Infinite Circle: Teachings in Zen

by Bernie Glassman

Overview

This introduction to Zen teachings is a “watershed book for Zen students, a good study companion and a trustworthy guide” (Norman Fischer, author of The World Could Be Otherwise)

In Infinite Circle, one of America's most distinctive Zen teachers takes a back-to-basics approach to Zen. Glassman illuminates three key teachings of Zen Buddhism, offering line-by-line commentary in clear, direct language:

• The Heart Sutra: the Buddha's essential discourse on emptiness, a central sutra of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition.
• "The Identity of Relative and Absolute": an eighth-century poem by Shih-t'ou His-ch'ien, a key text of the Soto Zen school.
• The Zen precepts: the rules of conduct for laypeople and monks.

His commentaries are based on workshops he gave as Abbot of the Zen Community of New York, and they contain within them the principles that became the foundation for the Greyston Mandala of community development organizations and the Zen Peacemaker Order.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590300794
Publisher:	Shambhala
Publication date:	11/11/2003
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	1,112,936
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Bernie Glassman is a Zen master and the first dharma successor to Taizan Maezumi Roshi, founder of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. He is well known for integrating Zen practice with social, economic, and educational initiatives. He is also the author of Instructions to the Cook and Bearing Witness: A Zen Master's Lessons in Making Peace.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	vii
	Introduction	ix
	The Heart of the Perfection of Great Wisdom Sutra	3
1	No Yellow Brick Road	5
2	Being-Doing	16
3	Emptiness	26
4	Letting Go	36
5	No Suffering	47
6	Transmuting the Three Poisons	58
7	Letting Go of Letting Go	66
	The Identity of Relative and Absolute	77
8	Most Intimate	79
9	Subtle Source, Branching Streams	86
10	Intermingle Even as They Shine Alone	92
11	Two Arrows That Meet in Midair	102
	The Bodhisattva Precepts	109
12	The Bodhisattva Precepts: Literal, Subjective, and Intrinsic Perspectives	111
13	The Three Treasures and the Three Pure Precepts	117
14	Nonkilling	125
	Epilogue	135
	The Rule of the Zen Peacemaker Order	135
	Of Itself, the Fruit Is Born	137

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A timely and spiritually wise book. Glassman is a very profound and skilled teacher who manages to illuminate some very difficult Zen subjects."— Spirituality and Health

"Glassman's style and thinking are like thick, polished glass: clear, compact, and strong. Marrying metaphor, illustration, and abstraction, he reaches into the heart of many essential concepts, reminding us firmly that, among other things, 'we don't practice to become enlightened . . . we practice because we are enlightened.'"—Publishers Weekly

"A watershed book for Zen students, a good study companion and a trustworthy guide."—Zoketsu Norman Fisher, founding teacher of the Everyday Zen Foundation

Editorial Reviews

"A timely and spiritually wise book. Glassman is a very profound and skilled teacher who manages to illuminate some very difficult Zen subjects."— Spirituality and Health



"Glassman's style and thinking are like thick, polished glass: clear, compact, and strong. Marrying metaphor, illustration, and abstraction, he reaches into the heart of many essential concepts, reminding us firmly that, among other things, 'we don't practice to become enlightened . . . we practice because we are enlightened.'"—Publishers Weekly

"A watershed book for Zen students, a good study companion and a trustworthy guide."—Zoketsu Norman Fisher, founding teacher of the Everyday Zen Foundation

From the Publisher

Former abbot of the Zen Community of New York, Zen master Glassman (Instructions to the Cook) expounds upon three written works here. Though primarily for intermediate and advanced practitioners, some beginners may also find it helpful. The first half is devoted to the 24 lines of the Heart Sutra. So thorough is Glassman's explication that the title alone consumes 10 pages, many addressing the first word of the Sanskrit title, maha. Glassman was trained as a mathematician, a background that becomes evident when he uses the image of the circle: "If we are all within the same circle, then all of this is One Body; there is no outside. Since there is no outside, there is no inside either.... If there is no outside for the circle is infinite then not only is there no inside, there is also no circle anymore." The second section closely examines "The Identity of Relative and Absolute," a classic poem written by Chinese master Shih-t'ou Hsi-ch'ien exploring enlightenment, intimacy and the call to action. Action is of particular importance to Glassman, a cofounder of the international social activists' Zen Peacemaker Order. The third section examines the Bodhisattva precepts, with emphasis on "nonkilling." The author's style and thinking are like thick, polished glass: clear, compact and strong. Marrying metaphor, illustration and abstraction, he reaches to the heart of many essential concepts, reminding us firmly that, among other things, "we don't practice to become enlightened... we practice because we are enlightened." (May) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly