Nothing is Hidden, by Jisho Warner et al (eds)
Good Zen stuff: Dogen's "Instructions for the Cook" and commentaries
(Review posted 4 Mar 2005 02:29:06)

The core of this book is Dogen's "Instructions for the Cook". Dogen (1200-1253) is a hotshot in the Zen world, having founded the Soto school and the Shikantaza ("just sitting") flavor of zazen (my favorite), and written various Wise Things. "Instructions for the Cook" is one of the shorter Wise Things, being like fourteen pages of advice for the tenzo (the cook) of a Zen monastery, in which advice is contained all sorts of Wise Stuff about how Zen is everyday life and all. Very worth reading all by itself.

"Nothing is Hidden" adds to a new translation of the basic text a bunch of modern commentaries on and around it. It was put together for Dogen's eight hundredth birthday celebration, and translated into English (from the original Japanese) by a prestigious team of translators and editors. The essays are interesting and thoughtful, and give a nice picture of thinking in and around the Soto school today (the foreword, "Dogen in the Twenty-first Century", is by the current abbot of the monastery that Dogen founded in 1244, which is pretty cool). There is discussion of Zen in everyday life, of monastic life in Dogen's time, of the meal practices of the monks in India in the Buddha's time, and similar stuff. There's a glossary, and a cast of characters.

All around, it's a nice set of writing around an interesting and historically important text. It's gentle and thoughtful (not particularly mind-breaking or paradoxical or koan-like, in case that's what you're looking for). A good investment.