Hakuin's Song of Zazen

"Although it is framed as a commentary on The Song of Zazen and certainly is that, this book is also idiosyncratic, even weird, in ways that I find enticing and that certainly form a contrast to the sometimes bland or redundant quality of much American Buddhist writing. In his effort to represent Zen in postwar Japan, one can feel both Mumon Roshi's roots in an earlier era and his curiosity about how Zen could retain its purpose and power in modern Japanese life and culture. As you can see in the photo above, this English translation was published already, but it was a private printing of 1,000 copies in Japan by the Asia South Pacific Friendship Association, and I don't think many of those copies will have made it outside of Japan. Those who sponsored the project always hoped to find an American publisher for it as well, and that's why Norman reached out to us"--