The Gateless Barrier: The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan)
by Robert Aitken

5 out of 5 stars Sharing a lifetime of Zen practice and enlightenment, June 9, 2008

The premier American Zen master, Robert Aitken Roshi has done a great service for all English reading Zen students by providing one of the very few commentaries compiled in English on this classic Zen text.

Robert Aitken Roshi, the elder Statesman of Zen Buddhism in the West and author of the perennial, Taking the Path of Zen, offers English reading students and practitioners a veritable gold mine of wisdom from a lifetime of practice and enlightenment on the path of Zen.

Developed and refined through decades of active and continuous teaching, Aitken Roshi’s translation of, and commentaries on the forty-eight cases of this classic Zen koan collection subtly reveal the profound depths of the wisdom of Zen. This sincere Zen master offers us an inside view of the enlightened mind through his instructive, evocative, lucid presentations of the multi-faceted science of mind known as Zen.

Besides commentaries on all 48 cases, Aitken Roshi shares his wisdom on Mumon’s “Preface”, “Postscript”, and “Cautions.” His meticulous attention to authentic scholarship, one of the hallmarks of all of Aitken’s work, provides readers with plenty of extra leads by the inclusion of detailed notes for each case. Also included are a sectional bibliography, lineage charts, Chinese-Japanese, and Japanese-Chinese equivalent tables, a helpful glossary, and more.

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