MOSTLY ROBERT AITKEN ON ZEN BUDDHISM

Robert Aitken, Encouraging Words: Zen Buddhist Teachings for Western Students (New York: Pantheon, 1993).

Robert Aitken, The Gateless Barrier: The Wu-men Kuan (Mumonkan), translated and with a Commentary by Robert Aitken (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1990).

Robert Aitken, The Mind of Clover: Essays in Zen Buddhist Ethics (New York: North Point Press/ Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1984) ("Hedonism ... is the trap of ego-indulgence that will not permit any kind of censor, overt or internal, to interfere with self-gratification. The sociopath, guided only by strategy to get his or her own way, is the extreme model of such a person. Certain walks of life are full of sociopath, but all of us can relate to that condition. Notice how often you manipulate other people. Where is your compassion?" Id. at 11. "Freedom from karma does not mean that I transcend cause and effect. It means I acknowledge that my perceptions are empty and I am no longer anxious to keep my ego bastion in good repair. Does a stranger walk through the ruined walls? Welcome stranger! How about a dance?" "The readiness to dance is the readiness to learn, the openness to growth." Id. at 107. "Hakuin Zenji says, in effect, 'Heaven is here and we are God, but we don't realize that fact.' Thus we live selfishly and create poverty, exterminate Jews, and bomb innocent peasants; we drug ourselves with chemicals and television, and curse our fate when the cancer of human waste appears in our own precious bodies. We ignore the near, the intimate fact that heaven lies about us in our maturity, and thus we cannot apply any of its virtues." Id. at 162.).

Robert Aitken, The Morning Star: New and Selected Zen Writings (Washington, D.C.: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2003).

Robert Aitken, Original Dwelling Place: Zen Buddhist Essays (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1996).

Robert Aitken, The Practice of Perfection: The Paramitas from a Zen Buddhist Perspective (New York & San Francisco: Pantheon Books, 1994).

Robert Aitken, Taking the Path of Zen (New York: North Point Press/ Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1982) ("Emptiness is simply a term we use to express that which has no quality and no age. It is completely void and at the same time altogether potent. You may call it Buddha nature, self-nature, true nature, but such words are only tags or pointers." "Form is emptiness and as the Heart Sutra also says, emptiness is form. The infinite emptiness of the universe is the essential nature of our everyday life of operating a store, taking care of children, paying our bills, and other ordinary activity." Id. at 41. "The many beings are numberless, / I vow to save them; / greed, hatred, and ignorance rise endlessly, / I vow to abandon them; / Dharma gates are countless, / I vow to wake to them; / Buddha's way is unsurpassed, / I vow to embody it fully." Id at 62. "Nobody fulfills these 'Great Vows for All," but we vow to fulfill them as best we can. They are our path." Id. at 62. "The way the world is going, the Bodhisattva ideal holds our only hope for survival or indeed for the survival of any species. The three poisons of greed, hatred, and ignorance are destroying our natural and cultural heritage. I believe that unless we as citizens of the world can take the radical Bodhisattva position we will not even die with integrity." Id. at 62. " 'Tell me,' he said, 'What is it that all the Buddhas taught?' Bird's Nest Roshi replied by quoting from the Dhammapada: Never do evil, / always do good; / keep your mind pure--- / thus all all the Buddhas taught. So Po Chu-i said, 'Always do good; never do evil; keep your mind pure--I knew that when I was three year old.' 'Yes,' said Bird's Nest Roshi, 'A three-year-old child may know it, but even an eighty-year-old man cannot put it into practice.' " Id. at 88.).

Robert Aitken, comp. & annon., Zen Master Raven: Sayings and Doings of a Wise Bird, with illustrations by Jennifer Rain Crosby (Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2002) ("During one of the early gathering at Tallspruce, Badger asked Raven, 'How can I get rid of my ego?' Raven said, 'It's not strong enough.' 'But I'm greedy,' Badger said insistently 'I'm self-centered and I tend to push other folks around.' Raven said, 'Like I said.'" Id. at 26. "Wolverine asked, 'Do you practice going with the flow?' Raven asked, 'Is that a practice?' Wolverine asked, 'What is practice?' Raven said, 'Going against the grain.' Wolverine asked, "Sounds hard.' Raven said, 'Uphill.'" Id. at 176.).

Robert Aitken, A Zen Wave: Basho's Haiku and Zen, with a foreword by W. S. Merwin (New York & Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1978).

Robert Aitken & David Steindl-Rast, The Ground We Share: Everyday Practice, Buddhist and Christian, edited by Nelson Foster (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1996).

Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening (New York: Riverhead, 1997).

Nelson Foster & Jack Shomaker, eds., The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader, with a foreword by Robert Aitken (New York: Ecco Press, 1996) (By Han-shan: "Want to know a simile for life and death? Compare them to water and ice. Water binds together to become ice; ice melts and turns back into water. What has died must live again, what has been born will return to death. Water and ice do no harm to each other; life and death are both of them good." Id. at 52. By Haung-po: "So the sutra says: 'What is called supreme perfect wisdom implies that there is really nothing whatever to be attained.' If you are also able to understand this, you will realize that the Way of the Buddhas and the Way of devils are equally wide of the mark. The original pure, glistening universe is neither square nor round, big nor small; it is without any such distinctions as long and short, it is beyond attachment and activity, ignorance and enlightenment. You must see clearly that there is nothing at all--no humans and no Buddhas. The great chiliocosms, numberless as grains of sand, are mere bubbles, All wisdom and all holiness are but streaks of lightening, None of them have the reality of Mind. The Dharrmakaya, from the ancient times until today, together with the Buddhas and Ancestors, is One. How can it lack a single hair of anything? Even if you understand this, you must make the most strenuous efforts. Throughout this life, you can never be certain of living long enough to take another breath." Id. at 90, 94. By Takuan: "The Right Mind is the mind that does not remain in on place. It is the mind that stretches throughout the entire body and self." The Confused Mind is the mind that, thinking something over, congeals in one place." 'When the Right Mind congeals and settles in one place, it becomes what is called the Confused Mind. When the Right Mind is lost, it is laking in function here and there. For this reason, it is important not to lose it." "In not remaining in one place, the Right Mind is like water. The Confused Mind is like ice, and ice is unable to wash hands or head. When ice is melted, it becomes water and flows everywhere, and it can wash the hands, the feet, or anything else." "If the mind congeals in one place and remains with one thing, it is like frozen water and is unable to be used freely: ice that can wash neither hands nor feet. When the mind is melted and is used like water, extending throughout the body, it can be sent wherever one wants to sen it." This is the Right Mind." Id. at 274, 277-278.).

Steven Heine, Zen Skin, Zen Marrow: Will the Real Zen Buddhism Please Stand Up?  (Oxford & New York: Oxford U. Press, 2008).