Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A literary meditation on Taoism and the origins of Zen by renowned translator and author David Hinton. When Buddhism arrived in China during the first century of the current era, it was fundamentally reinterpreted and reshaped by Taoist thought, its more abstract metaphysical sensibility becoming grounded in an earthly and empirically based vision. What resulted was Ch'an Buddhism--the precursor to Zen as it would later appear in Japan, other Asian countries, and the West. In this fascinating volume, David Hinton renders a beautiful deep-literary analysis of early Ch'an to recover aspects of the tradition lost in its transmission from China to Japan and in the later spread of the teachings to Europe and the Americas. Each chapter explores a core Zen concept--such as meditation, mind, Tao, or Buddha--as it was originally understood in China. Organized as a straightforward handbook, China Root illuminates the most critical aspects of the original Zen philosophy and practice, including emptiness, koans, language skepticism, and everyday mind. Taking this journey on the wings of Hinton's remarkable insight and powerful writing, contemporary Zen practitioners will never see the conceptual framework of their practice in the same way again.
Synopsis
A beautifully compelling and liberating guide to the original nature of Zen in ancient China by renowned author and translator David Hinton. Buddhism migrated from India to China in the first century C.E., and Ch'an (Japanese: Zen) is generally seen as China's most distinctive and enduring form of Buddhism. In China Root, however, David Hinton shows how Ch'an was in fact a Buddhist-influenced extension of Taoism, China's native system of spiritual philosophy. Unlike Indian Buddhism's abstract sensibility, Ch'an was grounded in an earthy and empirically-based vision. Exploring this vision, Hinton describes Ch'an as a kind of anti-Buddhism. A radical and wild practice aspiring to a deeply ecological liberation: the integration of individual consciousness with landscape and with a Cosmos seen as harmonious and alive.
In China Root, Hinton describes this original form of Zen with his trademark clarity and elegance, each chapter exploring in enlightening ways a core Ch'an concept--such as meditation, mind, Buddha, awakening--as it was originally understood and practiced in ancient China. Finally, by examining a range of standard translations in the Appendix, Hinton reveals how this original understanding and practice of Ch'an/Zen is almost entirely missing in contemporary American Zen, because it was lost in Ch'an's migration from China through Japan and on to the West.
Whether you practice Zen or not, taking this journey on the wings of Hinton's remarkable insight and powerful writing will transform how you understand yourself and the world.