Reading List
Below is a sampling of readings that we like, both ancient and modern. You will find historical overviews; collections of teachings, koans, and poetry; commentaries, contemporary writings, and more that we enjoy and recommend.
Visit our PZI KALPA library (Koans And Liberation Project Archive) to explore hundreds of dharma talks, koans, poems, sutras, articles and transcripts. Members get unlimited access.
Curated Reading List
A Good Place to Start: John Tarrant on Koan Zen
Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy
—By John Tarrant
The Light Inside the Dark: Zen, Soul, and the Spiritual Life
—By John Tarrant
Published Articles by John Tarrant Archived in our KALPA library.
More Modern Zen Teachers & Writings
Upside-Down Zen: Finding the Marvelous in the Ordinary
—By Susan Murphy with a foreword by John Tarrant
Hunger Mountain: A Field Guide to Mind and Landscape
—By David Hinton
Acequias & Gates: Miscellaneous Koans and Writings on Miscellaneous Koans
—By Joan Sutherland
Vimalakirti & the Awakened Heart : A Commentary on The Sutra that Vimalakirti Speaks
—By Joan Sutherland
The Flowing Bridge: Guidance on Beginning Zen Koans
—By Elaine MacInnes
Sitting with Koans: Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Koan Study
—By John Daido Loori
The Zen Koan as a Means of Attaining Enlightenment
—By D. T. Suzuki
Opening A Mountain: Koans of the Zen Masters
—By Steven Heine
Shattering the Great Doubt: The Chan Practice of Huatou
—By Yen Sheng
Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Koan Practice
—By Victor Sogen Hori
Tracking Bodhidharma: A Journey to the Heart of Chinese Culture
—By Andy Ferguson
Zen Comments on the Mumonkan [PZI: Wumenguan]
—By Shibayama Zenkei
Flowers Fall: A Commentary on the Genjokoan
—By Hakuun Yasutani
Overviews
The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to Its History & Teachings
—By Donald S. Lopez, Jr.
Zen Buddhism: A History—India and China
—By Heinrich Dumoulin
Zen Buddhism: A History—Japan
—By Heinrich Dumoulin
Chan Buddhism
—By Peter Hershock
Zen Roots, The First 1000 Years
—Translated by Red Pine
China Root: Taoism, Ch’an, and Original Zen [PZI: Daoism, Chan, and…]
—By David Hinton
Zen’s Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings
—By Andy Ferguson
Zen Sourcebook: Traditional Documents from China, Korea, and Japan
—Edited by Stephen Addiss
Zen Dust: The History of the Koan and Koan Study in Rinzai Zen
—By Miura Isshū and Ruth Fuller Sasaki
Koan Collections
The Blue Cliff Record: Volumes 1, 2, & 3
—Translated by Thomas and J.C. Cleary with a foreword by Maezumi Roshi
Book of Serenity: One Hundred Zen Dialogues
—Translated by Thomas Cleary with a foreword by Robert Aitken
Yamada Koun Roshi’s Teisho of the Shoyoroku [PZI: Book of Serenity]
—Translated by Paul Shepherd
Gateless Gate
—Translated by Koun Yamada
The Gateless Barrier: The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan) [PZI: Wumenguan]
—Translated and with commentary by Robert Aitken
The Gateless Gateway
—Edited by Joan Sutherland based on the translations of Shibayama Zenkei, Yamada Koun, and Robert Aitken
Samurai Zen: The Warrior Koans
—By Trevor Leggett
The Iron Flute: 100 Zen Koans
—By Nyogen Senzaki
Entangling Vines: A Classic Collection of Zen Koans of the Shumon Kattoshu
—Translated by Thomas Yuho Kirchner with a foreword by Nelson Foster
Every End Exposed: The 100 Koans of Master Kido with the Answers of Hakuin
—Translated by Yoel Hoffmann
The Record of Transmitting the Light: Zen Master Keizan’s Denkoroku
—Translated by Francis H. Cook
Foundational Zen Texts
The Heart Sutra
—Translated and with commentary by Red Pine
The Diamond Sutra
—Translated and with commentary by Red Pine
The Platform Sutra—The Zen Teaching of Huineng
—Translated and with commentary by Red Pine
The Lankavatara Sutra
—Translated and with commentary by Red Pine
The Vimalakirti Sutra
—Translated by Burton Watson
Huayen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra
—Translated by Francis H. Cook
Guanyin
Bodhisattva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin [PZI: Guanyin]
— By John Blofeld
