Zen Masters

It's very academic. That wasn't really what I was looking for. I wanted to learn more about Zen masters, and I bought this book rather blindly because of the scant amount of information about what it contains. So here's the table of contents to help you out! You're welcome! I added the years of the person's birth and death to the chapter title when it wasn't there in the title already, as well as the Japanese names for the Chan masters in China before Zen arrived in Japan.1. Monastic Innovator, Iconoclast, and Teacher of Doctrine: The Varied Images of Chan Master Baizhang (749-814, Japanese: Hyakujo Ekai)2. Dongshan (807-869, Japanese: Tozan Ryokai) and the Teaching of Suchness3. Yongming Yanshou (904-975, Japanese: Yōmyō Enju): Scholastic as Chan Master4. Dahui Zonggao (1089-1163, Japanese: Daie Sōkō): The Image Created by His Stories about Himself and by His Teaching Style5. Dogen (1200-1253), Zen Master, Zen Disciple: Transmitter or Transgressor?6. The Zen of Books and Practice: The Life of Menzan Zuiho (1683-1769) and His Reformation of Soto Zen7. The Use of Traps and Snares: Shaku Soen Revisited (1860-1919, also known as Kogaku Soen)8. True Person, Formless Self: Lay Zen Master Hisamatsu Shin'ichi (1889-1990)9. Humanizing the Image of a Zen Master: Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931-1995)10. Seung Sahn (1927-2004): The Makeover of a Modern Zen Patriarch

1st rate.Scholarly, meticulous, annotated and comprehensive.I find it very helpful where there is in addition a brief summary of the subject and his life.