A selection of books that have especially influenced the sangha leader’s Buddhist thought and practice. Books in bold print especially recommended for beginners and those interested in Korean Zen (Seon). Links provided to sources on the open internet.
Beginner Websites
Chan and Zen Buddhism-from Learn Religions
The content is very good, and comes from Barbara O’Brien, author of The Circle of the Way: A Concise History of Zen from the Buddha to the Modern World. That book is also well worth reading.
Mahayana Buddhism-from Learn Religions
Zen is a particular style of Mahayana Buddhism. This introduction is also by Barbara O’Brien
For Reference
Buswell, Robert E., and Donald S. Lopez. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014.
Nhất Hạnh, Thich. The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy & Liberation : The Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and Other Basic Buddhist Teachings. New York: Harmony Books, 2015.
Korean Zen (Seon) (SFZ’s primary Zen tradition)
Chinul. The Korean Approach to Zen: The Collected Works of Chinul. Translated by Robert E. Buswell. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983.
Chinul or Jinul: 12th-century monk and most influential figure in the formation of Korean Zen Buddhism.
Chinul. Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul’s Korean Way of Zen. Translated by Robert E. Buswell. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991.
Chinul. Chinul: Selected Works. Edited by Robert E. Buswell. Collected works of Korean Buddishm. Sŏul-si (Seul): Jogye Order of Korean Buddism, 2012.
Kusan Sunim. The Way of Korean Zen. Edited by Stephen Batchelor. Translated by Martine Batchelor. Boston: Weatherhill, 2009.
Man Gong. The Teachings of Zen Master Man Gong.
Seung Sahn’s teacher’s teacher.
Mu Soeng. Thousand Peaks: Korean Zen-Tradition and Teachers. Rev. ed. Cumberland, RI: Primary Point Press, 1991.
Quinn, Jason. No-Nonsense Zen for Beginners: Clear Answers to Burning Questions about Core Zen Teachings. Emeryville, CA: Rockridge Press, 2021.
A clear, brief introduction to Zen from a teacher in Seung Sahn’s Korean Zen tradition.
Seung Sahn. The Compass of Zen. Boston: Shambala, 1997.
20th-century Korean Zen monk who brought Korean Zen to the U.S. One of SFZ’s dharma ancestors.
Seung Sahn. Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn. New York: Grove Press, 1976.
Seung Sahn. The Whole World Is a Single Flower: 365 Kong-Ans for Everyday Life, with Questions and Commentary. Boston, Mass.: C.E. Tuttle Co., 1992.
Shrobe, Richard. Don’t-Know Mind: The Spirit of Korean Zen. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2004.
Sŏsan Taesa. The Mirror of Zen: The Classic Guide to Buddhist Practice by Zen Master So Sahn. Translated by Boep Joeng and Hyon Gak. 1st ed. Boston: Shambhala ; Distributed in the United States by Random House, 2006.
Influential 16th-century Korean Zen monk.
Buswell, Robert, ed. The Collected Works of Korean Buddhism. Seoul, Korea: Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, 2012. http://www.acmuller.net/kor-bud/collected_works.html.
General Introductions to Buddhism and Zen
Burk, Domyo Sater. Zen Living. Indianapolis, IN: Alpha Books, 2014.
Davis, Bret W. Zen Pathways: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of Zen Buddhism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2022.
Gethin, Rupert. The Foundations of Buddhism. Oxford University Press, 1998.
Hagen, Steve. Buddhism Plain and Simple: The Practice of Being Aware, Right Now, Every Day. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, 2013.
Keown, Damien. Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction. New ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
———. Buddhist Ethics: A Very Short Introduction. Second edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Jing Hui. The Gates of Chan Buddhism. Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc., 2004.
O’Brien, Barbara. The Circle of the Way: A Concise History of Zen from the Buddha to the Modern World. Boulder: Shambhala, 2019.
Reps, Paul, and Nyogen Senzaki, editors. Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and PreZen Writings. Rutland, VT: Tuttle, 1957
Thich Thiện Ân. Zen Philosophy, Zen Practice. Emeryville, CA: Dharma Pub., 1975.
An introduction from one of our Vietnamese Zen ancestors.
Classic Zen Texts and Modern Commentary
Addiss, Stephen, Stanley Lombardo, and Judith Roitman, eds. Zen Sourcebook: Traditional Documents from China, Korea, and Japan. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co., 2008.
