The Compass of Zen

November 1, 1997
Zen Maste Sahn is the well-known director of the Kuan Um School of Zen. Active as a teacher in the West for 30 years, Sahn originally wrote this text in the 1970s, as a guide for students with an interest in the fundamentals of Buddhists teaching from a Zen perspective. Much of the Zen teaching with which Westerners are familiar has come from Japanese lineage, but this work has a fresh, Korean Zen slant. For an introductory text, however, Walpole Rahula's classic What the Buddha Taught (Grove, 1987) is probably better. A large part of this volume is given to transcriptions of talks, resulting in repetition and a lack of focus. Viewed as one person's heartfelt expression of his understanding of the teachings, however, this has much to offer. Recommended for academic and public libraries with extensive collections in the areas of Buddhism and Zen.--Mark Woodhouse, Elmira Coll. Lib., N.Y.