The Zen Works of Stonehouse: Poems and Talks of a Fourteenth-Century Chinese Hermit

by Shiwu Qinggong, Stonehouse, Red Pine (Translator)

One of the classic texts of Zen, essential for anyone interested in Zen practice and tradition.

Stonehouse has been called "the greatest of all Zen monks who made poetry their medium of instruction." Until now his works have rarely been available in English. Now all of the hermit monk's poetry, including the major poetic works, "Mountain Poems" and "Gathas," as well as his most illuminating instructional talks, can be read in Pine's superb translations.

According to Nelson Foster and Jack Shoemaker in The Roaring A New Zen Reader , "The ancient Taoist themes of simplicity, naturalness, and ease resound in Shih-wu's [Stonehouse's] writing, ringing out clearly within the Ch'an [Zen] setting. Everything in his mountain life that might seem a hardship to others-very plain food, crude and cramped quarters, dearth of human contact-Shih-wu celebrates as an outright virtue or at least preferable to what a city dweller can know.... Shih-wu packed his verses with practice pointers and encouragements, enticements and goads, allusions to sutras and Ch'an stories."

With Red Pine's personal discovery in 1991 of the site of Stonehouse's former hut, this edition provides rare first-hand understanding of the spiritual and physical realm of Stonehouse's era.

"Every Zen student will wish to own a copy."-Jim Harrison

"An admirable achievement!"-Burton Watson

Red Pine is the pen name of Bill Porter . Translator of numerous classical Chinese texts, he lives in Port Townsend, Washington.

Genres: Poetry, Buddhism, China, Zen, Religion, Canon, Spirituality

231 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1997

Reviews

[Eadweard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The shame of dumb ideas is suffered by the best
but the absence of intelligence means a fool for sure claiming external things are nothing but illusions
yet not understanding wealth is simply luck
the leaves in the stream move without a plan
the clouds in the valley drift without design
I closed my eyes and everything was fine
I opened them again because I love mountains
----




True emptiness is like a translucent sea
where the faintest movement makes foam
as soon as we have a body we worry about food and clothes
with feelings racing past like horses
and delusions as restless as monkeys
until we understand the Master of Emptiness
the Wheel of Rebirth rolls on
----




The flux of attachments is easy to stop
but it’s hard all at once to end love and hate
I laugh at the mountain for towering so high
and the mountain mocks me for being so skinny
----





A hundred years slip by unnoticed
eighty-four thousand cares dissolve in stillness
a mountain image shimmers on sunlit water
snowflakes swirl above a glowing stove
----





I eat a peach spit out the pit the pit becomes a tree
the tree grows and flowers and makes another peach spring departs and fall arrives year after year
how can I keep my hair from turning white
----





Our time is confined to one hundred years
but which of us gets them all
hundred-year-olds die too
the only difference is sooner or later

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

10 stars, 200 stars, uncountable stars. The most brilliant expression of Zen in, oh 600 years. You'll want to stay up all night, every night, just drinking it in.

[Shinji007 · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was interesting to read, but, not interesting enough to me to want to re-read. It was not bad, it is worth checking out.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The bath attendant’s toenails
are painted metallic green,
“like dragon’s scales”, I observe;
he smiles shyly.

Master Dogen wrote seven hundred years ago
of a place in the deep sea called Dragon’s Gate.
Any fish swimming through those waves
would be transformed into a dragon.

The sulphurous waters of Tassajara Zenshinji
are also a Dragon’s Gate.
None of us who take this plunge
remains unchanged.
A man enters the bath,
a dragon emerges.
A woman soaking
returns my gaze languorously
through dragon’s eyes.

Dragons drinking green tea.
Dragons baking bread.
Dragons raking gravel.
Dragons sitting zazen.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poems are beautiful - evocative of the satisfied hermit's life. The gathas are sometimes enigmatic, with obscure references, but all illuminated by Red Pine's generous footnotes. You feel the very presence of the poet, the abbot, the scholar. It is a a gem of a book to be savored and returned to again and again. The book itself is wonderful to read for its good design.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my review of the original edition from Empty Bowl Press.

[Lamoreaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book to have around for starting one's day. The "Mountain Poems," in particular, will have appeal for older readers. And Red Pine's annotations, as always, are an added pleasure.