Zen Sand

"Zen Sand is a classic collection of verses aimed at aiding practitioners of koan meditation in negotiating the difficult relationship between insight and language. As such it represents a major contribution to both Western Zen practice and English-language Zen scholarship.". "In Japan the traditional Rinzai Zen koan curriculum includes the use of jakugo, or "capping phrases." Once a monk has successfully replied to a koan, the Zen master orders the search for a classical verse to express the monk's insight into the koan. Special collections of these jakugo were compiled as handbooks to aid…