The Works of Zen in the Song Dynasty     This is part of a series of articles on the arc of Zen thought, practice, and history, as presented in The Circle of the Way: A Concise History of Zen from the Buddha to the Modern World.  You can start at the beginning of this [...]

Mountain Record of Zen Talks By John Daido Loori   This book, now more than a quarter-century old, is one of the best ways to get acquainted with the late esteemed Zen master John Daido Loori (1931-2009). He was a lineage holder in both Soto (a dharma heir of Taizan Maezumi) and Rinzai schools, and [...]

The Eight Gates of Zen: A Program of Zen Training by John Daido Loori   If you want to practice Zen but there's no zendo for miles around, this book may be the next best thing. It contains the complete, eight-phase program of training taught at Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt. Tremper, New York. It's a [...]

Cave of Tigers: The Living Zen Practice of Dharma Combat  By John Daido Loori Grrrrrrrrr. These records of public teaching encounters between the founder of Zen Mountain Monastery and his students are disorienting (in the best way), thought-provoking, and funny, and they show that this ancient practice for manifesting wisdom is alive and well in [...]

The True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen's Three Hundred Koans, Translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi and John Daido Loori The notion that koans don't belong to the Soto Zen tradition can't withstand the fact that Soto's founder, Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), compiled this monumental collection. Dogen collected the three hundred koans contained in this work called in [...]