Necessary reading for any serious zen practicer. Note that there are three volumes in this series. Get all three. No regrets.

For the Zen student, this is a book of great value. The practice of working with the koan is clarified greatly by the Chinese master Hsu-Yun who, in a two-week retreat, gives daily Dharma-talks which detail the practice of the "Hua-Tou" or the "word-head," essentially "before-thought," in which a phrase or word such as "Mu" from a koan is used to trace each arising thought to the moment it arises, to the ground of no-thought. When this can be done in one's meditation, this is the gateway to the great freedom! Also valuable is the translation and commentary on the Diamond Cutter of Doubts Sutra. This is a good book to read after one has already been introduced and has personally begun a meditation practice in the Zen tradition. Highly recommended!

Translated into English and deftly edited for contemporary readers by life-long student of Buddhism Charles Luk, Ordinary Enlightenment: A Translation Of The Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra presents the enduring story of Mahayana Buddhism and Zen, about a householder named Vimalakirti who balances a worldly life with the way of the Bodhisattva. Explanatory notes and a glossary complement this classic, scholarly resource, which is very highly recommended for Buddhist Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

Well this book is certainly not for beginer. You must have some background in Yoga or Meditation. You also have to read it carefully if you really want to achieve what the book is aim for.

Sty

The 'yoga' teaching in this book never was easily accessible - nor ever meant to be. It is the highest rung on the Taoist ladder,and often, its practitioners lived on remote mountain peaks - disinterested in the 'numbers game' or winning converts. To find a Taoist master - of Chao Pi Chen's calibre would have taken years, many hardships. Loathe to set their teachings down in words, texts such as this are therefore precious. Even for a native Chinese, the idioms in this text are incomprehensible, minus access to the inner tradition. Luckily, Lu K'uan Yu knew the real (practical) meaning of these idioms - and therefore translates not just a text, but the practical nuance. This text opens up a remarkable world - one the West has yet to tap into,as regards our knowledge of the paraphysical energies underpinning the life of bodies and cells, vital centres etc. Before the Communist revolution, elderly people practicing this yoga, found their greying hair turning black again. This is not immortality 'Hollywood style,' but a by-product of the Yoga. When I took this practice seriously - in a retreat, I could actually hear little 'electronic' bleeps - as the 'microcosmic circuit' became energised. It happens naturally - you can't force it to happen. This Taoist yoga makes sense of the saying 'the kingdom of heaven is within you.' It is!

Well, I don't know about "enlightenment", but reading this book will certainly straighten you out about the ideas and practices of Chinese healing, without any New Age "spin", thank you very much. Charles Luk was a very sincere person who felt a strong responsibility to pass on the things that he was sure about, after long years of health-restoring practice, and he leaves out the Chinese mythological mumbo-jumbo that obfuscates most of today's writings on these subjects.

As a novice, I found this book troublesome. While the information is very interesting for my Buddhist study, it offered me little practical help in my meditation practices. I do enjoy the text for its readings and explanations of the various schools of Buddhist thought. But I have found better texts and more helpful texts when it comes to instruction on personal meditation.

This is an interesting book. I have long been a fan of this author after reading a wonderful translation of the Diamond Sutra he did years ago. Here he has laid out the basics of several types of "self cultivation" practiced for centuries in China. He has done so using an interesting style, wherein the bulk of the book is devoted to extensive quotes from original source texts of bygone masters. His own commentary is kept to a minimum, and the reader is left to make his/her own comparisons and conclusions. Starting off with an exposition from the Surangama Sutra, he then deals in turn with the techniques of the Ch'an (Zen), Pure Land, T'ien T'ai (Tendai) and Taoist schools. A larger amount of time was spent on the latter than seemed warranted, and the source material quoted seemed less directly related to most people's practices than the others, but it was still interesting. I was particularly pleased to have such a clear explanation of the Ch'an school, something hard to find in the other writings about it that I have read.

This text deserves all the praise heaped on it by one of the reviewers.There is not a wasted word in it. It is thoroughly practical, and rightly so, because (a) based on the teachings of experienced masters and (b) translated by an eminent lay-practicioner. Master Hsu Yun (1840-1959) recommended that Lu KUan Yu (Charles Luk) should present these texts. Be it the Surangama Sutra, Ch'an (Zen,T'ien Tai or Taoism,everything is presented clearly - allowing for the fact that only a practicing reader - will find the meaning between the lines.One reviewer found the 'Taoist' section difficult,but it is based on the teachings of Chao Pi Chen, a famous Taoist, known all over China, before the revolution. The detailed notes on T'ien Tai practice are for the most part drawn from Master Yin Shih Tsu, an eminent practicioner who cured himself of T.B. - using these techniques. This book is a treasury of helpful advice and relevant information.