Dear All, we will pause our reflections on the Blue Cliff Record in January (we will come back again next year), and Rev. Kokuu will begin a wonderful new series on the Platform Sutra of Ancestor Huineng. It is one of the most cherished and rich documents in the Zen tradition. Kokuu writes ...
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Dear all
Beginning on Monday January 6 of next year, I will be leading a read-along of Red Pine’s translation and commentary of The Platform Sutra. This is expected to last until August, moving at a rate of around ten pages and two sections of the sutra each week.
The Platform Sutra is an interesting text, specific to the Ch’an/Zen school and centered around the life of the Sixth Patriarch, Dajian Huineng (Jp. Daikan Enō), who lived from 638 to 713.
Contemporary research has pointed to the fact that the sutra is unlikely to be the words of Huineng himself, but rather more likely to be penned by one of the successors in his lineage, but that does not detract from the fact that it is a heavily influential sutra in our Zen tradition, and well worth reading. John Macrae’s book Seeing Through Zen is a useful book if you are interested in the history of the sutra.
It would be great to have a copy of Red Pine’s book to read-along with, and if you have Yampolsky’s translation that may be useful for comparison purposes, but is not necessary. If you are struggling for money, Red Pine’s translation can be found as a PDF at Terebess but if you can afford it it is nice for some of the money to go to the author for his work: https://terebess.hu/zen/platform-sutra.pdf [JUNDO NOTE: To clarify, we ask that the Terebess link only be used by (1) folks with a true economic hardship preventing purchase of the book, and (2) folks who made purchase and are awaiting arrival. Thank you.]
I hope you will take this opportunity to join me.
Gassho
Kokuu
.
~~~
Dear all
Beginning on Monday January 6 of next year, I will be leading a read-along of Red Pine’s translation and commentary of The Platform Sutra. This is expected to last until August, moving at a rate of around ten pages and two sections of the sutra each week.
The Platform Sutra is an interesting text, specific to the Ch’an/Zen school and centered around the life of the Sixth Patriarch, Dajian Huineng (Jp. Daikan Enō), who lived from 638 to 713.
Contemporary research has pointed to the fact that the sutra is unlikely to be the words of Huineng himself, but rather more likely to be penned by one of the successors in his lineage, but that does not detract from the fact that it is a heavily influential sutra in our Zen tradition, and well worth reading. John Macrae’s book Seeing Through Zen is a useful book if you are interested in the history of the sutra.
It would be great to have a copy of Red Pine’s book to read-along with, and if you have Yampolsky’s translation that may be useful for comparison purposes, but is not necessary. If you are struggling for money, Red Pine’s translation can be found as a PDF at Terebess but if you can afford it it is nice for some of the money to go to the author for his work: https://terebess.hu/zen/platform-sutra.pdf [JUNDO NOTE: To clarify, we ask that the Terebess link only be used by (1) folks with a true economic hardship preventing purchase of the book, and (2) folks who made purchase and are awaiting arrival. Thank you.]
I hope you will take this opportunity to join me.
Gassho
Kokuu
.
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