Exploring Buddhist Thought: A Collection of English-Translated Works

When you visit a famous mountain in our country, you will hear a very familiar sound from the entrance. It is the clear sound of a moktak (A ceremonial instrument and percussion instrument used in Buddhism, derived from wooden fish) that fills the valley and the sound of monks and Buddhists chanting in time with it. The reason why the sound related to a certain religious ritual is so familiar is probably because Buddhism has been with us for a long time in our history. To that extent, our history and culture that continues to this day are piled up in temples. Is that why? Behind the familiarity we feel, there is also something special about temples. 

The world moves fast, but that doesn’t mean we have to. This bestselling mindfulness guide by Haemin Sunim (which means “spontaneous wisdom”), a renowned Zen Buddhist monk and Buddhist meditation teacher born in Korea and educated in the United States, illuminates a path to inner peace and balance amid the overwhelming demands of everyday life.

Many of us respond to the pressures of life by turning inward and ignoring problems, sometimes resulting in anxiety or depression. Others react by working harder at the office, at school, or at home, hoping that this will make ourselves and the people we love happier. But what if being yourself is enough? Just as we are advised on airplanes to take our own oxygen first before helping others, we must first be at peace with ourselves before we can be at peace with the world around us.

Somebody comes into the Zen center with a lighted cigarette, walks up to the Buddha statue, blows smoke in its face, and drops ashes on its lap. You are standing there. What can you do?” This is a problem that Zen Master Seung Sahn is fond of posing to his American students who attend his Zen centers. Dropping Ashes on the Buddha is a delightful, irreverent, and often hilariously funny living record of the dialogue between Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn and his American students. Consisting of dialogues, stories, formal Zen interviews, Dharma speeches, and letters using the Zen Master’s actual words in spontaneous, living interaction with his students, this book is a fresh presentation of the Zen teaching method of instant dialogue” between Master and student which, through the use of astonishment and paradox, leads to an understanding of ultimate reality.

Bone of Space is in the remarkable tradition of Zen poetry begun in China in the T'ang dynasty, and today -- on the evidence of these poems -- as much alive as ever. As with the ancient poems, the best of which revealed wisdoms too deep for prose, these startle with their boldness, freshness, sharp intuitions. 

In his many years of teaching throughout the world, the Korean-born Zen Master Seung Sahn has become known for his ability to cut to the heart of Buddhist teaching in a way that is strikingly clear, yet free of esoteric and academic language. In this book, based largely on his talks, he presents the basic teachings of Buddhism and Zen in a way that is wonderfully accessible for beginners—yet so rich with stories, insights, and personal experiences that long-time meditation students will also find it a source of inspiration and a resource for study.

Here is the inimitable Zen Master Seung Sahn up close and personal—in selections from the correspondence that was one of his primary modes of teaching. Seung Sahn received hundreds of letters per month, each of which he answered personally, and some of the best of which are included here. His frank and funny style, familiar to readers of Dropping Ashes on the Buddha, is seen here in a most intimate form. The beloved Zen master not only answers questions on Zen teaching and practice, but applies an enlightened approach to problems with work, relationships, suffering, and the teacher-student relationship.

This remarkable Zen book is of great importance not only for the variety of the 365 kong-ans, but for Zen Master Seung Sahn's own questions and commentary which accompany each kong-an. This prodding and guidance serve as guideposts along a difficult road to enlightenment. The kong-ans themselves and practice for life-practice for life-practice for answering the questions which are profound and practical arising everyday.

The text conveys the fundamental teachings of the Buddha that in order to find true freedom and true happiness, one must look back on oneself and become enlightened in life through the stories of Zen masters, neighbors, and Venerable Pomnyun's practice in an approachable way. Ven. Pomnyun Sunim's book conveys to Zen masters and lay people the original teachings of the Buddha – to find true freedom and happiness, we must self-reflect and awaken our daily lives – through Ven. Pomnyun Sunim's stories of his practice.

It is often said that enlightenment means "crossing over to the other shore," that far-off place where we can at last be free from suffering. Likewise, it is said that Buddhist teachings are the raft that takes us there. In this sparkling collection from one of the most vital teachers of modern Korean Buddhism, Zen Master Daehaeng shows us that there is no raft to find and, truly, no river to cross. She extends her hand to the Western reader, beckoning each of us into the unfailing wisdom accessible right now, the enlightenment that is always, already, right here.

Robert Buswell, a Buddhist scholar who spent five years as a Zen monk in Korea, draws on personal experience in this insightful account of day-to-day Zen monastic practice. In discussing the activities of the postulants, the meditation monks, the teachers and administrators, and the support monks of the monastery of Songgwang-sa, Buswell reveals a religious tradition that differs radically from the stereotype prevalent in the West. The author's treatment lucidly relates contemporary Zen practice to the historical development of the tradition and to Korean history more generally, and his portrayal of the life of modern Zen monks in Korea provides an innovative and provocative look at Zen from the inside.

Chinul (1158–1210) was the founder of the Korean tradition of Zen. He provides one of the most lucid and accessible accounts of Zen practice and meditation to be found anywhere in East Asian literature. Tracing Back the Radiance, an abridgment of Buswell’s Korean Approach to Zen: The Collected Works of Chinul, combines an extensive introduction to Chinul’s life and thought with translations of three of his most representative works. 

Harry Shin is a Certified Meditation Instructor accredited by the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. He enjoys introducing Korean culture to U.S. service members and their families and promoting cultural exchanges by leading a Facebook community called “Enlightenment Community at Osan Airbase and Camp Humphreys.”