Zen: Where Two Blades Cross

Description

Author: Lin Guzhen
Publisher: Uni-Books (You Lu Culture)

Content summary:
Using the sword as a metaphor for Zen, fully probing the real and the illusory.
A book written for the practitioner by the Zen figure and cultural scholar Lin Guzhen,
it points to "where the Zen practitioner stands," provides an overview of the real and illusory within the school,
and from this draws out the distinction between real and illusory and establishes the crux of killing and giving life!

Practice is a predicament at the very root of life; it is the turning of abstract philosophy into concrete realization. The practitioner can only be true, allowing not the slightest pretense or adornment; should there be any dissipation, one will lose body and life. To speak of transcending life and death while still seeking worldly gain and comfort — how can the world offer such a bargain?! The Zen practitioner must possess the spirit of boldly opening and closing, of decisively destroying and establishing, before the day of thorough liberation can come.

Practicing Zen is like seeking a sword; at the moment two blades cross,

all one can rely on is the single sword in one's own hand.

"When two blades cross," th...

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