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Five Ranks of Zen: Tozan's Path of Being, Nonbeing, and Compassion

The Five Ranks of Zen: Tozan's Path of Being, Nonbeing, and Compassion

$24.95 USD
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Book description

A comprehensive and accessible guide to the Five Ranks, pinnacle teachings of Zen Buddhism on the path to true freedom.

The Chinese Buddhist master Tungshan, known in Japanese as Zen Master Tozan, created the teaching of the Five Ranks, which is honored and studied in both Soto and Rinzai schools of Zen and is a gem of the classical Zen tradition. The ranks—pithy, provocative titles followed by Tozan’s brief poetic commentaries—serve as guides to a radical exploration of the experience of relative and absolute reality, the interpenetrating “Two Truths” of Mahayana Buddhism.

In The Five Ranks of Zen, American Zen teacher Shishin Wick offers an accessible entrypoint to each of the ranks, which Tozan created in two formulations: the first and better-known is the Five Ranks of the Relative and the Absolute; while the second set, called the Sequence of Merit, is an abbreviated form of the Ten Oxherding Pictures, a traditional formulation of the Zen spiritual journey. Wick presents multiple translations and offers commentary on the ranks’ titles and on Tozan’s renowned verses, as well as offering guidance on these teachings’ application in contemporary Zen practice.
Gerry Shishin Wick

Gerry Shishin Wick

Author Bio

GERRY SHISHIN WICK ROSHI is a Dharma Successor of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. A student of both major lineages of Zen, Wick received transmission from Maezumi Roshi in 1990 after 24 years of Zen training under Maezumi, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and Sochu Suzuki Roshi. Shishin Roshi received a PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1967, and has worked as a university professor, science writer, journalist, oceanographer, software developer, and technical manager. He is the author of The Book of Equanimity, My American Zen Life, and coauthor of The Great Heart Way with Ilia Shinko Perez.

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Praise for the book

Roshi Joan Halifax

abbot of Upaya Zen Center

“This marvelous book is a clear and brilliant unfolding of a key teaching in Zen on the nature of reality.”

from the foreword by Norman Fischer

“I feel grateful to have this book. . . . If you are a Zen practitioner of some experience, you will appreciate it as I do, as if an eloquent and heart-felt personal letter from an old friend about an urgent matter of concern to you both—and you will find yourself going back to it again and again. If you are new to Zen, you will appreciate having a clear and realistic map to orient you to what lies ahead.”

David Loy

author of Nonduality: In Buddhism and Beyond

“At the very summit of Zen training are the Five Ranks of Tozan. These are usually examined only at the very end of koan study because they are the ultimate challenge: the final barrier. I am grateful to Shishin Roshi for such an accessible analysis of this profound teaching.”

Roshi Jan Chozen Bays

abbot of Great Vow Zen Monastery

“This book is a gem. In an articulate and lucid manner, Roshi Shishin Wick opens up one of the most difficult aspects of spiritual experience: the complete identity and ceaseless interplay of the relative—the truth of each unique moment and individual life, of separateness and irreplaceability—with the absolute—the never-divided oneness of all that everlastingly is .”

James Ishmael Ford

author of The Intimate Way of Zen: Effort, Surrender, and Awakening on the Spiritual Journey

“If you want to know the heart of Zen, here you are! This book is a wonderful and wise companion for anyone walking the intimate way. Gerry Shishin Wick walks us through Tozan’s five ranks, points us faithfully toward the deeper invitation, and guides us as we make our own way. This is a guide book for spiritual life. It reveals the intimate way as mysterious and beautiful and right in front of us. This belongs in the library of anyone who wants to understand Zen. And, more, it should be read. And then read again. A wonderful book.”

Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao

Abbot Emerita, Zen Center of Los Angeles

“My Dharma brother Shishin offers up this sparkling, faceted jewel after decades of Zen study and training. In the true spirit of Master Tozan’s Five Ranks, his exposition is at once direct and expansive, conceptual and intimate, vital and mysterious. Please accept this open-handed invitation and sink deeply into the mystery.”

Buddhadharma

“Expertly outlines the Five Ranks.”
Five Ranks of Zen: Tozan's Path of Being, Nonbeing, and Compassion

Gerry Shishin Wick

The Five Ranks of Zen: Tozan's Path of Being, Nonbeing, and Compassion

$18.99 USD