Reddit reviews Zen Essence: The Science of Freedom (Shambhala Dragon Editions)

I highly recommend this book.

Short statements in normal English paragraphs from all of the masters, each master only gets two or three pages.

I like it because you don't rely on any one master's thought patterns. They cross check and calibrate each other.

Don't read it like a novel. Read it one passage at a time. You could open it to any page and read a passage. Drink tea. Look out the window. Look at the wall. Do your thing, whatever that thing is.

Pick a place or make a space in your life to do it, so that you take it seriously when you do it. Don't do it when you aren't serious about it. Ritual and austerity are meaningless, but if your life is busy, they can make a big difference in helping you focus when you read at first.

Make it your own. Don't soil your reading place with other things. Or, soil your reading place with all other things. It's up to you, but, this is your life, your consciousness, take it seriously. You are the only one who can liberate yourself and you are the one to whom liberation matters.

After that book, whomever you liked from that book, get the book from them specifically. Foyan, Huang Po, Mazu, Hsin Hsin Ming are a great mix. Also, the Mumonkan is crucial.

As far as Mumonkan, people get fooled by the incomprehensibility of it. Enter where you find an entrance. It doesn't have to be in order. Follow that entrance, through to the end, until the whole text crumbles in front of you.

Zen Essence

My advice:

Don’t ask for a definition in this forum, before you’ve got familiar with the literature from some actual scholars.

1. [Blue Cliff Record] (https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Cliff-Record-Thomas-Cleary/dp/159030232X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479373811&sr=8-1&keywords=blue+cliff+record)
by the Cleary brothers.

The preface will provide you a good introduction to the history of zen. Plus, insights into the lineage of the masters.

This book is actually a collection of koans. But my advice is: Don't jump into cold water. Makes yourself familiar with the background first (preface's).

2. [Zen Essence] (https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Essence-Shambhala-Dragon-Editions/dp/1570625883/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479374319&sr=8-1&keywords=zen+essence+thomas+cleary) by Thomas Cleary.

Cleary provides quotes/ sayings from the masters referring to “topics” or “questions”, like “Zen Teaching?”, “Basis of Zen?”, “Summary of Zen Practice?”.

I think this approach is very helpful for people who want to get introduced to Zen, in terms of “What the hell is this shit about?” -- good guy Thomas Cleary!

3. Gateless Gate
by Robert Aiken.

This is rather a workbook for the practitioner than literature regarding zen.

I haven’t read the book I’ve linked to, but in my opinion, starting with the Mumonkan without any notes or comments from contemporary scholars/ students/ teachers/ translators is not the right approach. Use the commentaries from Aitken only as an orientation or a hint. The meaning itself has to be found by you!

• The ability to not take anything for granted
  
• To understand who you are and who you are not
  
• Seeing cause and effect
  
• Being the water, vs being the boat, vs being the person on the boat, vs being the person on the shore or other boats, being them all simultaneously
  
• Knowing that "you" as a concept is probably the worst way to understand and/or experience the world
  
• Understanding that any brain state, from despair to ecstasy, is temporary and not to be taken too seriously
  
  ... there are more. These are consequences. Consequences of understanding that "you" don't really exist in any permanent fashion.
  
  Anyway, I don't feel I can adequately do justice to this idea, but I see few answers.
  
  Lots of books on the subject written by far smarter people. I recommend Jack Kornfield, or If your into Zen, read Zen Essence.

Here you go buddy

https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Essence-Shambhala-Dragon-Editions/dp/1570625883

I'd guess it's from that same book he mentioned before, http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Essence-Shambhala-Dragon-Editions/dp/1570625883

Here!

You could check out the Hsin Hsin Ming, but there are some issues with relying on only a single text. If you treat it as an explanation of your own life, and then bring your own ideas into it, you end up with a modified version of your own ideas, which isn't what Zen talks about.

So, I'd recommend you try and read many different authors that talk about the same thing, in the form of Zen Essence, or just by buying a bunch of different Zen Master books and studying until you see the common theme outside of words.

The jar represents entangling thoughts and calculations/confusions.

Kicking it over is zen.

What is zen? Words can only barely point to it, but here is a start:

https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/wiki/lineagetexts

Or here:

https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Essence-Shambhala-Dragon-Editions/dp/1570625883

Not OP, but "Zen Essence" is a personal favorite of mine. Pretty accessible and practical: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Essence-Shambhala-Dragon-Editions/dp/1570625883/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483999173&sr=8-1&keywords=zen+essence

Also, read the poem Faith In Mind, which is often argued as all one needs to read (plus it's fairly short):

http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/buddhism/third_patriarch_zen.html

Here is the mobile version of your link