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Title: The Tao of Zen (Tuttle Library of Enlightment) by Ray Grigg ISBN: 0-8048-1988-2 Publisher: Tuttle Publishing Pub. Date: 01 April, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.46 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Sharp, clear...a demonstration of real insight.
Comment: My reading has included various Buddhist doctrines, even some Tibetan, but the earliest Zen and original Tao have rung truest for me while Buddhism feels too much like the idle promises of organized religion. As soon as I began this book I knew Ray Grigg had done the work of "proving" a hypothesis that Alan Watts and Thomas Cleary often suggest.
Rating: 5
Summary: Back to the beginning .......... again!
Comment: Reading this book when it was first published in 1994, I was naturally surprised to see it re-published in 1999 as a hardback edition that cost far less than my paperback. I am glad to see it resurface and am in the process of re-reading it now. I think that this is a particularly good time for it's re-emmergence in light of all the work coming forth now concerning Tibetan Buddhism and Tantric Buddhism. In the intervening years I have delved into the study of those forms as well and will continue to do so. The Tao of Zen has always had a prominent on my bookshelf, and in fact is one of the few books that I bought extra copies of to give away. The first reading helped me to understand the worlds of distance between the practiced forms. The second reading is a reminder of why, in spite of my love for Buddhism and Hinduism, which I will surely study for the rest of my life, and in spite of my dislike of titles for myself, I picked up the banner of Daoism as that which rang truest in my heart. Whoever you are, whatever you believe, if you are not locked into the nutshell of who you believe yourself to be, try it ..... you'll like it.
Rating: 3
Summary: Misses The Mark
Comment: This book is a work of speculative scholarship by one who does not practice Zen nor the ancient and ingenious yoga of Taoism. In the first of its two parts the text recounts the usual historical speculations on the origins of Taoism and its interaction with Chinese Buddhism.
The second part seeks to define the philosophical similarities between the Zen School of Buddhism and the Taoist tradition. No doubt this effort is well intentioned but unfortunately it fails for lack of knowledge and experience. The three great traditions of self realization: Taoism, Buddhism and Vedanta, share a common mainspring. Their essential core is the practice of self enquiry. The Buddha, Shankara, Ramana Maharshi and more obliquely Lao Tzu all advocate first, foremost and above all the understanding of one's true nature.
The Tao Of Zen fails to deal with the issue of self enquiry. The book cites many scholars and a woefully few Zen practitioners who allude to self enquiry in the context of koans and anecdotes from the Mumonkan. But for some reason the author misses the significance of this practice. Self enquiry is how one "does" Zen, any form of Buddhism, Taoism or Vedanta. It is the very practice which unites all traditions of the Perennial Philosophy including Taoism and Zen.
If the author actually learned something of Zen under a teacher of Shunryu Suzuki's caliber, or studied the Tantric Yoga which is the practical essence of Taoism, or practiced any serious form of self enquiry, he would write a very different book.
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Title: The New Lao Tzu: A Contemporary Tao Te Ching by Ray Grigg ISBN: 0804830347 Publisher: Tuttle Publishing Pub. Date: 01 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Life of the Buddha : According to the Pali Canon by Pali, Bhikkhu Nanamoli, Nyanaponika Thera, Gnanamoli ISBN: 1928706126 Publisher: Independent Publishers Group Pub. Date: August, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle ISBN: 1577311523 Publisher: New World Library Pub. Date: 01 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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