Deepest Practice, Deepest Wisdom ─ Three Fascicles from Shobogenzo With Commentary

Insightful commentary on a beloved ancient philosopher of Zen by a beloved contemporary master of Zen.

Famously insightful and famously complex, Eihei Dogen’s writings have been studied and puzzled over for hundreds of years. In Deepest Practice, Deepest Wisdom, Kosho Uchiyama, beloved twentieth-century Zen teacher addresses himself head-on to unpacking Dogen’s wisdom from three fascicles (or chapters) of his monumental Shobogenzo for a modern audience.

The fascicles presented here from Shobogenzo, or Treasury of the True Dharma Eye include “Shoaku Makusa” or “Refraining from Evil,” “Maka Hannya Haramitsu” or “Practicing Deepest Wisdom,” and “Uji” or “Living Time.” Tom Wright and Shohaku Okumura lovingly translate Dogen’s penetrating words and Uchiyama’s thoughtful commentary on each piece. At turns poetic and funny, always insightful, this is Zen wisdom for the ages.

Kosho Uchiyama was a preeminent Japanese Zen master, instrumental in bringing Zen to America. The author of over twenty books, including Opening the Hand of Thought and The Zen Teaching of Homeless Kodo, he died in 1999.

Daitsu Tom Wright, who was born and raised in Wisconsin, lived in Japan for over thirty years. He practiced and studied under Uchiyama Roshi from 1968 until the latter’s death and was ordained as a priest in 1974. He is a former professor in the English Language and Culture Program at Ryukoku University in Kyoto. Rev. Wright has worked on the translation and editing of several works on Zen, as well as writing on Zen, the aftereffects of the Holocaust, and Japanese gardens. He lives in Hawaii.

Shohaku Okumura is a Soto Zen priest and Dharma successor of Kosho Uchiyama Roshi. He is a graduate of Komazawa University and has practiced in Japan at Antaiji, Zuioji, and the Kyoto Soto Zen Center, and in Massachusetts at the Pioneer Valley Zendo. He is the former director of the Soto Zen Buddhism International Center in San Francisco. His previously published books of translation include Shobogenzo Zuimonki, Dogen Zen, Zen Teachings of Homeless Kodo, and Opening the Hand of Thought. Okumura is also editor of Dogen Zen and Its Relevance for Our Time and SotoZen. He is the founding teacher of the Sanshin Zen Community, based in Bloomington, Indiana, where he lives with his family.