Hoofprint of the Ox: Principles of the Chan Buddhist Path as Taught by a Modern Chinese Master by 聖嚴法師My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I picked this up on a visit to Fagushan Nongchan Temple (法鼓山農禪寺) in Taipei, looking for an overview of Chan (Zen) Buddhism. The introduction is basically Sheng-yen's biography. The first chapter seemed to be an overview of Chan Buddhism that got way too technical for me, but I'm glad I stuck with it. The second chapter starts dealing with meditation, and then the other aspect of Chan Buddhism.
This is probably an excellent book if you are ready to set out and are serious about getting into Zen Buddhism. If you're just mildly interested and want to read more about it (like I was) this may be a bit much. Certain things were just too dense for me. For example, here's a sentence taken at random:
"The fourth station of mindfulness of dharmas entails taking a microscopic look at the continuum of psycho-physical experience from which concepts of self, mind and body are produced, using its constituent dharmas as the frame of reference".
It's not as bad as it may sound there, since the terminology is all explained beforehand, but it still ain't easy.
Having said that, it basically details all the aspects, history and beliefs of Chan Buddhism. The title is explained in the final chapter.
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