John Daido Loori (1931–2009)

'The sincere practitioner of zazen will absorb much atmosphere and insight from this fine collection of astonishing observations and exchange, which will water the ground where a true perception of reality may flourish.'-From the Preface by Peter Muryo Matthiessen

Through a comprehensive introduction and twenty-one chapters centered on koans from classic collections, western literary sources, and modern encounters, this book explains the relevance of koan study to Zen training today. It show more illuminates the value of koans in the practice of self-realization and their aliveness within the teacher-student relationship. Most importantly, the uniqueness of the koan as a means of studying the self is clearly shown in the context of the Buddhadarma-not as an archaic curiosity but as a vibrant opportunity to fully appreciate this life.

Two Arrows Meeting in Mid Air is one of the few commentaries on Zen koans by an American Zen master. John Daido Loori draws on his many dharma discourses to provide a detailed examination of each koan, connecting the contemporary reader to the traditional zen lineages. This collection will prove an invaluable reference on koan study for those pursuing a greater understanding of Zen Buddhism.

John Daido Loori is the spiritual leader an abbot of the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt. Tremper, New York, and the founder and director of the Mountains and Rivers Order. Trained in koan zen as well as in the subtle school of Master Dogen's Zen, he is a dharma heir of Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi. He is the author of Mountain Record of Zen Talks and The Eight Gates of Zen.

Contents

Foreword by Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi
Preface by Peter Muryo Matthiessen
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Original source
2 Perils, pearls, and the path
3 The time and season fo great peace
4 Declaration of interdependence
5 Chao-chou's Mu
6 Chao-chou's dog
7 Ordinary mind is tao
8 Lin-chi's great enlightenment
9 Striking the mortar, shaking the sieve
10 Nan-ch'uan's peony
11 Yun-men's two sicknesses
12 Yun-yen's great compassion
13 Advice of the caterpillar
14 The stone lion
15 The thirteenth daughter's dharma
16 Tao-wu tends the sick
17 Pai-chang and the fox
18 Teachings of the insentient
19 Born as the earth
20 Secred wildness
21 The last work
Notes
Questions and answers
Ancestral lineage
Glossary
About Zen Mountain Monastery show less

This book is what Julia Cameron's "Artist's Way" should have been (sorry, my opinion!): anecdotal, with exercises, but without the self-indulgence. In fact, rather than engaging in perpetual self reflection, he pulls us away from our preoccupation with ourselves and into the world of the "object as it is"

Genuine Zen spirit and practice are transmitted through the lineage of realized masters, and we are fortunate now to be witnessing a time when first-generation American teachers are speaking directly to American students in their own idiom. Addressing issues relevant to twentieth century practitioners, in context of a Buddhist tradition spanning 2500 years, Mountain Record of Zen Talks is a collection of teachings both very modern and universal. Based on dharma talks given by John Daido show more Loori, Roshi, the book explores areas of training that are the focus of practice at Zen Mountain Monastery: meditation, face-to-face study with the teacher, liturgy, precepts, academics, art practice, body practice, and work practice.Daido Roshi gives special attention to unraveling the enigma of the koan through discussion of several classical Zen texts. He also comments on martial arts, illness and healing, and the importance of egalitarian principles in Western Zen, where women and men, monks and lay practitioners, train together as equals. The presentations in this volume are an expression of vigorous Zen flourishing on American soil. show less

When the thirteenth century master Eihei Dogen, one of the most influential thinkers in Zen Buddhism and founder of the Japanese Soto school, returned to Japan after four years of study in China, the fruit of his pilgrimage was recorded in a collection of koans called the Chinese Shobogenzo, also known as Shinji or Mana Shobogenzo. This collection of three hundred main cases was first published in 1766 under the title Shobogenzo Sambyakusoku (Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Three Hundred show more Cases), and was known to have provided the raw material for much of Dogen's better known Japanese-language Kana Shobogenzo.

Dogen's collection of koans may come as a surprise to students of Zen as Dogen and the Soto school are generally known for the practice of shikantaza, or "just sitting," rather than for koan practice. Nevertheless, a careful study of Dogen's work reveals that he did use koans extensively in his writing and teaching, not only in the Kana Shobogenzo, but most of his other works as well. Zen students and scholars will find The True Dharma Eye to be a source of deep insight into the mind of one of the world's greatest religious thinkers, as well as the practice of koan study itself.

Following the spirit of Dogen's pioneering efforts to carry the dharma across cultural divides, John Daido Loori Roshi, one of the West's most respected Zen teachers, has added his own verses and commentaries to each koan. The resulting volume presents readers with a uniquely contemporary perspective on Dogen's profound teachings and their relevance for twenty-first-century Western practitioners of Zen. show less