Books by J. C. Cleary

This important book brings together three long-lost texts, the earliest known writings on Zen.    •  Records of the Teachers and Students of the Lanka presents a complete set of biographies of the Zen patriarchs.    •  Bodhidharma''s Treatise on Contemplating Mind— written in the form of a dialogue between the first Zen patriarch, Bodhidharma, and his successor, Huke—views all the various practices of the Bodhisattva path from the perspective of cultivating mind.    •  Treatise on Sudden Enlightenment presents a series of questions and answers illuminating the true nature of "sudden enlightenment" as pure, undifferentiated mind. Dating from the first half of the eighth century, and only recently rediscovered in Tun Huang, China, these books offer the best information currently available on the early meditation techniques of the "northern school" of Zen Buddhism.

The philosophical, religious, and sociopolitical teachings of Confucianism have played a central role in East Asian culture for many centuries. This book presents a selection of passages from leading Chinese thinkers of the later Ming dynasty (sixteenth-seventeenth centuries), a peak period of Confucian creativity influenced by Buddhism and Taoism. Chosen for their practical interest and universal appeal, the passages are concerned with how to develop the personality, conduct social relations, and order society. In contrast to the common misconception of Confucianism as a formalistic ideology linked to authoritarian political regimes, these passages emphasize the cultivation of spiritual qualities as a means of operating harmoniously and successfully in the world.

A Buddha from Korea is intended to open a window on Zen Buddhism in old Korea. The book centers on a translation of teachings of the great fourteenth-century Korean Zen adept known as T''aego, who was the leading representative of Zen in his own time and place. This is an account of Zen Buddhism direct from an authentic source.