The Blue Cliff Record(Chinese Biyanlu, Japanese Hekiganroku) is widely considered one of the most important classics of the Chan (Zen) school of Buddhism. Composed in China during the Song Dynasty (960-1276 C.E.), when Chan literature reached its zenith of development, The Blue Cliff Record soon gained widespread acceptance in Chan circles. It consists of one hundred excerpts from ancient Chan lore and Buddhist scripture, each illustrated in verse by the great Chan poet Xuedou Qiongxhian (980-1052) and elucidated in prose by the noted Chan teacher Yuanwu Kequin (1063-1135).

The Blue Cliff Record

Religion & Spirituality

Buddhism

BDK America

This Volume is a collection of two titles.
The Essentials of the Vinaya Tradition is a detailed account of the history and teaching of the Japanese Risshu school organized in a series of questions and answers on the precepts of morality, meditation, and wisdom.
The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School introduces the doctrine and practice of this Buddhist school in the form of a catechism. It is divided into two sections, one on doctrine, and one on practice. The section on doctrine contains a discussion of the Four Teachings, the Five Flavors, the One Vehicle, the Ten Suchlikes, Twelvefold Conditioned Co-arising, and the Two Truths. The section on practice discusses the Four Samadhis and the Three Categories of Delusions.

The Essentials of the Vinaya Tradition / The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School (BDK English Tripitaka)

This is an account of the travels in Central Asia and India of the seventh-century Chinese scholar-monk Xuanzang. An epoch-making figure in the history of Chinese Buddhism, the Master had a strong impulse to solve theoretical uncertainties by searching for the missing, untranslated original Sanskrit texts, particularly the Yogacara-bhumi-sastra. Violating a government ban on emigration, he slipped out of the empire without official permission. During his sojourn of sixteen years in India, he studied the said sastra and other texts under the tutelage of the Venerable Silabhadra. He visited all the important Buddhist sites and ruins, enjoyed great popularity in India through his learning as an outstanding Buddhist scholar and won the support of the reigning monarchs such as Siladitya and others of India.
Upon his return, he was requested by the Emperor to write a book about the journey for his reference. The Record was completed in 646 C.E., the year after his return to the capitol. It was appended some seven hundred years after the time of Xuanzang to include Zheng He's visit to Sri Lanka during the reign of Emperor Chengzu (r. 1403-24) of the Ming dynasty.
The Record has been of great value to Western historians and archaeologists, who used it to fill in certain gaps in the history of India and locate the sites of India's former glories. With its exact descriptions of distances and locations of different places, the Record served as a guidebook for the excavation and rediscovery of such important ancient sites as the old city of Rajagrha, the Temple of the Deer Park at Sarnath, the grottoes of Ajanta, the ruins of the well-known Nalanda Monastery in Bihar, etc. Thus it is not merely a book to be studied by students of Buddhism, but also a substantial and interesting book of reference, providing rich information about medieval India for the general reader.

The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions (W.M. Keck Foundation Series)

There are two titles in this volume.
Tannisho sets out to refute deviations from the True Pure Land school teachings. Written by Yuienbo, a follower of Shinran, the Tannisho has continued to exert a profound influence on Japanese life and thought since it was composed. It falls into two parts. The first part of the book consists of Yuienbo's personal recollections of the words of Shinran himself, as received directly from the Master. The second part gives Yuienbo's own refutation of those deviations of Faith that had arisen after Shinran's death, quoting in support of his argument further sayings of the master. There is also an Appendix giving details of the wrongful punishment and exile of Honen, Shinran, and other followers. 
Rennyo Shonin Ofumi is a collection of eighty pastoral letters written to True Pure Land school followers. They focus on clarifying the process of entrusting oneself single-heartedly to the Other Power of Amida Buddha.

Tannisho / Rennyo Shonin Ofumi (BDK English Tripitaka)

Yuien

There are two titles in this volume.
The Pratyutpanna Samadhi Sutra is one of the earliest Mahayana sutras and influenced the development of Prajnaparamita, Pure Land, and Yogacara philosophies. It propounds a particular samadhi, or meditation, called the "meditation in which one is brought face to face with the Buddhas of the present" or "the meditation of direct encounter with the Buddhas of the present." This meditation is a developed form of the earlier practice of buddhanusmrti or "calling the Buddha to mind." It also attempts to reconcile the vision of the Buddhas and Buddha-fields of the prsent with the insights of the Perfection of Wisdom school, or the Sunyavada (theory of emptiness) tendency in Mahayana Buddhism.
The Surangama Samadhi Sutra expounds the essentials of this meditative practice as the key to attaining Buddhahood. It is written in narrative form, beginning with a grad assembly on Vulture Peak, where the Buddha is surrounded by great numbers of bhiksus, Bodhisattvas, and other beings. The dialogue begins with a question by a Bodhisattva named Resolute Mind, then proceeds involving a number of participants, including Bodhisattvas, Sravakas, gods, and goddesses. It also uses several different supernatural manifestations, such as the simultaneous offering of innumerable elaborate chairs for the Buddha by all the most highly ranked gods present. The grad climax is the Buddha's manifestation of all the innumerable Buddhas of the ten directions. This magnificent epiphany is presented as part of a dramatic hesitation toward the end of the dialogue, when some of the Bodhisattvas in Sakyamuni's assembly become discouraged by the apparent difficulty of the path of Buddhahood being described. Finally, there is the charge to Ananda to preach the Sutra, which is also carried up by one of the many Indra kings who appear in the text.
Themes covered in this text include the question of how to account for the apparently dismal spiritual fates of Hinayanist practitioners, the Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Arhats, the description of innumerable other Buddha lands, the bestowal of the prediction of future Buddhahood and the spiritual identity and fate of women.

