, and Soen systems.

Reviews

[Kevin Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zen, brilliantly packaged here, where you can approach your daily life with this collection of essays, koans and recapitulations. Ranging from such titles as 'The Whole Experience' to 'False Buddhas' and on to 'Sincerity', this tiny book unfolds in no particular order the Orient Wisdom of Sages, by my lights.

Why Zen? you ask. Because, simply, it works. The goal is to break free of Causality, while understanding it, and transcend attachment (the root of suffering), Birth and Death, along with the entire litany of Human Ills that would seem to be new, yet obviously has been our condition from time remembered. I am reminded to avoid over-intellectualization, really discursive thought itself is shown to be unnatural...circularity is key here.

The Masters in these pages do not offer a Religion, a God even, but a very human way of approaching Life and it's vicissitudes. Anyone can participate in Zen philosophy, this book again brilliantly points out, no matter what their walk of Life.

It is obvious East and West met in the distant past, where prophets, philosophers and other thinkers betray Zen thought in their Mideastern to Western cults and philosophical or even metaphysical systems.

Pick this gem of a book up now, easily carried, pocketed obviously for handy reference, and I would think you would benefit as greatly from Zen philosophy as I have..

[Timothy Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would say this a nice pocket reader and reference for a rhetorical way of looking at Zen, using lots of Metaphorical wording instead of a direct Philosophical approach, kind of like taking a long test of analogies. Great to flip through, good for its purpose, yet like all books, some things strike me and I disagree of the tone and setting, some things harmonize, like all things take from it what is needed or what resonates.

[Shawn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Have you ever been listening to someone's attempt at some deep philosophical insight, only to ask yourself, "What in the hell are you talking about?"
That's what this book is. Over 200 pages of absolute drivel.
Fortunately it was a pocket reader so the pages were very short.
I've read a number of zen and Buddhist books and this is probably the worst I've ever had my hands on.

[Marian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I now carry this with me and read from it whenever I get a break. This is a priceless collection of Zen stories and texts from the Chinese and Japanese ancestors.

It is really one of the best books I have ever read, a finger pointing to the Bright Moon. Highly recommended for all travelers along the Way.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kaya picked this book up in the bookstore and wouldn't leave without it. Good thing I like Zen meditation.

[Chelsea Banks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on the teachings of Buddhism.

[MaryAddison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dog-eared version from 1998. I still carry it around.