Zen, Simply Sitting: A Zen Monk’s Commentary on the Fukanzazengi by Master Dogen

Long-time Zen teacher Philippe Coupey offers readers a fresh, sometimes irreverent, perspective of an ancient classic – the Fukanzazengi, a short basic text on how to practice zazen, written by the Master Dogen in 1227. The Fukanzazengi is highly venerated within the Zen tradition, and is systematically recited in Zen temples. Dogen’s actual text is only three to four pages long, yet it has been a source of inspiration and guidance for both beginners and advanced students for centuries. What’s new in ZEN, SIMPLY SITTING is that Dogen’s text has been put into everyday English, and given a contemporary context by Philippe Coupey. Only a few other formal commentaries on this text are available today. Some are highly scholarly, and therefore too heavy for the average reader. Others lack the guts and immediacy of Coupey’s approach to this timeless teaching. The commentaries contained here are based on the work of Coupey’s own distinguished master Taisen Deshimaru, the Soto Zen teacher who brought Zen to Europe.