Transmission of Light: Zen in the Art of Enlightenment by Zen Master Keizan - Buddhist Meditation Book for Mindfulness, Spiritual Growth & Inner Peace - Perfect for Zen Practitioners & Seekers of Enlightenment

Cleary's translation (not "illustration!") of the Denkoroku is poignant, engaging, and by far one of the profoundest texts I've ever encountered. The extremely lucid teachings of nonduality contained within will certainly be of use to both the beginning Buddhist and advanced practioner, and will help to dispel the dualistic thinking that even some "experienced" Zennists persistently cling to. Keizan Zenji's message is strikingly clear:"Furthermore, for long eons now how many times have you gone through birth and death, how many times have you come to produce and destroy mind and body? Some may think that this coming and going in birth and death is a dream, an illusion--what a laugh! Is there something that is born and dies, comes and goes, anyway? What would you call the real human body? What do you call dream illusions?"Therefore you should not understand life and death as empty illusions either, nor should you understand them as true reality. . . . [B]oth or these understandings are wrong when you reach here. . . ."If you want to know the reason why, it is because this realm is not affected by becoming, substinence, decay, and annihilation. How can selfhood and otherness be considered causeless? When you have forgotten outside objects and abandoned conditioned thought within, and 'even the clear sky gets a beating,' you are clean and naked, bare and untrammeled. If you perceive minutely, you will be empty and spiritual, clear and sublime."It doesn't get any higher than that. I don't know why this book isn't more popular. Then again, perhaps it's just too deep for the American "Zen of such-and-such" society, who are content to live with a clear mind without ever discering what it actually is.