H-Buddhism NEW BOOK> Tibetan Zen - Discovering a Lost Tradition Discussion published by Gregory Adam Scott on Saturday, July 4, 2015 [Posted on behalf of Nikko Odiseos] I am pleased to announce the publication of Sam van Schaik's new book: Tibetan Zen: Discovering a Lost Tradition The Stories Told by the Dunhuang Cave Manuscripts Snow Lion Publications | 08/25/2015 Pages: 240 | Size: 6.00 x 9.00 ISBN: 9781559394468 Until the early twentieth century, hardly any traces of the Tibetan tradition of Chinese Chan Buddhism, or Zen, remained. Then the discovery of a sealed cave in Dunhuang, full of manuscripts in various languages dating from the first millennium CE, transformed our understanding of early Zen. This book translates some of the earliest surviving Tibetan Zen manuscripts preserved in Dunhuang. The translations illuminate different aspects of the Zen tradition, with brief introductions that not only discuss the roles of ritual, debate, lineage, and meditation in the early Zen tradition but also explain how these texts were embedded in actual practices. Full description and details: http://shmb.la/tibetan-zen Desk/Exam copies will be available from Shambhala / Snow Lion's distributor, Penguin Random House, on August 25th: http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/requests/ The book is available directly from the publisher until then. Some early praise: "Tibetan Zen is a title both provocative and evocative-provocative because such a tradition is supposed never to have existed, evocative because it invites its readers to imagine a lost world of profound religious exchange, a time before Buddhist sectarianism had set in, when monks along the ancient Silk Road explored innovative new practices across cultures. In this beautifully written book, Sam van Schaik guides his reader into this world, bringing the Dunhuang manuscripts to life through his careful analyses. The result is a comprehensive presentation of an extinct and in many ways unique Buddhist tradition, a study whose brilliant insights into early esoteric ritual, the bodhisattva precepts, and much more raise the field to new levels of sophistication, shedding light on the origins of both Tibetan Buddhism and Chinese Chan/Zen."-Jacob P. Dalton, author of The Taming of the Demons "Tibetan Zen is an unprecedented work. Van Schaik's explanations expand our notion of just what Tibetan Buddhism was-and is-while his translations offer contemporary readers the opportunity to expand their own minds by engaging classic Zen writings from a deeply creative period of Buddhism."-Kurtis R. Schaeffer, University of Virginia Citation: Gregory Adam Scott. NEW BOOK> Tibetan Zen - Discovering a Lost Tradition. H-Buddhism. 07-04-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/6060/discussions/74137/new-book-tibetan-zen-discovering-lost-tradition Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Buddhism Nikko Nikko Odiseos President Shambhala Publications | Snow Lion Publications 300 Massachusetts Avenue | Boston, MA 02115 | o: 617-424-0030 x238 [email protected] Citation: Gregory Adam Scott. NEW BOOK> Tibetan Zen - Discovering a Lost Tradition. H-Buddhism. 07-04-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/6060/discussions/74137/new-book-tibetan-zen-discovering-lost-tradition Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2.