Dahui (Ta Hui). Swampland Flowers: Letters and Lectures of Zen Master Ta Hui. Translated by Christopher Cleary. Evergreen Book. New York: Grove Press, 1977.
Ferguson, Andrew. Zen’s Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2011.
Huineng. Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. Translated by Philip Yampolsky. Columbia University Press, 2012.
———. The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teaching of Hui-Neng. Translated by Red Pine. Emeryville, CA: Shoemaker & Hoard : Distributed by Publishers Group West, 2006.
Mu, Soeng. The Heart of the Universe: Exploring the Heart Sutra. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2010.
Zen Buddhists chant the Heart Sutra every day.
Nāgārjuna, and Jay L. Garfield. The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. (Not strictly Zen, but the most important philosopher in the Mahayana tradition.)
Red Pine. The Diamond Sutra: The Perfection of Wisdom. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 2001. [Includes commentary.]
———. The Heart Sutra: The Womb of Buddhas. Washington, DC: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2004. [Includes commentary.]
Zen Buddhists chant the Heart Sutra every day.
Red Pine, trans. Zen Roots: The First Thousand Years. Anacortes, Washington: Empty Bowl Press, 2020.
Contemporary translations of the Heart, Diamond, & Platform Sutras; Bodhidharma’s Principles & Practice; Sengcan’s Trusting the Mind; & other core Zen texts
Sengcan. “Faith in Mind” (信心銘 Xinxinming).
A classic poem of early Ch’an. Multiple English translations available online. Also available in Red Pine’s Zen Roots. The first stanza of Richard Clarke’s translation is quoted on the footer of the SFZ website.
Sheng Yen. Faith in Mind: A Commentary on Seng Ts’an’s Classic. 1st Shambhala ed. Boston: Shambhala, 2006.
Tanahashi, Kazuaki. The Heart Sutra: A Comprehensive Guide to the Classic of Mahayana Buddhism. Boston: Shambhala, 2014.
Zen Buddhists chant the Heart Sutra every day.
Chinese Chan (Zen) Buddhism
Sheng Yen and Daniel B. Stevenson. Hoofprint of the Ox: Principles of the Chan Buddhist Path as Taught by a Modern Chinese Master. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Sheng Yen. Illuminating Silence: The Practice of Chinese Zen. Edited by John Hurrell Crook. London: Watkins, 2018.
Pali Canon of Buddhist Texts
Fronsdal, Gil, trans. The Dhammapada: A Translation of the Buddhist Classic with Annotations. Second edition. Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 2023.
A different translation is available online.
Translations of many traditional sutras from Dhammatalks and Sutta Central.
Wallis, Glenn. Basic Teachings of the Buddha: A New Translation and Compilation, with a Guide to Reading the Texts. Modern Library Classics. New York: Modern Library, 2007. An excellent collection of 16 classic sutras with commentary, and a good first text to introduce the Pali Canon.
Bhikkhu Bodhi, ed. In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pāli Canon. Teachings of the Buddha. Boston, Mass.: Wisdom Publications, 2005. An excellent thematic selection from the Pali Canon, and a great followup to Wallis.
———, ed. The Buddha’s Teachings on Social and Communal Harmony: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pāli Canon. Teachings of the Buddha. Somerville, MA: Wisdom, 2016.
Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu (translator). Handful of Leaves: an Anthology from the Sutta Piṭaka
(revised October 9, 2021) This all-in-one eBook bundles all the following sutta collections: the Dīgha, Majjhima, Saṁyutta, and Aṅguttara Nikāyas, as well as six books from the Khuddaka Nikāya—the Khuddakapāṭha, Dhammapada, Udāna, Itivuttaka, Sutta Nipāta, Theragāthā & Therīgāthā. PDF format; EPUB format. A huge searchable collection.
Gombrich, Richard. What the Buddha Thought. London: Equinox, 2009. An attempt to reconstruct the teachings of Siddhartha himself. Illuminates the parables, similes, and theories of the Pali Canon by reference to the Brahmin and Jain practices and ideas to which Siddhartha was responding. Argues for distinct translations and new understandings of common technical words. Profoundly useful when reading and rereading the Pali sutras.
Guides to Buddhist Practice: Including Meditation, Mindfulness, Hwadu/Huatou, Koans/Kung-ans, Lojong, Eightfold Path, Bramaviharas, Precepts
Mindfulness Meditation
Goldstein, Joseph. Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening. Boulder, Colorado: Sounds True, 2013.
