Only a Great Rain: A Guide to Chinese Buddhist Meditation

by Hsing Yun, Tom Graham (Translator), John McRae (Introduction)

Overview

Very little has been published to date on China's rich traditions of Buddhist meditation. Inspired by the need to increase meaningful interaction between China and the West on spiritual issues, modern meditation master Hsing Yun here brings this vast legacy to life in straightforward and engaging language. Professor McRae's introduction to the world of Chinese Buddhism helps place these instructions in their wider context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780861711482
Publisher:	Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date:	10/01/1999
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Master Hsing Yun is the founder of Fo Guang Shan-an international Buddhist order with temples worldwide-the affiliated Buddha's Light International, and University of the West in Rosemead, California. Born in 1927, he is a forty-eighth patriarch of the Lin Chi (Rinzai) School of Zen Buddhism and lives in Taiwan.

Tom Graham, a scholar and translator of Chinese, worked in East Asia for ten years. He now resides in San Diego, California.

John McRae was a leading authority on Chinese Buddhism. He authored the books Seeing through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism and The Northern School and the Formation of Early Ch'an Buddhism, as well as many important articles. McRae also wrote one of the few English translations of the Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra for the Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. He taught at Cornell University and Indiana University, and was serving as a lecturer at Komazawa University in Tokyo at the time of his death.

Editorial Reviews

"There are two particular points of interest about this book: one is the non-sectarian approach to the teachings which are drawn from throughout the Chinese Buddhist tradition; the other is the emphasis Master Hsing Yun places on moral training and its connection with meditation and wisdom."

Shambhala Sun

"Master Hsing Yun is one of the most prominent Buddhist teachers in modern China, and he brings considerable scholarship and experiential knowledge to this slim volume...He is thus comfortable advocating many different types of meditation as potential roads to enlightenment, explaining the practices of koan meditation, the eight samadhis, contemplation of the Buddha's body, and others. There is useful stuff in this book for all who are interested in cultivating their meditation practice."

Tricycle

"Readers of this book will be immensely benefitted."

Ven. Henepola Gunaratana

"Timely and very welcome. Anyone seeking to enhance their understanding of Chinese Buddhist practice, or looking for a new approach to help refresh their own practice, this book will be invaluable."

The Middle Way

"Accessible, clear, compelling, and very helpful...[like] a friend guiding a blind companion along an unknown mountain path."

Prof. David Chappell

"This is an interesting book, well worth studying... [it] contains something of practical advice for all Buddhists, whatever tradition they practice."

Buddhism Now

Wisdom, in addition to its backlist of ancient spiritual classics from the East, has recently begun to amplify its list with newly written titles on spiritual guidance: Be an Island and Only a Great Rain are among the most worthy of these. Khema's work is the last offering of an American-born Buddhist nun who died in 1997; her calm, soberly written treatise reviews the path to enlightenment as a form of the search for personal and inner peace. Yun provides valuable insight into the distinct practices and traditions of Chinese Buddhism, still little known in the West. Both of these publications are recommended for libraries where interest in Eastern spirituality is strong. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

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