Two of Dougen's most esteemed translators provide annotated translations of key chapters from his Zen masterpiece, the Shoubouugenzou.
The book provides exhaustively annotated translations of the difficult core essays of Shoubougenzou, the masterwork of Japanese Zen master Dougen Kigen, the founder of Soutou Zen. It is centered around those essays that generations have regarded as containing the essence of Dougen's teaching. These translations, revised from those that first appeared in the 1970s, clarify and enrich the understanding of Dougen's religious thought and his basic ideas about Zen practice and doctrine.
Dougen's uncommon intellectual gifts, combined with a profound religious attainment and an extraordinary ability to articulate it, make Shoubougenzou unique even in the vast literature the Zen school has produced over the centuries, securing it a special place in the history of world religious literature.
