Reddit reviews Zen Buddhism: A History, India & China (Volume 1)

Hakuin's autobiography would be a great place to start.

Heinrich Dumoulin's 2-volume "Zen Buddhism: A History" (Vol 1, Vol 2) is a classic, albeit somewhat dated. It has extended descriptions of the lives of some of the more notable teachers.

Andy Ferguson's "Zen's Chinese Heritage" is a very readable translation of the Lamp Records, providing some useful historical flavor. Although, the Lamp Records are where many of the major koan collections are drawn from, so if you're not into koans, ymmv.

I'll see if I can think of any others.

> You are mistaken on several points and have provided no evidence, no definitions of "Buddhism" or "Mahayana" while you assert their authority.

Ugh, the evidence treadmill again. Fine. If you've got some evidence or reference that says that Zen isn't a school of Mahayana Buddhism, show it to me. No, Zen Masters quote on a teachings book don't count, as I said before, for the reasons I said before.

> Zen Masters wrote books about their teachings. If you want to discuss Zen, discuss those books.

When I want to discuss Zen the experience, or the various expedients to get there, I do, right now we are talking about Zen the practice.

> If you have evidence of me interpreting something, show me. I don't think you do.

I said "literal interpretation", reading, quoting, and then saying what's written there is actually what happened or is meant is "literal interpretation". Are you seriously saying you don't do that?

> Buddhist Apologetics traditionally has "Zen" in the title of the book, but nowhere are Zen Masters' teachings discussed in the text of that book.

We're not talking about that

> There is no evidence that there is any such thing as "Buddhism", and the Mahayana religions have again and again made their doctrinal position very clear, and that position is not compatible with the texts written by Zen Masters.

Again, scholars disagree.