by John Daido Loori
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Product Description
This accessible introduction to the philosophy and practice of Zen Buddhism includes a program of study that encompasses practically every aspect of life. The American Zen teacher John Daido Loori shows us that Zen practice should include not only meditation, the study of Zen literature and liturgy, and moral and ethical action, but should also manifest in work, artistic, and everyday activities. The Eight Gates are: Zazen, a type of meditation described as "sitting Zen" Face-to-face meetings between teacher and student Academic study of the sutras related to Zen training, other schools of Buddhism, Buddhist history, psychology, and philosophy Zen rites and rituals and their meaning The moral and ethical requirements set in the Buddhist Precepts Art practice as an extension of Zen practice Body practice as an extension of Zen practice Work as an active function of zazen Beautifully illustrated with Loori's own photographs, this edition also includes a new introduction and an updated reading list.
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Average Customer Review:
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 The Eight Gates of Zen, 2008-08-28
An amazing, step-by-step guide especially written with the novice in mind. The book is easy to understand and very clear in explaining how one developes a personal practice in the Zen tradition. This should be on of the Top 10 books in every Zen Buddhists library and of great interest to all others.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 what a bunch of bologna, 2007-11-24
If you believe that realizing who you are is a matter of someone else's approval and progressing through stages and levels then that's fine, but don't call it Zen. As Master Rinzai himself stated,
"Followers of the Way, people say ' There is a Way to practice,there is a Dharma to realize.' What Dharma would you realize and what Way would you practice? What is lacking in your activity right now? What is there to be fixed? Young, immature practitioners, not knowing this important point, believe in wild fox spirits and listen to all their deceitful teachings. They allow others to be bound by false beliefs, saying' Principle and practice are in correspondence. The three karmas must be carefully taken care of. Then at last you can attain buddhahood.' Those who preach in this way are as many as the thin drops of spring rain."
And again elswhere in the Rinzai Roku,
"You people say,'There is practice, there is realization' Make no mistake! If there were something to practice and something to obtain it would be nothing but life and death karma." And again,
"Let me tell you, there is no Buddha, no Dharma, no practice, no awakening. Yet you go off this way and that way trying to find something. Blind idiots!"
I don't believe in Americans wearing goofy Japanese robes going around bowing all the time pretending to be Japanese. I don't believe in this kind of elitist and self-important stinky Zen. And I don't believe in making life hard and complicated while dis-empowering people as a way of "training" them.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
this is not Zen, 2006-01-24
It would truly be a great shame and disappointment if life and happiness were actually as abstruse and convoluted as this book. I find it sadly ironic that Zen originally formed as a response to this very kind of institutional garbage. It formed as a recognition of the individual's power and birthright to realize one's own nature without relying on the "middlemen" and baggage of the institution. It even went so far as to denounce all the hoopla of methods and practices. Sound familiar? Isn't this what Siddhartha himself did? He took his burning existential questions and looked within his own heart and mind for the answers. Sure he started out with the spiritual establishment, but then he realized his error and turned inward. This burning inquiry and Siddhartha's own awareness WAS his meditation and many teachers have claimed this to be the only true skillful means. Zen arbitrarily calls this zazen and recognizes it as not being within the jurisdiction of any institution or system of practice. It is simply one's own heart and mind directly searching for and perceiving itself. Sorry Daido I'm not going to buy into the notion that we need some spiritual science to understand our life. I don't need a catalog of spiritual technologies to realize myself. Realizing who I am is my birthright and we all do it just like Siddhartha did: by turning inward. Instead of self reliance and self empowerment through one's own realization, books like these present practice as some sort of"rocket science" that we must study and burden ourselves with for our entire life. This book makes practice into such an uptight and burdensome endeavor. And you know...life is just too short and precious to waste it on the hamster wheel of practice and achievement. I'm not going to buy into this notion that life and practice are some sort of cross I must bear. Thank you very much, but I'll leave that to the Catholics. What a shame that people actually take this book and it's "training matrix" to be Zen. This book is just a complication. It is a hopeless attempt to concretize the spiritual journey which is, in fact, deeply personal, unique and beautifully undefinable and mysterious. Like art or falling in love, the systems that try to encapsulate the spiritual journey are completely and utterly besides the point. Zen started out as a recognition of this and denounced looking outside of oneself, whether it be within the context of relying on a teacher, an institution, or a skillful means. This book presents exactly these things as being necessary for realization. It represents exactly how "the man" and it's spiritual and religious institutions mess things up. This book is the antithesis of Zen.
16 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
This is the REAL THING!, 2002-11-15
With so many books on 'Zen' coming out all the time, it is important that this work be held up as a contemporary expression of the authentic teachings of Zen. Not 'self-styled zen', not 'anything I do is zen,' not 'easy way watered down zen,' but the real thing. You will love it!
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