The Way of Chuang Tzu - Softcover

Merton, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811218511 ISBN 13: 9780811218511

Publisher: New Directions, 2010

Synopsis

Classic writings from the great Zen master in exquisite versions by Thomas Merton, in a new edition with a preface by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Working from existing translations, Thomas Merton composed a series of his own versions of the classic sayings of Chuang Tzu, the most spiritual of Chinese philosophers. Chuang Tzu, who wrote in the fourth and third centuries B.C., is the chief authentic historical spokesperson for Taoism and its founder Lao Tzu (a legendary character known largely through Chuang Tzu’s writings). Indeed it was because of Chuang Tzu and the other Taoist sages that Indian Buddhism was transformed, in China, into the unique vehicle we now call by its Japanese name―Zen.

The Chinese sage abounds in wit and paradox and shattering insights into the true ground of being. Thomas Merton, no stranger to Asian thought, brings a vivid, modern idiom to the timeless wisdom of Tao.

About this title

About the Author:

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) entered the Cistercian Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, following his conversion to Catholicism and was ordained in 1949. During the 1960s, he was increasingly drawn into a dialogue between Eastern and Western religions and was actively engaged with domestic issues of war and racism.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama is both the head of State and the spiritual leader of Tibet.

Review:

“A most admirable introduction to this less known but important source book of Taoism.”
- Alan Watts, The New York Times Book Review

“Thomas Merton is the saintly man who caused the Dalai Lama to come to admire Christianity as the equal of his beloved Buddhism.”
- Robert Thurman

“Merton is an artist, a Zen.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh

About this edition

• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0811218511
• ISBN 13: 9780811218511
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 160