Golden Wind: Zen Talks

ANCIENT SPRING DAI BOSATSU MOUNTAIN BLOSSOMS (C)2007-KUAYIN

`Golden Wind' is a wonderful book of teisho, Zen talks. One of Eido Shimano Roshi's great skills is as an extemporaneous speaker. 'Golden Wind' will give you the flesh and bones of the talks it carries. It's well worth reading well. Reading the transcript of a Zen talk is challenging, pleasurable, useful. It's different, though, than being present to listen to a teisho at sesshin, a Zen intensive. A sesshin is a rigorous event. An insightful teisho can be invigorating, encouraging to sesshin participants. When a roshi is a fine speaker, a Zen talk can also be entertaining. The talks in 'Golden Wind' are entertaining, encouraging, invigorating, insightful, compassionate. Eido Roshi gave these talks in New York State in the 1970s. They're an excellent introduction to his style of speaking. `Golden Wind' is filled with stories and plenty of practical observations. But it can take some time to recognize when any roshi, in certain moments, is speaking literally or metaphorically. In a teisho, the roshi may not necessarily, for example, be talking about the temperature of water in a literal way. Skilled readers know to look for subtexts. Good Zen students know this, too. One touchstone that will help you: the organizing principle of a teisho will always be to assist you in your Zen practice. 'Golden Wind' also contains an elegant translation of Hakuin's moving "Rohatsu Exhortations."