The Zen Teaching of Homeless Kodo

What a great book! Inspiring words. This book is so calming and peaceful and offers such wonderful words of inspiration. It's not telling me anything I didn't already know I guess I'm just at the point in my life where I'm finally ready to hear it and that's the difference. I wish I had been able to hear these words a long time ago but things come along when they are needed. These are definitely words to live by, at least for me!

Excellent and informative book on the original Soto Zen Buddhism that began in the mid-1200s in Japan by Master Dogen, teaching one to recognize the "true self beyond thinking", through one's own personal zen meditation, universally known as zazen. This is not the Eastern yoga-style meditation that is so prevalent in the U.S. This is authentic, accumulated Soto Zen teaching & wisdom, from the minds of three highly knowledgable, well-known Japanese Soto Zen masters, their ages spanning from the late 1800s to the present. The eldest was Master Kodo Sawaki--blunt, irreverent, so funny (well, sometimes), and absolutely full of wisdom. His basic Zen teachings two of his disciples have followed, written down, and contributed to. All that Soto Zen lineage wisdom is now here in this one book. Reading the words of Master Kodo and the two Zen masters to whom he has passed his wisdom makes me want to go back in time to Japan and actually walk with & listen to Master Kodo, who sounds like he was quite a character, and true through & through. WELL DONE to Masters Kodo, Uchiyama, and Okumura!

This book ended up being different from what I expected. Too often we cloud our understanding of Buddhism (especially Zen Buddhism) with silly superhuman ideas. This book gives us ordinary people practicing zazen. I think they become extraordinary precisely because they are ordinary--which means honest.

While Kodo Sawaki's messages were clear and concise, I found the commentaries by Uchiyama Roshi and Shohaku Okumura tedious and overmuch to the point that they detracted from the simple concepts stated by the Roshi. Two to three lines of distilled thought, muddled by a page of dissection, was enough to put me off of this otherwise insightful Roshi's delightfully simple teachings.

Deep and challenging book. I think one of the strongest features of this book is the format. It starts with a short teaching from Sawaki Roshi, then has a commentary on that from his student Uchiyama Roshi, and finally another commentary from Okumura Roshi. You receive the universal truth from three particular viewpoints.The topics covered include things you might expect from a book on Zen Buddhism. Zazen, life, death, ethics. But it also covers how to go about living in the modern world and not succumb to "group stupidity", as Sawaki puts it, or be overcome with materialist greed.One phrase from the book that I have been thinking about a lot comes from Sawaki: "Gaining is delusion. Loss is realization." So much of our life is spent trying to to gain things like money, status, relationships. Even trying to gain knowledge or spiritual attainments. Sawaki is telling us that the better way is to let go of our afflicted views and emotions; losing our defilements. That's the path to realization.

Fun light read

Clear... Down to earth... Spectacular expression of awakening that demonstrates that we're not more distant from the world through awakening but much much much more a part of it. ~Fear-Less & Love More

Kodo Sawaki’s statements/teachings are colorful and pithy, but for me it is Kosho Uchiyama’s rich in dharma comments and expansions on his teacher’s teachings that make this book well worth reading.And if you like Kosho Uchiyama's comments, check out the unsurpassed Opening the Hand of Thought: Opening the Hand of Thought: Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice

This a very profound book. It actually the teachings of Sawaki amplified by the commentary of Uchiyama and Okumura.There is Zen teachings here that are rarely found elsewhere. For example, in the Russo-Japanese War, Kodo Sawaki was highly decorated for his bravery. When he the war was over and he studied Buddhism, Kodo "realized his bravery was kind of a stupor, and fear was more natural."This book is written to be read as individual teachings of a few pages long. This format helps the reader get out of the obsessed reading mode and allow for the teaching of the day to sink in.All in all, this a very good book on living one's life to the fullest. Highly recommended.

Um bom livro, com frases e ensinamentos de Kodo Sawaki, considerado um grande mestre contemporâneo. Com comentário de Kosho Uchiyama e Shohaku Okumura (autores que eu gosto bastante). Livro bem legal.

merci beaucup

I love everything about this book. Clear, simple approach to Zen. No high-flying concepts. No confusing koans. Simple, down-to-earth advice from a kind roshi and his disciple.

This book is a real dharma treasure. The thoughts and bite-sized teachings of Kodo Sawaki Roshi presented in a straightforward chapter by chapter structure, further elucidated by the commentaries and reflections of Kosho Uchiyama, Kodo's lifelong disciple (and author of 'Opening The Hand of Thought' - another excellent Zen text), and Shohaku Okumura, Kosho Uchiyama's disciple. So each chapter offers three generations of Zen Buddhist thought, descending from Kodo Sawaki Roshi, and ultimately, from Dogen Zenji and the Buddha himself.There's nothing mysterious, mystical or complex about these short teachings. Though their depth and scope are, of course, profound. What I mean to say is, the teachings here are refreshingly down to earth, direct, with a modern world perspective. Without prior Buddhist knowledge one can pick up this book and still take much from it. Unreservedly recommended."As far as you can see, there's only you and nothing else. "I feel blah... keep me company," you might say, "take over my pain." You wish!"