The Blue Cliff Record

Description

The Blue Cliff Record is a translation of the Pi Yen Lu, a collection of one hundred Zen koans - the paradoxical teaching stories used by Zen teachers to go beneath rational thought - accompanied by commentaries and appreciatory verses from the teachings of the Chinese Zen masters. Compiled in the twelfth century, by the great Zen master and poet Hseh-tou Ch'ung-hsien it is considered to be one of the greatest treasures of Zen literature and an essential study manual for students of Zen.

Thomas Cleary holds a PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. He is the translator of over fifty volumes of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Islamic texts from Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Pali, and Arabic. A resident of Oakland, California, he passed away in June 2021. J. C. Cleary holds a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. He has translated several books of Zen literature, including Zen Dawn.

"The cases comprising [this volume] are meticulously yet gracefully rendered, and should make this classic welcome to both scholars and Zen students, and even casual readers. A nice addition is the inclusion of biographical information about the Chinese masters." -Library Journal "The Blue Cliff Record reveals to us what enlightenment is, what the enlightened life is, how the patriarchs and masters of old struggled with it, attained it, actualized it, and accomplished it . . . I firmly believe this translation is a milestone and will immensely benefit those who are sincerely engaged in the practice and the enlightenment of the Buddha-way." -from the foreword by Taizan Maezumi Roshi