Böcker av Shohaku Okumura

This immensely useful book explores Zen''s rich tradition of chanted liturgy and the powerful ways that such chants support meditation, expressing and helping us truly uphold our heartfelt vows to live a life of freedom and compassion. Exploring eight of Zen''s most essential and universal liturgical texts, Living by Vow is a handbook to walking the Zen path, and Shohaku Okumura guides us like an old friend, speaking clearly and directly of the personal meaning and implications of these chants, generously using his experiences to illustrate their practical significance. A scholar of Buddhist literature, he masterfully uncovers the subtle, intricate web of culture and history that permeate these great texts. Esoteric or challenging terms take on vivid, personal meaning, and old familiar phrases gain new poetic resonance.

Dogen, the thirteenth-century Zen master who founded the Japanese Soto school of Zen, is renowned as one the world''s most remarkable religious geniuses. His works are both richly poetic and deeply insightful and philosophical, pointing to the endless depths of Zen exploration. And almost precisely because of these facts, Dogen is often difficult for readers to understand and fully appreciate. Realizing Genjokoan is a comprehensive introduction to the teachings and approach of this great thinker, taking us on a thorough guided tour of the most important essay-Genjokoan-in Dogen''s seminal work, the Shobogenzo. Indeed, the Genjokoan is regarded as the pinnacle of Dogen''s writings, encompassing and encapsulating the essence of all the rest of his work. Our tour guide for this journey is Shohaku Okumura, a prominent teacher in his own right, who has dedicated his life to translating and teaching Dogen. This volume also includes an introduction to Dogen''s life from Hee-Jin Kim''s classic, Eihei Dogen: Mystical Realist, with updated annotations by Okumura.

The authors of this book are all first or second generation dharma descendants of Sanshin's founder, Shohaku Okumura, and our chapters all respond in some way to his opening teachings about the four embracing actions: giving, loving speech, beneficial action and identity action. Some of us live the lives of householders and are holding down jobs and raising families in addition to carrying out our dharma teaching. Others are engaged in some form of residential practice, living in a temple and spending all day every day facilitating the practice of our sanghas and ourselves. We come from South America, North America, Europe and Japan and speak a variety of languages...In this volume we offer our various perspectives on the teachings found in the Bodaisatta Shishobo (Four Embracing Actions of the Bodhisattva) fascicle of D¿gen Zenji's Shobogenzo....Our writing comes from our day-to-day experiences of practice and speaks to readers as they also navigate this one unified reality moment by moment.Hoko Karnegis - from the preface