Eloquent Silence: Nyogen Senzaki's Gateless Gate and Other Previously Unpublished Teachings and Letters

by Nyogen Senzaki, Roko Sherry Chayat (Editor), Eido T. Shimano (Foreword)

The most comprehensive collection available of Nyogen Senzaki's brilliant teachings, Eloquent Silence brings new depth and breadth to our knowledge and appreciation of this historic figure. It makes available for the first time his complete commentaries on the Gateless Gate , one of the most important and beloved of all Zen texts, as well as on koans from the Blue Rock Annals and the Book of Equanimity . Amazingly, some of these commentaries were written while Senzaki was detained at an internment camp during WWII. Also included are rare photographs, poems reproduced in Senzaki's beautiful calligraphy and accompanied by his own translations, and transcriptions of his talks on Zen, esoteric Buddhism, the Lotus Sutra , what it means to be a Buddhist monk, and other subjects. Roko Sherry Chayat has edited Nyogen Senzaki's words with sensitivity and grace, retaining his wry, probing style yet bringing clarity and accessibility to these remarkably contemporary teachings.

Genres: Buddhism

350 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2008

About the author

Nyogen Senzaki (千崎 如幻, 1876–1958) was a Rinzai Zen monk who was one of the 20th century's leading proponents of Zen Buddhism in the United States.

Reviews

[Jan van Leent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent translation of this collection of classic Zen Koans.

The commentary is helpful.

Recommended for study of Zen koans

Also recommended as five star rating:

- Yamada Koun Roshi, Gateless Gate - Translation with Commentary. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1979

- Robert Aitken, The Gateless Barrier - The Wu-men Kuan (Mumonkan), New York: North Point Press, 1991

- Zenkei Shibayama, The Gateless Barrier - Zen comments on the Mumonkan, Boston: Shambhala, 1974