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A review by aesopsdaddy
Three Japanese Buddhist Monks by Yoshida Kenkō, Kamo no Chōmei, Saigyō
4.0
“On quiet nights, the moon at my window recalls to me past friends, and tears wet my sleeve at the cries of the monkeys”
Big fan of this Great Ideas series by Penguin. This is a diverse and delightful collection of bite-sized Buddhist wisdom within three monastic meditations on life of varying length. The second was my favourite and the most poetic; the third fragmentary, occasionally humorously hypocritical in such a way which underscores Zen Buddhism’s anxiety over attachment to the written word, and understandably a bit preachy at times (they are monks, after all) but nevertheless filled with satoric flashes of profound Indic insight.
Big fan of this Great Ideas series by Penguin. This is a diverse and delightful collection of bite-sized Buddhist wisdom within three monastic meditations on life of varying length. The second was my favourite and the most poetic; the third fragmentary, occasionally humorously hypocritical in such a way which underscores Zen Buddhism’s anxiety over attachment to the written word, and understandably a bit preachy at times (they are monks, after all) but nevertheless filled with satoric flashes of profound Indic insight.