Kuan-Yin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokitsevara [PZI: Guanyin]
—Chungfan Yu
Chan Ancestors & Teachings
The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
—Translated by Red Pine
The Record of Linji
—Translated and with commentary by Ruth Fuller Sasaki, edited by Thomas Yuho Kirchner
The Recorded Sayings of Linji
—Translated by J. C. Cleary with a foreword by Wufeng Puxiu
The Record of Tung-Shan [PZI: Dongshan]
—Translated by William F. Powell with a foreword by Robert Aitken
The Recorded Sayings of Zen Master Joshu [PZI: Zhaozhou]
—Translated by James Green with a foreword by Kreido Fukushima Roshi
Master Yunmen: From the Record of the Chan Master “Gate of the Clouds”
—Translated by William F. Powell with a foreword by Robert Aitken
Zen Master Yunmen: His Life and Essential Teachings
—Translated by Urs App
The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind [PZI: Huangbo]
—Translated by John Blofeld with a preface by Pei Hsiu
The Sayings of Layman Pʻang [PZI: Layman Pang]
—Translated by James Green
Swampland Flowers: The Letters and Lectures of Zen Master Ta Hui [PZI: Dahui]
—Translated by J.C. Cleary
Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi
—By Taigen Dan Leighton
Zen Letters: Teachings of Yuanwu
—Translated by Thomas Cleary and J.C. Cleary
The Unborn: The Life and Teaching of Zen Master Bankei
—Translated by Norman Waddell
Zen Ancestors & Teachings
Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn: The Zen Records of Hakuin Zenji
—Translated by Urs App
The Essential Teachings of Zen Master Hakuin
—Translated by Norman Waddell
Wild Ivy: The Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin
—Translated by Norman Waddell
Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record: Zen Comments by Hakuin and Tenkei
—Translated by Thomas Cleary
The Undying Lamp of Zen: The Testament of Zen Master Torei
—Tranlsated by Thomas Cleary
Ikkyu, Hakuin & Ryokan: Extraordinary Zen Masters: A Maverick, a Master of Masters, and a Wandering Poet
—By John Stevens, John
Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa
—Translated and edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Roko Sherry Chayat
Like a Dream, Like a Fantasy: The Zen Teachings and Translations of Nyogen Senzaki
—Edited by Shimano Eid
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
—By Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai
—By Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
Women Ancestors in Chan & Zen
Buddhism after Patriarchy
—By Rita Gross
The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women
—Edited by Florence Caplow and Susan Moon
Eminent Nuns: Women Chan Masters of Seventeenth-Century China
—By Beata Grant
Zen Women: Beyond Tea Ladies, Iron Maidens, and Macho Masters
—By Grace Schireson
Bringing Zen Home: The Healing Art of Japanese Women’s Rituals
—By Paula Arai
Zen Sanctuary of Purple Robes: Japan’s Tokeiji Convent Since 1285
—By Saduko Kaneko Merrell and Robert E. Morrell
Daoism
Lao Tzu’s Taoteching [PZI: Daodejing]
—Translated by Red Pine
The Tao Te Ching: A New English Version [PZI: Daodejing]
—By Laozi, translated by Stephen Mitchell
Chuang-tzu: The Inner Chapters [PZI: Zhuangzi]
—Translated by David Hinton
Zhuangzi: The Complete Writings
—Translated, with introduction and notes, by Brook Ziporyn
The Taoist I Ching [PZI: Daoist I Ching]
—By Lui I-Ming, Translated by Thomas Cleary
The Tao of Zen [The Dao of Zen & Chan]
—By Daniel Grigg
Chan & Zen Poetry Collections
Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China
—Translated by David Hinton
The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain [Han Shan]
—Translated by Red Pine
Ikkyu and the Crazy Cloud Anthology: A Zen Poet of Medieval Japan
—Translated by Sonja Arntzen
Crow with No Mouth: Ikkyu
—By Beata Grant
Sun at Midnight: Poems and Sermons
—by Muso Soseki
Daughters of Emptiness: Poems of Chinese Buddhist Nuns
—By Beata Grant
The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa
—By Robert Hass
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches [haiku]
—By Matsuo Basho, translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa
