Zen Roots: The First Thousand Years

Including nine new translations from the first thousand years of Zen, this collection of sacred Buddhist texts with refreshed commentary is made to be carried with you

Dating from the middle of the second century B.C. to the middle of the ninth century A.D., Zen Roots includes the Heart, Diamond, and Platform sutras; selections from the Vimalakirti and Lankavatara sutras; Bodhidharma's Principles & Practice; Sengcan's Trusting the Mind; Yongjia's Song of Enlightenment; and Huangbo's Transmission of the Mind.

These translations are accompanied by introductions and enough notes to explain what needs explaining but not so many as to get in the way. Zen Roots is the perfect companion for travel, to accompany one to the higher elevations, or just to read in the backyard.

Author: Red Pine
Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
Published: 02/22/2022
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 6.93h x 4.96w x 0.87d
ISBN13: 9781640095120
ISBN10: 1640095128
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Buddhism | Zen (see also Philosophy | Zen)
- Literary Collections | Asian | General
- Philosophy | Zen

About the Author
Bill Porter was born in Van Nuys, California on October 3, 1943 and grew up in Northern Idaho, where his parents moved in 1954. Since his father was often away on business, he attended boarding schools in LA and in the Bay Area. He graduated from Menlo School for Boys in 1961. After a tour of duty in the US Army 1964-67, he attended UC Santa Barbara and majored in Anthropology. In 1970, he entered graduate school at Columbia University and studied anthropology with a faculty that included Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict. While he was living in New York, he became interested in Buddhism, and in 1972 he left America and moved to a Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. After more than three years with the monks and nuns, he struck out on his own and supported himself by teaching English and later by working as a journalist at English-language radio stations in Taiwan and Hong Kong. In 1993, he returned to America and for the past twenty-seven years he has worked as an independent scholar.

Bill Porter (aka Red Pine) is widely recognized as one of the world's preeminent translators of Chinese poetry and religious texts; he assumes the pen name Red Pine for his translations. He was the first translator to translate the entirety of Han-shan's oeuvre into English, published as The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain. He was also the first to translate into English the entirety of The Poems of the Masters. He has translated several of the major Buddhist sutras, including the Heart Sutra, Diamond SutraPlatform Sutra.