Author: Victor Sogen Hori
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Keywords: asian, library, religion, culture, multilingual, nanzan, practice, book, sand, capping, phrases, koan, zen
Number of Pages: 880
Published: 2003-02
List price: $46.00
ISBN-10: 0824822846
ISBN-13: 9780824822842

Zen Sand is a classic collection of verses aimed at aiding practitioners of koan meditation to negotiate the difficult relationship between insight and language. As such it represents a major contribution to both Western Zen practice and English-language Zen scholarship. In Japan, the traditional Rinzai Zen koan curriculum includes the use of jakugo, or "capping phrases." Once a monk has successfully replied to a koan, the Zen master orders the search for a classical verse to express the monk’s insight into the koan. Special collections of these jakugo were compiled as handbooks to a