The Zen Koan: Its History and Use in Rinzai Zen

The first scholarly examination in any language of the historical development and traditional method of koan study in Zen Buddhism.

Koan study is the unique method of religious practice developed in the Zen schools of China and Japan to bring the student, without recourse to the mediation of words or concepts, to direct, intuitive realization of Reality. Originating in T'ang China, Koan Zen reached its culmination under the eighteenth-century Japanese Rinzai Zen master Hakuin and continues i...