Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Koan Practice (review)

This book joins a number of other recent publications featuring Zen literature or texts (with special reference to kōan literature), and thereby adds considerably to our knowledge of and appreciation for the scope and sophisticated complexity of that textual tradition. In this case, we have a translation of two kōan capping-phrase books used widely over the last century in Rinzai kōan practice in Japan (Shibayama Zenkei's Zenrin kushū and Tsuchuja Estudō's Shinsan zengoshōū) prefaced by an extensive introduction (about a hundred pages), and followed by a prodigious and helpful glossary, bibliography, and index.

As the author makes clear, the audience for this book is twofold; Western Rinzai practitioners now have more immediate access to one important piece of the larger kōan system, and that is the capping phrases used in that practice to confirm (or perhaps top off) a student's experiential realization within the kōan system of practice itself. On the other hand, scholars of Chinese and Japanese literature, culture, and religion have an important textual historical resource for better understanding everything from Zen awakening (as religious transformation) to the Chinese literary tradition (as dialogic gamesmanship).

More specifically, Zen Sand collects, orders, and translates (with Chinese characters and Japanese readings given as well) over four thousand phrases of varying lengths (from four characters to twenty-one or more), and offers a useful referencing system for those wishing to check original sources or track down obscure meanings. On the other hand, persons concerned about the quality of translations have ample resources here to check those translations for themselves.

While the introduction to this collection provides useful (even necessary) information about the history and use of these capping phrases, what is missing in this book (again perhaps necessarily) is any attempt to interpret the meanings of specific phrases - either on the face of their possible symbolic meanings, or - more deeply - within the context of their Zen meanings as marking spiritual progress. I say this not to fault the author or book, but to clarify for potential readers what this book does and/or does not do. The problem, of course, is that these capping phrases can only be ultimately understood within the contexts of Zen practice and Zen experience; they can only be seen with a Zen eye or heard with a Zen ear. They are, after all, the 'sandy' words reflecting 'zenly' gold, and all the jokes are 'inside' ones.

Scholars will be particularly interested in the material found in the introduction and end-pieces (glossary, bibliography, index). Both are rich with helpful information about these capping phrases themselves, and the larger tradition of Zen literature and (kōan) practice. The introduction is particularly helpful in tracing a suggestive history of these practices back into the Chinese tradition, and outlining the larger kōan system of practice found in Japanese Rinzai Zen. On the other hand, the extensive glossary (about a hundred pages) is a very helpful source of information about people, places, and ideas in the Zen tradition, and offers original-language characters and readings for interested readers.

It may be a completely inadvertent and unintended reference to the 'gold' of Zen, but the quote about this book by Burton Watson on the back cover says it all: 'Zen Sand is a gold mine!'