Storehouse of Treasures: Recovering the Riches of Chan & Zen

Zen teacher Foster (The Roaring Stream) delivers a rigorous reappraisal of Buddhist teachings that have been adapted for Western practitioners by translators and Zen masters who stripped away key cultural and canonical references. For example, Foster critiques 19th-century missionary James Legge’s translation of the word hundun—which is most accurately defined as “absolutely amorphous, the primordial closed and utterly dark entity containing all potential forms”—as “chaos,” a term that is negatively tinged by Western values of order over disorder. According to Foster, Buddhism advocates for embracing apparent disorder to gain “an enhanced understanding of our place in the schemeless scheme of things.” Other chapters tackle such concepts as integrity, shame, and contentment. Drawing from Chan and Zen texts as well as the Chinese literary tradition—including writings from Confucius and the eighth-century poet Wang Wei—Foster employs fine-grained analysis to draw out textual subtleties, challenging practitioners to question received values and engage with the Chan and Zen traditions’ complexities on their own terms. It’s a perceptive look at what gets lost in translation. (Sept.)