Gunaratana, Henepola. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2012.
Gunaratana, Henepola. Mindfulness in Plain English. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2015.
Nhat Hanh, Thich. The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation. Translated by Mobi Ho. Boston: Beacon Press, 1975.
Nyanaponika Thera. The Heart of Buddhist Meditation: The Buddha’s Way of Mindfulness. San Francisco, CA: Weiser Books, 2014.
Yates, John, Matthew Immergut, and Jeremy Graves. The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness. New York: Touchstone, 2017.
Just-Sitting Meditation / Shikantaza / Silent Illumination
Loori, John Daido. The Art of Just Sitting: Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Shikantaza. 2nd ed. Boston, Mass.: Wisdom Publications, 2004.
Sheng Yen. The Method of No-Method: The Chan Practice of Silent Illumination. Boston: Shambhala, 2008.
The Six Paramitas/Perfections of the Bodhisattva
Śāntideva. The Bodhicaryāvatāra. Translated by Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton. World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
The Stephen Batchelor translation is available online. Translations also recommended: Padmakara Translation Group translation and the Vesna and Alan Wallace translation.
Sheng Yen. The Six Paramitas: Perfections of the Bodhisattva Path. Elmhurst, NY: Dharma Drum Publications, 2001. Discussion of the types of generosity and attitudes towards it.
Wright, Dale Stuart. The Six Perfections: Buddhism and the Cultivation of Character. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
The Eightfold Path
Bhikkhu Bodhi. The Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering. Chicago: Pariyatti Publishing, 2011.
Precepts
Nhat Hanh, Thich. The Mindfulness Survival Kit: Five Essential Practices. Berkeley, California: Parallax Press, 2014.
The five lay precepts expanded and modernized with mindfulness, the four brahmaviharas (immeasurables), and the six paramitas (perfections). A reading guide online here.
Rizzetto, Diane Eshin. Waking up to What You Do: A Zen Practice for Meeting Every Situation with Intelligence and Compassion. Boston: Shambhala, 2005.
Brahmaviharas / Four Immeasurables
Thanissaro Bhikkhu. The Sublime Attitudes: A Study Guide on the Brahmavihāras. Valley Center, CA: Metta Forest Monastery, 2014.
Hwadu/Huatou and Koans
Sheng Yen. Shattering the Great Doubt: The Chan Practice of Huatou. 1st ed. Boston: Shambhala, 2009.
Huikai. Passing through the Gateless Barrier: Kōan Practice for Real Life. Translated by Guo Gu. First edition. Boulder: Shambhala, 2016.
Kim, Don. “Hwadu, What Is This?” Hwadu.Org (blog). https://www.hwadu.org/hwadu-what-is-this/.
Lachs. Stuart. “Hua-t’ou: A Method of Zen Meditation.” https://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings/HuaTou_Lachs.pdf
Caplow, Florence, and Susan Moon, eds. The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2013.
Lojong Mind-Training
Chödrön, Pema. Always Maintain a Joyful Mind: And Other Lojong Teachings on Awakening Compassion and Fearlessness. Boston: Shambhala, 2007.
Fischer, Norman. Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong. Boston, Massachusetts: Shambhala, 2013.
Contemporary Philosophical Approaches to Buddhism (and Consciousness and the Self)
Blackmore, Susan, and Emily T. Troscianko. Consciousness: An Introduction. 4th ed. London ; New York: Rouledge, 2024. [3rd ed available here]
Not Buddhist as such. An excellent introduction to theories of consciousness, and helps us understand how we create that convenient fiction called the self.
Blackmore, Susan. Zen and the Art of Consciousness. New York: Oneworld Publications, 2014.
Bommarito, Nicolas. Seeing Clearly: A Buddhist Guide to Life. Guides to the Good Life. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Flanagan, Owen. The Bodhisattva’s Brain: Buddhism Naturalized. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2011.
Gallagher, Shaun, ed. The Oxford Handbook of the Self. Oxford Handbooks in Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Not Buddhist, but has essays on several topics of potential interest, including “Buddhist Non-Self: The No-Owner’s Manual” by Mark Siderets.
Gombrich, Richard F. What the Buddha Thought. Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies Monographs. London: Equinox Pub., 2009.
Gowans, Christopher W. Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece and China. New York, NY, United States of America: Oxford University Press, 2021.
