Inspired by the Buddha and the great Zen masters, the intention of this little book is to help awaken the reader's own wisdom mind.
The Zen Book of Life is filled with quotes, Haiku (Zen Poems) and Koans (traditional riddles that a master asks a student to inspire the student's awakening).
Zen is a school of Buddhism that arose in China around the fourth century CE but was refined in Japan when a South Indian Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma allegedly brought the “mind only” teaching there and started a lineage.
There is one teaching that is thought to be central to Zen. One day the Buddha was to give a teaching to huge assembly of monks and nuns gathered. The Buddha did not speak but simply held up a flower. The crowd became restless and eager for the Buddha's teaching to begin. But a senior disciple, Kashaya, only smiled. The Buddha said Kashaya had understood the teaching and was to be known from then on as Mahakashyapa.
Mahakashyapa understood the highest wisdom of the Buddha. In that moment of the Buddha holding up the flower a direct mind-to-mind transmission had occurred and this is seen as the beginning of the Zen lineage.
Typically Zen is a direct approach where Haiku and Koan are used to break conceptual thinking leading to a glimpse of satori or enlightenment.
This direct teaching or wisdom teaching is known as Zen, Chaun in Chinese and Dzogchen in Tibetan.
Any attempt to describe Zen in words will fall short, because they are words and not the experience of Zen. Or as one Zen master said, “The finger pointing to the moon is not the moon.” However the blessing of the finger pointing to the moon is that it helps turn our focus in the right direction.
May The Zen Book of Life help turn your mind to uncover your own wisdom.