Sounds of Valley Streams: Enlightenment in Dogen's Zen Translation of Nine Essays From Shobogenzo

by Francis Harold Cook (Translator)

Sounds of Valley Streams is a study of Zen Buddhist enlightenment in nine chapters of Shōbōgenzō Dōgen. Francis H. Cook has translated the nine chapters and has preceded them with four chapters of discussion. These essays show Dōgen bringing his religious intensity, philosophical depth, and poetic power to bear on a number of different facets of enlightenment. Using striking images and poetical expressions such as "one bright pearl," "dragon song," "beyond Buddha," and "a painting of a rice cake,"Dōgen explores such fundamental matters as the relationship between enlightenment and compassion, the dynamic nature of the enlightened life, the need to go beyond enlightenment, the nature of illusion and enlighten-ment, and what it is like to live the awakened life.

The centerpiece of the translation is Genjōkōan ("Manifesting Absolute Reality"). It is a manifesto of the Zen life in which Dōgen proclaims the religious insight that stands at the core of everything he wrote subsequently. Cook's translation of Genjōkōan is as accurate as possible, faithful to the original, and readable.

Genres: Buddhism

180 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1988

Reviews

[Daniel Gargallo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful translations of some challenging texts here. Reading them created a feeling of powerful gravity in my mind. There’s a lot to think about here.

My only problem with this book was the edit. Some of the scholarly essays at the start were a little redundant and they did give me some preconceptions of the source material that may have been misleading. I should have skipped ahead and grappled with Dogen’s writing before reading what Cook had to say about them in the beginning. That said, one thing that could have made this experience better would have been footnotes on certain translated expressions that explained a bit about why the translation decisions were made. There’s an extensive list of notes in the back, but this material requires so much focus that I found that consistently flipping back and forth was a detraction.

[Jim McGurn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a finger pointing at the moon, ineffable. This little book, half Dogen's and half Dr. Cook's interpretations, is as well as words might encapsulate it.