One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryokan
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.75 (903 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0834801264 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 88 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2018-01-04 |
| Language | : | Japanese |
DESCRIPTION:
"If I owned just one book, this would be it" according to John R. Murray (whatsupdoc@sunset.net). This book has to rate as one of the most beautiful I have ever read. John Stevens does a masterly job of turning into English the original Japanese poetry. Ryokan's compassion and simplicity are retained, along with his penetrative insight into the human condition.. Mclusky said Can't put it down. This is a fantastic book of Ryokan poems that is hard to put down. These poems have a feeling to them of coming from a true Master of the Buddha's teachings. The translator helps by staying away from analyis and interpretation and lets Ryokan speak for himself to us through the words. You feel his joy and his sadness as well as his love of solitary forest life and meditation. There is nothing but a wonderful little book of Ryokan translations that lovers of Zen or Zen poetry will turn to again and again.. What's not to love? sonja wells It's Zen. It's Ryokan. What's not to love?
. About the Author John Stevens is Professor of Buddhist Studies and Aikido instructor at Tohoku Fukushi University in Sendai, Japan. He is the author or translator of over twenty books on Buddhism, Zen, Aikido, and Asian culture. He has practiced and taught Aikido all over the world
John Stevens is Professor of Buddhist Studies and Aikido instructor at Tohoku Fukushi University in Sendai, Japan. He is the author or translator of over twenty books on Buddhism, Zen, Aikido, and Asian culture. He has practiced and taught Aikido all over the world.
This book offers a representative selection of his verse in both Chinese and Japanese modes.. The hermit-monk Ryokan, long beloved in Japan both for his poetry and for his character, belongs in the tradition of the great Zen eccentrics of China and Japan. Ryokan's poetry is that of the mature Zen master, its deceptive simplicity revealing an art that surpasses artifice. Although Ryokan was born in eighteenth-century Japan, his extraordinary poems, capturing in a few luminous phrases both the beauty and the pathos of human life, reach far beyond time and place to touch the springs of humanity. His reclusive life and celebration of nature and the natural life also bring to mind his younger American contemporary, Thoreau