China Root by David Hinton

China Root by David Hinton

A beautifully compelling and liberating guide to the original nature of Zen in ancient China by renowned author and translator David Hinton.

Buddhism migrated from India to China in the first century C.E., and Ch'an (Japanese- Zen) is generally seen as China's most distinctive and enduring form of Buddhism. In China Root, however, David Hinton shows how Ch'an was in fact a Buddhist-influenced extension of Taoism, China's native system of spiritual philosophy. Unlike Indian Buddhism's abstract sensibility, Ch'an was grounded in an earthy and empirically-based vision. Exploring this vision, Hinton describes Ch'an as a kind of anti-Buddhism. A radical and wild practice aspiring to a deeply ecological liberation- the integration of individual consciousness with landscape and with a Cosmos seen as harmonious and alive.

In China Root, Hinton describes this original form of Zen with his trademark clarity and elegance, each chapter exploring in enlightening ways a core Ch'an concept--such as meditation, mind, Buddha, awakening--as it was originally understood and practiced in ancient China. Finally, by examining a range of standard translations in the Appendix, Hinton reveals how this original understanding and practice of Ch'an/Zen is almost entirely missing in contemporary American Zen, because it was lost in Ch'an's migration from China through Japan and on to the West.

Whether you practice Zen or not, taking this journey on the wings of Hinton's remarkable insight and powerful writing will transform how you understand yourself and the world.

Hinton, David: - David Hinton's translations of classical Chinese poetry have earned him wide acclaim for creating compelling contemporary poems that convey the texture and density of the originals. He is the editor of numerous anthologies of Chinese poetry and the first in over a century to translate the four seminal masterworks of Chinese philosophy: Tao Te Ching, Chuang Tzu, Analects, and Mencius. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Landon Translation Award, the PEN Translation Award, and most recently the Thornton Wilder Award for Translation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781611807134
ISBN 10	1611807131
Title	China Root
Author	David Hinton
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Shambhala Publications Inc
Year published	2020-09-29
Number of pages	160
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.