Nyogen Senzaki

Title:	The Iron Flute
Sub-title:	100 Zen Koans
Author:	Nyogen Senzaki, and Ruth Strout McCandless
Introduction:	Steve Hagen
Publisher:	Tuttle Publishing
ISBN:	080483248X
Pages:	153pp. (Incl. brief biography, appendix, glossary, and bibliography.)
Copyright:	1964, 2000
Revision/Edition:	First Tuttle Edition
Reviewer:	Psyche
Contact Information:	psyche[at]spiralnature[dot]com
Category:	Buddhism
Review:	In his introduction, Steven Hagen explains that ‘our conceptualizing minds are highly dualistic. They keep themselves busy thinking, analyzing, controlling and scheming. To such a mind, everything is either good or bad, right or wrong, friend or foe, this or that – or else off our personal radar altogether.’ However, he states that ‘koans point beyond all this, to the immediate and first-hand non-duality of Reality. Koans are expressions of immediate awareness - before we categorize, label, arrange or evaluate everything’ (pg x). Each of the hundred koans presented in this collection are accompanied by commentary, and occasionally poetry, from Genro, an eighteenth century Zen Master and his student, Fugai, in additional to Senzaki himself. Their commentaries read like a dialogue between the three, with each reflecting on his predecessors words, often seeming quite severe, and very amusing. However, it is Senzaki’s commentary which will be most informative to the Western reader, as he strives to put each koan in context, filling in the cultural backdrop that is unlikely to be present for the layperson. Toward the end a small section is dedicated to the memory of Nyogen Senzaki, with notes from his students and himself. The appendices consists of a cross-reference of the Chinese and Japanese names, as well as the characters representing them for easier reference. An extensive glossary also accompanies the text, a helpful aid for the new student. Entertaining and profound, this collection of koans is very approachable.
Review submitted:	28 May 2004