This book consists of 160 subtly moral-laden Zen stories,
each only a few paragraphs long. This group of stories is
actually the combination of three earlier works:
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"101 Zen Stories"
First published in English in 1939, a collection of stories
about Zen teachers and their students, their actions and
dialogues, in Japan and China, during a period covering five
centuries.
-
" The Gateless Gate"
A collection of 49 stories from 13th century China, about the
practice of Zen using the koan method. Interpreted another way,
the little stories themselves are the koans. It was first
published in English in 1934.
-
"The 10 Bulls"
A group of ten stories about "stages of awareness", written in
12th century China, first published in English in 1935. It is
illustrated with wood-block drawings contributed by several famous
Japanese artists.
Following this group of stories is "Centering", a
collection (16 pages in my edition) of quotations, epigrams, or
other sorts of excerpts, from India, four thousand years ago,
showing the beginning of Zen. First written in Sanscrit, this
document was first published in English in 1955.
These four documents are original, historical sources,
modified only by translation.
Finally, the book ends with a one-page text called "What is
Zen ?"
The work was compiled by Paul Reps, an American scholar of
comparative religion, and Nyogen Senzaki, a Buddhist scholar born
in Japan and later residing in the U.S.