Seeing through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism
by John R. McRae · University of California Press
Historical account of how Chan lineages, encounter dialogues and transmission genealogies were constructed in Tang and Song China. Argues that the familiar Zen origin story is retrospective religious mythmaking, and separates the documented record from the legend built on top of it. This is the direct antidote to the pop-Zen shelf. Almost everything sold as 'Zen' in English descends from D.T. Suzuki's early-twentieth-century presentation, which McRae shows to be a modern construction. His 'rules of Zen studies' - including that lineage assertions are as accurate as they are false - give a reader the critical equipment to evaluate every other Zen book they will encounter. Nothing free covers this ground at comparable depth.
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