Recommended Reading

The 3 steps of starting a Chan/Thien Practice

  1. Quit reading and start sitting
  2. Find a teacher
  3. Continue sitting

Once you have established a regular meditation practice and joined a Sanga (have become a temple member) then restart reading.

  1. 20 Cases Suggesting Reincarnation by Stevenson
  2. Jiyu Kennet – Selling Water By The River & Roar Of The Tigress
  3. Platform Sutra – Red Pine’s translation
  4. Zen Philosophy, Zen Practice by Thich Thien An
  5. Shobgenzo-zuimonki by Eihei Dogen Zenji recorded by Koun Ejo
  6. The Denkoroku by Zen Master Keizan Jokin
  7. Zen is Eternal Life by Jiyu Kennett, Roshi (Previously published as Selling Water By The River)
  8. The Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau, Roshi
  9. Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness by Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi
  10. Zen flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps
  11. Being Zen by Ezra Bayda
  12. To Shine One Corner Of The World by Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi
  13. The Zen teachings of “Homeless” Kodo by Kosho Uchiyama, Roshi
  14. The Buddhist Handbook by John Snelling
  15. Soto Zen by Keido Chisan Koho Zenji
  16. Zen Meditation in Plain English by John Daishin Buksbazen
  17. The Wild White Goose by Roshi Jiyu Kennett
  18. Zen Training by KatsuikiSekida
  19. The Life & Work of Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Zen Pioneer by Isabel Sterling
  20. Roar of the Tigress by Rev. Jiyu-Kennett
  21. The Shack by William P. Young
  22. Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh
  23. Money Sex War Karma by David R. Loy
  24. The Heart Sutra translated and commentary by Red Pine
  25. The Platform Sutra translated and commentary by Red Pine
  26. The Diamond Sutra by Mu Soeng
  27. The Stories of the Lotus Sutra by Gene Reeves
  28. Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation by Ian Stevenson, MD
  29. The Lotus Sutra translated by Burton Watson
  30. Jizo Bodhisattva by Jan Chosen Bays MD
  31. Small Boat, Great Mountain by Aamaro Bhikkhu
  32. Seclusion and Awakening: A Buddhist memoir of Master Wan Xing
  33. Lankavatara Sutra – Translated by Red Pine
  34. Buddhist Monastic Discipline, by Charles Prebish
  35. Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900-1950, by Holmes Welch
  36. The Broken Buddha
  37. Good Question, Good Answer
  38. Zen Women by Schireson
  39. Daughters of Emptiness, by Grant

Zen Buddhist Saying:

“All conditioned things are impermanent. Work out your own salvation with diligence” — The Buddha’s last words.