Description

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In 1633, at age eleven, Bankei Yotaku was banished from his family's home because of his consuming engagement with the Confucian texts that all schoolboys were required to copy and recite. Using a hut in the nearby hills, he wrote the word Shugyo-an, or "practice hermitage," on a plank of wood, propped it up beside the entrance, and settled down to devote himself to his own clarification of "bright virtue."

He finally turned to Zen and, after fourteen years of incredible hardship, achieved a decisive enlightenment, whereupon the Rinzai priest traveled unceasingly to the temples and monasteries of Japan, sharing what he'd learned.

"What I teach in these talks of mine is the Unborn Buddha-mind of illuminative wisdom, nothing else. Everyone is endowed with this Buddha-mind, only they don't know it." Casting aside the traditional aristocratic style of his contemporaries, he offered his teachings in the common language of the people. His style recalls the genius and simplicity of the great Chinese Zen masters of the T'ang dynasty.

This revised and expanded edition contains many talks and dialogues not included in the original 1984 volume.

About the Author

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Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693) was a well-known Rinzai Zen Buddhist master, and the abbot of the Ryomon-ji and Nyoho-ji. Bankei is most well known for his talks on the Unborn as he called it. Bankei's brilliance and directness reminds one of the style and approach of the ancient masters of the Ch'an tradition during the T'ang Dynasty.

Norman Waddell has published translations of Suzuki and Dogen, and, most recently, Wild Ivy: The Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin. He lives in Japan.

Norman Waddell has published translations of Suzuki and Dogen, and, most recently, Wild Ivy: The Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin. He lives in Japan.

Praise For…

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“[The Unborn] is truly one of the most original developments in the entire history of Zen thought.” —D. T. Suzuki