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This book is also included in our Reader's Guide on The Great Koan Collections where you will find other important Zen classics.
TheBlue Cliff Record is a classic text of Zen Buddhism, designed to assist in the activation of dormant human potential. The core of this extraordinary work is a collection of one hundred traditional citations and stories, selected for their ability to bring about insight and enlightenment. These vignettes are known as gongan in Chinese and koan in Japanese.
Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record is a fresh translation featuring newly translated commentary from two of the greatest Zen masters of early modern Japan, Hakuin Ekaku (1685–1768) of the Rinzai sect of Zen and Tenkei Denson (1648–1735) of the Soto sect of Zen. This translation and commentary on The Blue Cliff Record sheds new light on the meaning of this central Zen text.
Dr. Thomas Cleary (1949–2021), one of the most celebrated translators of spiritual classics into English, earned a PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He is the translator of over seventy volumes of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Islamic texts from Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Pali, and Arabic.
Praise
"Authentic traditions of commentary have been hard to find—until this fluidly translated work, which includes commentaries by two of the greatest Zen masters of early modern Japan. . . . Their words shine light on this deep and extraordinary work." —Tricycle
"These commentaries make the challenges of the Zen masters available to the spiritually courageous among us." —Bodhi Tree Book Review
