Classics of Buddhism and Zen, Volume Four: The Collected Translations of Thomas Cleary

Classics of Buddhism and Zen: The Collected Translations of Thomas Cleary #4

by Thomas Cleary (Translator)

Volume Four of Classics of Buddhism and Zen features several essential works on the practice of Zen koans, including a complete translation of Gateless Barrier , a classic collection of Zen parables, paradoxes, and teaching stories. Also included is a collection of poetry from the Chinese Buddhist poet Wen-Siang.



The volume

Transmission of Zen in the Art of Enlightenment
This first complete modern translation of the classic Denkoroku illustrates how to attain satori.

Unlocking the Zen Koan
This translation of the koan classic Wumenguan also includes Cleary's selection of comments by great Chinese Zen masters.

Original An Anthology of Rinzai Zen
An anthology of Japanese Rinzai Zen from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

Timeless A Soto Zen Anthology
Contains sayings, informal talks, and public cases of important Soto Zen masters.

Zen 100 Stories of Enlightenment
Unlike many of the baffling dialogues between Zen masters preserved in koan literature, the stories retold here are pointedly simple but with a richness and subtlety that make them worth reading again and again.

Record of Things From the Treasury of the Eye of the True Teaching
This Zen classic is a collection of talks by the great Japanese Zen Master Dogen, founder of the Soto school.

Sleepless Verses for the Wakeful
Among the greatest masterpieces of the secular Buddhist poetry, these verses mock the folly of tyrants and celebrate the indomitability of life.

Genres: Buddhism, Zen, Religion, Nonfiction

912 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Dr. Thomas Francis Cleary, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University; J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley), was a prolific translator of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Muslim classics, with a particular emphasis on popular translations of Mahāyāna works relevant to the Chan, Zen, and Soen systems.

Reviews

[no · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some deeply-felt philosophical differences at play between me and Thomas Cleary. His approach as an editor and translator is that of an acolyte, and this results in some poor, unprofessional scholarship. There is little discussion in here of the base text for his translations, for the sources he uses for his translations, and Cleary's commentary, while sincere, seems naive in its lack of concern for linguistic ambiguities. Take the translation of the Wúménguān in this volume for example: Cleary appends onto Wumen's writings a hodgepodge of comments and verses from other Chinese Zen masters; sometimes the relevance of these extra passages is unclear, but Cleary also tacks on his own spiritual explication of the koan. The resulting product he calls Unlocking the Zen Koan, and it is a crime against translation. What is the base text for his translation, what is its provenance, and what are the sources for the fragments from other masters? Who knows! His tedious commentary is by far the most text in any particular chapter for each koan, and, I don't know, I think that's wrong and intrusive, and any respectable scholar should show more humility towards the text and the masters from whom they sprung. There are enough prohibitions against academics here that it's possible that Cleary's approach might be the more reverent one from his perspective and the broader perspective of practicing Zen Buddhists, but I find great calm and spiritual fulfillment from the exercises of textual studies, such that Cleary's conduct as a translator strikes me often as arrogant and frustrating and wrong. Original Face and Timeless Spring: A Soto Zen Anthology are almost totally useless to me because they're just hatchet jobs without any citation. Cleary's version of Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki (Record of Things Heard) comes the closest to scholarly respectability, even if it's still wanting by my standards, but what I came to enjoy most in this volume were the bits of story and biography that merge with didactic spiritual literature, reminding me of the hagiographies of medieval Europe and its mix of homily and history. Zen Antics is almost completely bankrupt from any academic perspective, but I found its anecdotes pleasing. The forthright translation of the Denkoroku (here called Transmission of Light) I appreciated most, as while it was bereft of scholarly apparatuses, it was unblemished by overbearing spiritual commentary from Cleary, and almost entirely full of this biographical writing I could put into dialogue with stories of saints' lives.

Takeaway:
"Impermanence is swift; the problem of life and death is a great one. While you are alive for the time being, if you practice some activity or are fond of study, you should only practice the Way of Buddhas and study the Teaching of Buddha. Because composition, poetry, and songs are worthless, it is right that you should abandon them. Even in studying the Buddhist Teaching and practicing the Buddha Way, still you should not study many things at once. So much the more should the Exoteric and Esoteric holy doctrines of the Scholastic schools be completely put aside. You should not fondly study many of the words of even Buddhas and Patriarchs."