About the Author

Hakuin Zenji was born in Hara, Japan, on January 18, 1685. He began monastic studies as a teenager, studied with the great master Sho ju Ro jin, and developed his teaching over a long career spanning more than fifty years. An enormously popular teacher during his lifetime, he died a few days short of his eighty-fourth birthday, in Hara where he had begun, and is said to have left more than 90 dharma heirs.

Norman Waddell was born in Washington, D.C., in 1940. He has published more than a dozen books and is considered one of the finest translators of Japanese sacred texts of our time.

Reviews

"Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn is an authoritative volume translated from Japanese by Norman Waddell; an essential set of texts from the great master Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1769). Hakuin's tireless teaching and writing reinvigorated the ancient Rinzai line of Zen from China which is now a world-wide force. This book serves to illuminate his dry, edgy, practical and often funny way of teaching Zen in the contemporary world." -Gary Snyder, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Turtle Island

Praise for The Old Tea Seller: Life and Zen Poetry in 18th Century Kyoto

"Norman Waddell has brought us an important Japanese Zen poet who has been too long neglected. The biography is detailed and informative but Waddell has gone further and has translated all of Baisao's published verse (including some taken from holograph manuscript) and prose, as well as many of Baisao's letters and verse This book will stand as the definitive work on Baisao for many years." -The Zen Site

"[A] delightful and exquisite volume Norman Waddell has done a marvelous job pulling all of this material together." -Spirituality and Practice

This item has low availability through normal channels. The supplier has a low reliability rating in Fishpond's system and may not arrive on time. Learn more.