The Heart of Dgen's Shbgenz

The Heart of Dgen's Shbgenz provides exhaustively annotated translations of the difficult core essays of Shbgenz, the masterwork of Japanese Zen master Dgen Kigen, the founder of St Zen. This book is centered around those essays that generations have regarded as containing the essence of Dgen's teaching. These translations, revised from those that first appeared in the 1970s, clarify and enrich the understanding of Dgen's religious thought and his basic ideas about Zen practice and doctrine. Dgen's uncommon intellectual gifts, combined with a profound religious attainment and an extraordinary ability to articulate it, make Shbgenz unique even in the vast literature the Zen school has produced over the centuries, securing it a special place in the history of world religious literature.