The Golden Age of Zen: Teachings of Tang Dynasty Zen Masters - Spiritual Enlightenment & Meditation Guide for Modern Practitioners | Perfect for Mindfulness, Stress Relief & Personal Growth

When it comes to the 20th century’s religion-philosophy pioneers and their classic books that introduced Zen Buddhism to the western world, many point to D.T. Suzuki’s “An Introduction to Zen Buddhism,” Alan Watt’s “The Way of Zen,” R.H. Blyth’s “Zen and Zen Classics” series and, of course, Shunryu Suzuki’s “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.” For me, John Wu’s “The Golden Age of Zen: Zen Masters of the T'ang Dynasty” belongs right there with the aforementioned seminal texts but, unfortunately, for whatever reason(s) this gem is sometimes overlooked.To begin with, the book features a marvelous (and lengthy) introduction by Thomas Merton. This alone sets the book apart from the rest and, being a longtime admirer of Merton, I found that the book gets off to a well-considered and comprehensive beginning. In his introduction Merton wrote, “This book will be a good place to make the acquaintance of what can be called the very quintessence of Buddhist wisdom, in the Golden Age of Chinese Zen.” As an aside, for those like me who are interested in and enjoy Merton’s dialogues on Eastern Religions with his contemporaries at the time (including John Wu and D.T. Suzuki), I highly recommend the “Fons Vitae Thomas Merton Series” on Buddhism and on the Tao.The remainder of the book finds the author delving deep into the essential aspects of 7th-10th century Chinese Chan (Zen) Masters and their teachings. This book belongs to “The Library of Perennial Philosophy” which, in their words is: “dedicated to the exposition of the timeless Truth underlying the diverse religions. This Truth, often referred to as the Sophia Perennis—or Perennial Wisdom—finds its expression in the revealed Scriptures as well as the writings of the great sages and the artistic creations of the traditional worlds.”I highly recommend the books in The Library of Perennial Philosophy, and warmly invite potential readers to purchase and explore John Wu’s classic work on Zen and its founding Patriarchs and Awakened Luminaries, while at the same time being mindful of this sagely advice from Hui-neng: “What has been communicated to you is really no secret at all. But if you turn your light inward, the secret is within you.”