Record of the Transmission of the Lamp

This compilation of Buddhist biographies teaching and transmission stories ofIndian and Chinese Chan (Japanese 'Zen') masters from antiquity up to about theyear 1008 CE is the first mature fruit of an already thousand year-long spiritualmarriage between two great world cultures with quite different ways of viewingthe world. The fertilisation of Chinese spirituality by Indian Buddhism fructifiedthe whole of Asian culture. The message of this work that Chan practice canenable a free participation in life's open-ended play seems as necessary to our owntime as it was to the restless times of 11th century Song China.Volume I (Books 1 - 3) is the first of a full translation of this work of thirty books.