Crazy Clouds: Zen Radicals, Rebels & Reformers

by Perle Besserman

Other authorsManfred Steger (Author)
Paperback, 1991

Status

Available

Collection

Publication

Shambhala (1991), Edition: First Edition, First Printing, 200 pages

Description

The revolutionary figures in this book are those innovative, non-conformist masters--Zen "madmen"--whose unorthodox behavior has helped define the radical countercultural movement known simply as Zen. In Zen Radicals, Rebels, and Reformers you'll meet Zen boat-rockers that span from early eighth-century China all the way to the bustling streets of modern-day America with a stop in the middle to visit a courageous Zen master who made the ultimate sacrifice in his resistance to the brutal actions of the Japanese government in World War II. These remarkable masters show us through their audacious actions and fearless words that the pursuit of spiritual awakening must ultimately be a rebellion against the very foundations of suffering in the world.… (more)

Language

ISBN

0877735433 / 9780877735434

Similar in this library

Library's review

Crazy Cloud is the pen name assumed by Ikkyu who was a Zen poet, calligrapher and wandering teacher. The name itself is a pun on the Japanese word denoting the Buddhist monk whose detachment from wordly life has him drifting like a cloud over water. The "Crazy Clouds" of this book are those
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innovative, nonconformist Zen masters, the wandering seekers and sages often disguised as beggars, nomadic preachers and "madmen", whose singular Zen way has profoundly traditional practices of meditation, daily life and spiritual, social and political attitude in Zen Buddhism. Spanning a period from 8th-century China to 20th-century America, the book portrays the lives and teachings of Zen masters like the fierce Rinzai, the easy-going layman P'ang, the renegade Ikkyu, and the lay monk Nyogen Senzaki all of whose interpretations of even the most radical forms of practice proved too enigmatic and avant garde for their contemporaries, but which remain invaluable guidelines for practitioners in today's Western Zen world of feminists, anarchists, ecologists and spiritual activists.
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Rating

½ (9 ratings; 3.6)

Pages

200
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