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Paperback Hakuin on Kensho: The Four Ways of Knowing Book

ISBN: 1590303776

ISBN13: 9781590303771

Hakuin on Kensho: The Four Ways of Knowing

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Book Overview

Kensho is the Zen experience of waking up to one's own true nature--of understanding oneself to be not different from the Buddha-nature that pervades all existence. The Japanese Zen Master Hakuin (1689-1769) considered the experience to be essential. In his autobiography he says: "Anyone who would call himself a member of the Zen family must first achieve kensho-realization of the Buddha's way. If a person who has not achieved kensho says he is a follower of Zen, he is an outrageous fraud. A swindler pure and simple." Hakuin's short text on kensho, "Four Ways of Knowing of an Awakened Person," is a little-known Zen classic. The "four ways" he describes include the way of knowing of the Great Perfect Mirror, the way of knowing equality, the way of knowing by differentiation, and the way of the perfection of action. Rather than simply being methods for "checking" for enlightenment in oneself, these ways ultimately exemplify Zen practice. Albert Low has provided careful, line-by-line commentary for the text that illuminates its profound wisdom and makes it an inspiration for deeper spiritual practice. This description may be from another edition of this product.

Customer Reviews

3 customer ratings | 3 reviews

Rated 5 stars
Post satori training

Deep thanks, Albert Low for this wonderful little book! I have read 'Hakuin on Kensho' several times now and I keep it near me always as a constant and helpful friend in my daily practice. Hakuin in his other writings stresses over and over the importance of post-satori training to strengthen and deepen our vow to save all sentient beings. In this book too, we find him encouraging us, once we break through, to study the scriptures...

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Rated 4 stars
Zazen, Kensho and Beyond

Albert Low (born in London in 1928), director of Montreal Zen Centre, a Dharma heir of Rochester NY's Philip Kapleau Roshi (author of the classic "Three Pillars of Zen", a well-respected independent teacher and student of Yasutani Roshi), has written a fine commentary on Hakuin's short (ten page) essay "The Four Ways of Knowing". The commentary, including notes and index is 129 pages long. From the title "Hakuin on Kensho:...

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Rated 5 stars
Clarity and Emptiness

As a reader of many works explicating the teachings of Zen and other disciplines, this book is one of the best I've found yet. All of Low's books have this same characteristic simplicity, while illucidating some of the most profound teachings of his tradition. Hakuin's Kensho is a valuable tool for anyone who has been practicing for a while and is seeking to understand who and what it is that knows.

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