The Pratyutpanna Samadhi Sutra / The Surangama Samadhi Sutra (BDK English Tripitaka)

This volume includes The Recorded Sayings of Linji, Wumen’s Gate, and The Faith-Mind Maxim.
The Recorded Sayings of Linji is one of the seminal books of Zen. The great Zen teacher Linji lived and worked in ninth century China, but his teachings continued to guide and influence people for centuries afterward, and he was considered the grand ancestor of major streams of Zen in China, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. The direct, incisive teachings preserved in his recorded sayings have shown a perennial power to challenge and stimulate would-be seekers of the truth. He strips away the supernatural aura of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and refers the symbolism of the Buddhist scriptures to human processes, to actual and potential psychological transformations involving individuals and social groups. He analyzes the relationship of language to reality and conditioning to perception and motivation in ways that both prefigure and surpass "modern" discussions on these points. Whether or not they are already familiar with Zen Buddhism, modern readers can read Linji's sayings as a direct demonstration of its viewpoint and call. 
Wu Men's Gate is a classic collection of forty-eight Zen "public cases" accompanied by comments and verses, presented as teaching materials within the Zen tradition. Zen students would focus their attention on these cases and meditate via their intricate patterns of meaning. By interrupting and reshaping patterns of thought, these classic Zen cases were intended as tools to refine minds and open them to wider perspectives on reality.
The Faith-Mind Maxim is a short, 36 stanza poem written by Seng-can. It encompasses the thought of Early Buddhism and later developments such as the Voidness School, the representation-only School, and the Flower Garland School. It expressly extols the essence of the Mahayana and, above all, the One Vehicle ideal. It clarifies unique Zen attitudes, such as not depending on words by being beyond all discriminations and conventions, directly pointing to the mind (i.e. the One Mind), seeing one's own nature by returning to the root, and becoming a Buddha.
The Faith-Mind Maximmay be regarded as the first revolutionary work in the Zen tradition or in Chinese Buddhism.

Three Chan Classics (Anthropological Field Studies)

As a source of information, the monk Yijing's Record of the Inner Law Sent Home from the South Seas contains ample materials concerning monastic life, from the choosing of a teacher, under whose guidance one becomes a monk, up to the disposal of the personal belongings left by a deceased monk. It depicts such a complete picture of the life of a monk that it is indispensable and invaluable for research into the conditions of Buddhist monasticism in medieval India. It also provides some insights into Chinese monastic life through Yijing's criticism and comparison of the practices of the two regions.

Buddhist Monastic Traditions of Southern Asia: A Record of the Inner Law Sent Home from the South Seas (BDK English Tripitaka)

This thirteenth-century text by Nichiren extols the Lotus Sutra and critiques the other schools of Japanese Buddhism active at that time. Nichiren was arrested by the Kamakura government in 1271 and sentenced to exile on Sado Island. There he was in constant danger of assassination, and wrote the Kaimokusho to convince his remaining followers to follow his example in Buddhism.
To do this, Nichiren criticized religions other than Buddhism, and then Buddhist sutras other than the Lotus Sutra. He asked the question "Am I not the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra and answered this question by quoting five testimonies to the truthfulness of his faith. He also identifies the three kinds of arrogant people and equates them with the three kinds of enemies of the Lotus Sutra.

Kaimokusho: or Liberation from Blindness (BDK English Tripitaka)

This is the magnum opus of Shinran Shonin, founder of the Jòdo Shinshu school of Pure Land Buddhism. This work is a collection of 376 passages from 62 sutras, discourses, and commentaries, with Shinran’s own notes and commentary, organized into a coherent and comprehensive explication of the Pure Land teaching.

Kyogyoshinsho: On Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment (BDK English Tripitaka)

Shōnin, Shinran

This volume contains two works by the founder of the Nichiren Shu school.
The Risshoankokuron takes the form of a dialogue betweeen a traveler and a master about the troubled state of affairs in the country. It prophesies an invasion from the sea and is sharply critical of the regent at the time. 
Kanjinhonzonsho was written to reveal the Most Venerable One as Nichiren conceived it.

Two Nichiren Texts (BDK English Tripitaka)

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the BDK America publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by BDK America