Kuzminski, Adrian. Pyrrhonian Buddhism: A Philosophical Reconstruction. Milton: Taylor & Francis Group, 2021.
Kuzminski, Adrian. Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010.
Loy, David R. Lack and Transcendence: the problem of death and life in psychotherapy, existentialism, and Buddhism. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018.
Loy, David. The World Is Made of Stories. Simon and Schuster, 2010.
McMahan, David. The Making of Buddhist Modernism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Segall, Shlomi. Buddhism and Human Flourishing: A Modern Western Perspective. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
Wright, Dale Stuart. Buddhism: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2020.
———. Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2021.
———. What Is Buddhist Enlightenment? New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Contemporary Historical & Critical Approaches to Buddhism
Braak, Andre van der. Reimagining Zen in a Secular Age: Charles Taylor and Zen Buddhism in the West. Leiden: Brill | Rodopi, 2020.
Braun, Erik. The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.
Cole, Alan. Fathering Your Father: The Zen of Fabrication in Tang Buddhism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.
———. Fetishizing Tradition: Desire and Reinvention in Buddhist and Christian Narratives. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015.
———. Patriarchs on Paper: A Critical History of Medieval Chan Literature. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2016.
An excellent and lively study of the literary creation of Chan Buddhism, with reference to a lot of the contemporary scholarship on the history of Zen.
———. Text as Father: Paternal Seductions in Early Mahayana Buddhist Literature. University of California Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520931404.
Faure, Bernard. Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993.
———. The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism. Princeton Paperbacks. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991.
———. The Thousand and One Lives of the Buddha. University of Hawaii Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824893545.
———. The Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997.
———. Unmasking Buddhism. New York Academy of Sciences Ser. Newark: Wiley, 2009.
Jorgensen, John. Inventing Hui-Neng, the Sixth Patriarch: Hagiography and Biography in Early Ch’an. Sinica Leidensia. Leiden: Brill, 2005.
Lopez, Donald S. The Scientific Buddha: His Short and Happy Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.
McMahan, David L. Rethinking Meditation: Buddhist Meditative Practices in Ancient and Modern Worlds. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2023.
———. The Making of Buddhist Modernism. Oxford Scholarship Online. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
McRae, John R. The Northern School and the Formation of Early Chʻan Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986.
———. Seeing through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004.
McRae, John R. and Shenhui. Zen Evangelist: Shenhui, Sudden Enlightenment, and the Southern School of Chan Buddhism. Edited by James Robson, Robert H. Sharf, and Fedde De Vries. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2023.
Schlutter, Morten. How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China. University of Hawaii Press, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824862886.
Schlutter, Morten, and Stephen F. Teiser, eds. Readings of the Platform Sutra. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.
Victoria, Daizen. Zen at War. 2nd ed. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006.
“Thezensite:Essays Critical of Zen.” https://www.thezensite.com/MainPages/critical_zen.html.
Essays by Stuart Lachs, Robert Sharf, and others.
Engaged Buddhism
Hanh, Thich Nhat. Interbeing: The 14 Mindfulness Trainings of Engaged Buddhism. 4th ed. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2020.
Jones, Ken. The New Social Face of Buddhism: An Alternative Sociopolitical Perspective. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2003.
King, Ruth. Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the inside Out. Boulder, Colorado: Sounds True, Inc., 2018.
King, Sallie B. Socially Engaged Buddhism. University of Hawaii Press, 2009.
Parallax Press, ed. True Peace Work: Essential Writings on Engaged Buddhism. 2nd ed. Berkeley, California: Parallax Press, 2019. (Essays by Thich Nhat Hanh & others. New edition of The Engaged Buddhist Reader [1996].)
Priest, Graham. Capitalism—Its Nature and Its Replacement: Buddhist and Marxist Insights. Routledge, 2021.
Yetunde, Pamela Ayo, and Cheryl Giles, eds. Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom. Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 2020.
Other Chinese Philosophy of Interest
Laozi. The Tao Te Ching: A New Translation with Commentary. Translated by Ellen M. Chen. First edition. New York: Paragon House, 1989.
Laozi, Roger T. Ames, and David L. Hall. Dao de Jing: A Philosophical Translation. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003.
Zhuangzi. The Complete Works of Zhuangzi. Translated by Burton Watson. Translations from the Asian Classics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.
———. Zhuangzi: The Complete Writings. Translated by Brook Ziporyn. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2020.
Scudder Falls Zen 