Zen Battles: Modern Commentary on the Teachings of Master Linji
Thich Nhat Hanh offers powerful, direct, and uncompromising reflections on Zen thought, mindfulness, and the enlightenment inherent within us all.
 
One of the key tenets of the Zen school of Mahayana Buddhism is that each one of us is already a Buddha—our enlightenment is inherent within us, and the practice of mindfulness is the tool to bring this truth to our full awareness. While it can bring much relief, this simple statement does not preclude the need for practice. We must strive to always be aware of our Buddha nature, rather than waiting until times of emotional upheaval when it is more difficult to practice.

Thich Nhat Hanh uses the teachings of 9th-century Zen Master Linji to elaborate on this simple truth and to give readers tools that can help awaken them to their true inner nature. Linji’s recorded teachings are the most significant we have from the Ch’an school.

One of the unique aspects of Linji’s teaching, is the need to “wake ourselves up,” not only by means of sitting meditation and listening to enlightened teachings, but also through unique techniques such as the shout, the stick, and the empty fist. Master Linji emphasized direct experience of our true nature over intellectual explorations of the teachings, and he encouraged his students to not “become lost in the knowledge or the concepts of the teaching.”
"1115407732"
Zen Battles: Modern Commentary on the Teachings of Master Linji
Thich Nhat Hanh offers powerful, direct, and uncompromising reflections on Zen thought, mindfulness, and the enlightenment inherent within us all.
 
One of the key tenets of the Zen school of Mahayana Buddhism is that each one of us is already a Buddha—our enlightenment is inherent within us, and the practice of mindfulness is the tool to bring this truth to our full awareness. While it can bring much relief, this simple statement does not preclude the need for practice. We must strive to always be aware of our Buddha nature, rather than waiting until times of emotional upheaval when it is more difficult to practice.

Thich Nhat Hanh uses the teachings of 9th-century Zen Master Linji to elaborate on this simple truth and to give readers tools that can help awaken them to their true inner nature. Linji’s recorded teachings are the most significant we have from the Ch’an school.

One of the unique aspects of Linji’s teaching, is the need to “wake ourselves up,” not only by means of sitting meditation and listening to enlightened teachings, but also through unique techniques such as the shout, the stick, and the empty fist. Master Linji emphasized direct experience of our true nature over intellectual explorations of the teachings, and he encouraged his students to not “become lost in the knowledge or the concepts of the teaching.”
18.95 In Stock
Zen Battles: Modern Commentary on the Teachings of Master Linji

Zen Battles: Modern Commentary on the Teachings of Master Linji

by Thich Nhat Hanh
Zen Battles: Modern Commentary on the Teachings of Master Linji

Zen Battles: Modern Commentary on the Teachings of Master Linji

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Paperback(Revised Edition)

$18.95 
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Overview

Thich Nhat Hanh offers powerful, direct, and uncompromising reflections on Zen thought, mindfulness, and the enlightenment inherent within us all.
 
One of the key tenets of the Zen school of Mahayana Buddhism is that each one of us is already a Buddha—our enlightenment is inherent within us, and the practice of mindfulness is the tool to bring this truth to our full awareness. While it can bring much relief, this simple statement does not preclude the need for practice. We must strive to always be aware of our Buddha nature, rather than waiting until times of emotional upheaval when it is more difficult to practice.

Thich Nhat Hanh uses the teachings of 9th-century Zen Master Linji to elaborate on this simple truth and to give readers tools that can help awaken them to their true inner nature. Linji’s recorded teachings are the most significant we have from the Ch’an school.

One of the unique aspects of Linji’s teaching, is the need to “wake ourselves up,” not only by means of sitting meditation and listening to enlightened teachings, but also through unique techniques such as the shout, the stick, and the empty fist. Master Linji emphasized direct experience of our true nature over intellectual explorations of the teachings, and he encouraged his students to not “become lost in the knowledge or the concepts of the teaching.”

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781937006532
Publisher: Parallax Press
Publication date: 11/14/2009
Edition description: Revised Edition
Pages: 280
Product dimensions: 7.90(w) x 11.80(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Thich Nhat Hanh was a world-renowned spiritual teacher and peace activist. Born in Vietnam in 1926, he became a Zen Buddhist monk at the age of sixteen. Over seven decades of teaching, he published more than 100 books, which have sold more than four million copies in the United States alone. Exiled from Vietnam in 1966 for promoting peace, his teachings on Buddhism as a path to social and political transformation are responsible for bringing the mindfulness movement to Western culture. He established the international Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism in France, now the largest Buddhist monastery in Europe and the heart of a growing community of mindfulness practice centers around the world. He passed away in 2022 at the age of 95 at his root temple, Tu Hieu, in Hue, Vietnam.

Read an Excerpt

Excerpt

We all carry the seeds of happiness, of enlightenment, of no-birth, no-death, and no-fear in ourselves. What we search for is already there. A teacher's role is simply to remind us that we are the Buddha, we are already what we search for. If you only search on the outside or in the teachings of the Buddha and the Zen Masters it's not enough. This idea repeats itself several times in the teaching of Master Linji. It is as if Linji himself is standing in front of you shouting, “Don't try to search for me. Happiness is in you already. Enlightenment is in you already. The depth, the beauty, the greatness, the light is in you. Don't search after me, don't run after me, and don't run after the Buddha. Stop running. The Buddha is you!" That is a very revolutionary sentence.

"Why is it that some of you who study nowadays cannot succeed? It is because you have no self-confidence. If you think that you need to worship and put all your devotion in the sacred texts, than you don't have enough self-confidence in you, and you will not get very far, you will not find the Buddha. Because you don't have self-confidence, you run after the ten thousand objects of your mind. These objects pull you away and you lose all your liberty. Only if you stop all this thinking, this running after and craving of the objects of your mind, then you will see that you and the Buddha are not different-they are one. Do you want to know who is the Buddha? The Buddha is you."

Master Linji has shown us that we have to come back to ourselves, that we have to have confidence in ourselves. Don't feel that you have nothing, that you are only suffering, that you have no value, and that you have to bow to the Buddha and bodhisattvas. You don't need that; you only have to stop to follow your cravings. Then you are Buddha, you are a bodhisattva. Don't wait to put it into practice, do it right away.

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