Book reviews are by alphabetical order by title. Contributions are most welcome. If you wish to submit a book review on any Zen topic, please should
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American Buddhism: edited by D.R. Williams and C.S.Queen
reviewed by Martin Baumann
Buddhism in a Foreign Land
by Robert Mann
reviewed by Amadeo Solé-Leris
This book is a collection of Dharma talks by the Theravadin teacher Robert Mann of The House of Inner Tranquility in Wiltshire, England. from Journal of Buddhist Ethics, Vol.3 1996
Buddhism Without Beliefs: a contempory guide to awakening
by Stephen Batchelor
reviewed by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
“…an intelligent and eloquent attempt to articulate the premises of the emerging secular Buddhism and define the parameters of a dharma practice appropriate to the new situation.” reviewed by Urgyen Sangharakshita
"Though there is much in Batchelor's book that I find unacceptable and which I deplore, fortunately there is also much that is acceptable to me and in which I can rejoice."
Is Zen Buddhism?
David R. Loy. Although not strictly a book review, rather an essay, Loy discusses Winston L. King's “Zen and the Way of the Sword: Arming the Samurai Psyche” and other writings about Japanese Zen and the bushido spirit, war and killing---some of the areas covered in Zen at War.
This is from The Eastern Buddhist, Vol. 28, No. 2, Autumn, 1995
Letting Go: The Story of Zen Master Tosui
by Peter Haskel
reviewed by David E Riggs
originally published in
Philosophy East and West, Honolulu: Jan 2005, Vol. 55, Iss. 1
Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism by Dale S. Wright reviewed by Whalen Lai originally published in Philosophy East & West Vol. 50 No. 4 Oct. 2000 As "philosophical meditations" on the Zen of Huang Po, ... is an impressive work... for it shows how far Zen studies in America have moved ahead since the days of D. T. Suzuki and Alan Watts." See also Steven Heine's review of this book. Heine states “One of the last great books [on Zen Buddhism] of the century is Dale Wright's critical philosophical meditations on Huang Po's texts and on Blofeld's inspiring yet problematic translation/interpretation.” also reviewed by Joseph S. O'Leary
Tsung Mi and the Sinification of Buddhism by Peter N. Gregory
reviewed by T Griffith Foulk
originally published in The Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol.114 No.3July-Sep 1994 pp.487-4891
Westward Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Asia
edited by Charles S. Prebish, and Martin Baumann
reviewed by Kay Koppedrayer
from Journal of Global Buddhism Vol 4, 2003
Zen Koans: recent works on the Zen koan: Opening A Mountain: Kōans Of The Zen Masters by Steven Heine Kōan: Texts And Contexts In Zen Buddhism edited by Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright
reviewed by Eric Sean Nelson
from: Buddhist-Christian Studies 24.1 (2004)
Zen at War
by Brian Daizen A. Victoria
reviewed byVladimir K.
reviewed by Fabio Rambelli
another review byJosh Baran
another review by David Loy
A debate about this book by some of Deshimaru's sangha and Brian Victoria is here. (This debate has been removed from the Deshimaru site and is no longer available.)
Jiun Kubota, who calls himself The 3rd Patriarch of the Religious Foundation Sanbo-kyodan offers an apology for Haku'un Yasutani Roshi's support of WWII and his anti-semitism. Zen War Stories by Brian (Daizen) A. Victoria reviewed by David Loy. This is a follow-up to Victoria's Zen at War (reviewed above).
see also Victoria's article Engaged Buddhism: a Skeleton in the Closet?
see also review by Professor Eric Sean Nelson
see alsoNYTimes article by Allan M. Jalon Zen Buddhism and Environmental Ethics
by Simon P James
reviewed by Eric Sean Nelson
The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts
edited by Steven Heine & Dale S. Wright
reviewed by Vladimir K.
Zen Keys
by Thich Nhat Hanh
reviewed by Frank J Hoffman
The Zen Poetry of Dogen: verses from the mountain of eternal peace
by Steven Heine
reviewed by Taigen Dan Leighton
“…Heine's latest book provides a fine collection of translations of the poetry of the famed Japanese Zen monk Eihei Dogen. ” from Journal of Buddhist Ethics, Vol. 5, 1998
Steven Heine's A Critical Survey of Works on Zen since Yampolsky An excellent survey of significant writings on Zen Buddhist studies since 1967. Includes a very useful bibliography of articles, books, monographs and theses of significant works. Highly recommended as a starting point for Zen studies.
AMA Samy's Book recommendations:
a reading list which includes Zen, meditation and psychology. Includes links to some book reviews. The list can be downloaded as a pdf document.
Chapel Hill Zen Center recommended reading list. This group is led by Pat Phelan and is associated with Suzuki's San Francisco Zen Center.
Clouds in Water Zen Center: has an extensive recommended reading list. Clouds in Water center in St Paul, Minnesota is in the Dainin Katagiri lineage.
Dr. Ron Epstein's reading list for his "philosophy 501" university course. An interesting list with a great variety of readings. Books academics would read but of interest to Zen students.
Kenyon College in Ohio has an extensive Zen bibliography here as part of their Religious Study programme.
The Kwan Um School of Zen recommended reading list. An extensive reading list which includes books by their master, Seung Sahn, books on Korean Zen, other Zen traditions, koan studies and sutras. Very comprehensive.
Liverpool Zen Group: an extensive (and eclectic) collection of recommended readings.
Steven Newton's collection of useful books. Steve is part of the Portland, Oregon Zen community and recommends Robert Aitken's books as well as others. Also, there's an interesting little collection of "primary texts".
Unstructured Buddhist Bibliography: this site has over 3,000 Buddhist books listed, many with links to Amazon. It's just in alphabetical order so I don't know how one is to use this list. But here it is and I have no idea why an insurance company would publish such a list.
Book Sources
Everyone knows about Amazon but here are some other sources that may not be as well known. I'll add more as I find them. Note: I make no claims about any of these sites and provide links as a service to my readers. I recieve no money from any of these sites. Use them at your own risk.
Bagchee.com: a Delhi based bookseller. Includes rare and collectibles as well as multimedia products.
Eastern Books Corporation: This link will take you to their Buddhist section of over 1,000 books. Many other books also available. Based in India, so prices are most reasonable.
HindiBooks: the link will take you to their Buddhist book section. Prices are in US$, Pound Sterling or Indian Rupees. This link will take you to their home page.
Saujanya Books: based in New Delhi, this bookseller specialises in Tibetan, Buddhist, Muslim texts as well as other topics. It lists about 1855 Buddhist books alone. It distributes books in English, Sanskrit and Tibetan. And the prices, which include airmail shipping, are considerably cheaper than Amazon. Worthy of a browse.
Vedams Books from India: this link will take you to their Buddhist section. A huge selection of books available. Here is their home page.
