The Blue Cliff Record
NoteGenerally, it is my plan to restrict my reflections on the koans of the Blue Cliff Record to the koans themselves, without the poems of Hsueh Tou or the extensive commentaries of Yuan Wu. Hsueh Tou was the original compiler of the Record in the twelfth century. Yuan Wu added his comments around sixty or seventy years later.
The original translation of the Record was published by the Clearys in 1977. Later, in 2000 Thomas Cleary published another translation (basically the same) in their book Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record, together with comments of the Rinzai master, Hakuin, and Tenkei, a Soto master. Their comments are also interspersed with some of the earlier poems and comments of Hsueh Tou and Yuan Wu. All of which makes a careful study of the koans themselves somewhat tedious.
So I have decided to more of less stick to the actual texts of the koans.
However, I am also going to track the genesis, history, and background information on the koans, and on the individuals and zen masters who participate in the koans.