The Letters of Chan Master Dahui Pujue offers a complete annotated translation, the first into English, of a Chan Buddhist classic, the collected letters of the Southern Song Linji Chan teacher Dahui Zonggao (1089-1163). Addressed to forty scholar-officials, members of the elite class in Chinese society, and to two Chan masters, these letters are dharma talks on how to engage in Buddhist cultivation. Each of the letters to laymen is fascinating as a document directed to a specific scholar-official with his distinctive niche, high or low, in the Song-dynasty social-political landscape, and his idiosyncratic stage of development on the Buddhist path. Dahui is engaging, incisive, and often quite humorous in presenting his teaching of "constantly lifting to awareness the phrase (huatou)," his favored phrases being No (wu) and dried turd. Throughout one's busy twenty-four hours, the practitioner is not to perform any mental operation whatsoever on this phrase, and to "take awakening as the standard." This epistolary compilation has long constituted a self-contained course of study for Chan practitioners. For centuries, Letters of Dahui has been revered throughout East Asia. It has exerted a formative influence on Linji Chan practice in China, molded Son practice in Korea, and played a key role in Hakuin (Rinzai) Zen in Japan. Jeffrey Broughton's translation, has made extensive use of Mujaku Dochu's (1653-1744) insightful commentary on Letters of Dahui, Pearl in the Wicker-Basket.

About the Author
Jeffrey L. Broughton is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at California State University, Long Beach. He is also the author of The Chan Whip Anthology and The Record of Linji

Reviews
[T]his book is a wonderful resource to all who would read Dahui's epistles. The inclusion of lucid translations from multiple historical commentariesa rich exegetical apparatusis a great contribution. We are all indebted to the translators' work. * Jason Protass, Reading Religion *
Dahui's Letters is an important work of Southern Song Chan that has had profound influence throughout the East Asian Chan, Son, and Zen worlds. This translation by Broughton will become required reading for students and scholars alike, as it illuminates the teachings of one of the Chan tradition's seminal thinkers, Dahui Zonggao. * Albert Welter, Professor of East Asian Studies, University of Arizona *
The Letters of Dahui -- essential Chan/Zen reading for centuries now available to us! Written by the greatest Chan master of the Song to prominent lay people rather than to monks, these letters highlight the question of how to live a life of Zen in the midst of a noisy and contentious world -- perfect for our time! An essential text by the master translator of our time for Chan literature. * Dale Wright, David B. and Mary H. Gamble Professor in Religion, Occidental College *



Book Information
ISBN 9780190664169
Author Jeffrey L. Broughton
Format Hardback
Page Count 408
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 665g
Dimensions(mm) 242mm * 167mm * 30mm