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Zen Master Who?: A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen
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Zen Master Who?: A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen Paperback - 2006

by James Ishmael Ford; Foreword by Barry Magid


From the publisher

Zen Master Who? is the first-ever book to provide a history of Zen's arrival in North America, surveying the shifts and challenges to Zen as it finds its Western home. With the exception of parts of Rick Field's How the Swans Came to the Lake, there has been no previous attempt to write this chronicle.

James Ishmael Ford begins by tracing Zen's history in Asia, looking at some of Zen's most seminal figures--the Sixth Ancestor Huineng, Dogen Zenji (the founder of the Soto Zen school), Hakuin Ekaku (the great reformer of the Rinzai koan way), and many others--and then outlines the state of Zen in North America today. Clear-eyed and even-handed, Ford shows us the history and development of the institution of Zen--both its beauty and its warts.

Ford also outlines the many subtle differences in teachings, training, ordination, and transmission among schools and lineages. This book will aid those looking for a Zen center or a teacher, but who may not know where to start. Suggesting what might be possible, skillful, and fruitful in our communities, it will also be of use to those who lead the Zen centers of today and tomorrow.

Details

  • Title Zen Master Who?: A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen
  • Author James Ishmael Ford; Foreword by Barry Magid
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition 1st Edition
  • Pages 280
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Wisdom Publications, U S A
  • Date October 20, 2006
  • Features Bibliography, Glossary, Index, Recycled Paper, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780861715091 / 0861715098
  • Weight 0.85 lbs (0.39 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.98 x 6.04 x 0.67 in (22.81 x 15.34 x 1.70 cm)
  • Themes
    • Religious Orientation: Buddhist
  • Library of Congress subjects Zen Buddhism - North America - History
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2006020147
  • Dewey Decimal Code 294.392

Media reviews

Citations

  • Publishers Weekly, 09/11/2006, Page 51

About the author

James Ishmael Ford is a senior guiding teacher of Boundless Way Zen. James has been a student of Zen Buddhism for over forty years. He is also a senior Unitarian Universalist minister serving at the First Unitarian Church of Providence and a member of both the American Zen Teachers Association and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association. He lives outside Providence.
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Zen Master Who? : A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen
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Zen Master Who? : A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen

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Zen Master Who? : A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen
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ZEN Master Who?: A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen

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Wisdom Publications,U.S., United States, 2006.. Very Good/No Dj. Octavo, softcover, VG in white and black wraps. Clean and unmarked. "Apart from Ricks Field's Classic How the Swans Came to the lake, reportage on the history of Zen in the West has tended to center on one or at most two traditions, e.g. Japanese Soto and Rinzai schools. James Ishmael Ford has instead taken a broad perspective, covering not only the Japanese and Chinese pioneers and influences but also extending his coverage to Korean, Vietnamese, and the syncretic Harada/Yasutani lineages. I found his clear account of Korean Kwan Um school's Dharma transmission model to be especially interesting. Informal in tone and extensive in coverage, Zen Master Who? should prove both informative and absorbing reading for a new generation of Zen students and teachers alike". 262 pp. including index.
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Zen Master Who?: A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen

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