Sokei-An (1882–1945)

Edited by Mary Farkas & Robert Lopez

A companion volume to The Zen Eye, published by Weatherhill in 1993, Zen Pivots continues to explore the vigorous and eloquent teachings of Sokei-an Sasaki, the first Zen master to settle in the United States and bring the living thought and practice of Zen to Americans in their own language. Consisting of talks he gave to his students in New York City in the 1930s and early 1940s, Zen Pivots shows the astonishing range of Sokei-an's grasp of Buddhist thought and his shrewd sense of how this exotic teaching could be transplanted into the everyday life, language, and culture of his adopted land.

Sokei-An Shigetsu Sasaki (1882-1945) first came to the United states in 1906. His career as a Zen master began in 1930 in New York Cit, where he founded the First Zen Institute of America.

Contents

By way of an introduction Robert Lopez
Prefatory remarks by Sokei-An
Freedom
Doubt
Faith
The religion of North America
Is there some benefit from stydying Buddhism?
The root of the tree
The four inverted views
Real existence
Leakage and non-leakage
The five Skandhas
The practice of Rupa Skandha
The Buddha's Skandhas
Emancipation
The practice of Nirodha
The one thing
The two kinds of Anatman
Karma
The three worlds
The five ways of Kamadhatu
The four heavens of Rupadhatu
The four realms of Arupadhatu
The one of mysterious purport
This is life after death
This Buddha
The eighteen Shunyatas
The four wisdoms
The triune body of the buddha
Awakening
The Buddha's silence
The silence of Surabha
The black stone grotto
Compensation
The Nirvana of the Buddha
The summit
True religion
Notes
Glossary… (plus d'informations)

"Yesterday was such a rainy day. Today is very beautiful. But there was no day between yesterday and today. Sometimes I think this is very strange." (118)

"Our self is Buddha, and our mind is the entrance to the shrine of Buddha." (121)

"It is within you, latent; one day you will awake suddenly, and you will realize -- 'This is what I've been looking for so many, many years! Now I've come close to it, and I realize that IT is myself -- my world, my universe! And this is my home." (144)… (plus d'informations)