Seeking the Monk Amid Falling Blossoms

Description

Author: Lin Guzhen
Publisher: INK Literary Monthly Publishing Co., Ltd.

Content Summary:
The mountains and rivers, the great earth, seen through the eyes of a Zen practitioner—how do they differ from yours and mine?

The various pieces in this book stem mainly from these years of travels in mainland China and Japan. Though what was encountered varied, each held a stirring of life, and each confirmed the truth and the illusion of what had been grasped before. Whether what is written concerns the humanities or Zen reflection, none of it departs from that wayfarer's foundation of facing things just as they are; and I hope the discerning reader, beneath what seems a lyrical tone, can still apprehend the essence of this school's true tempering.

The Zen practitioner's way of life is called "clouds and water": clouds and water mean rolling up and unrolling freely, adapting to circumstances at ease—precisely the carefree scenery of the awakened.

The awakened drift like clouds and water, and the unawakened must do likewise; this clouds-and-water way keeps one from clinging to any single thing or matter, letting one "roam every monastery and knock at every gate."

"Roaming every monastery...

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