AMONG THE WRITINGS FROM THE DUNHUANG CAVES, discovered in the twentieth century, are the Zen equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls - ancient texts unknown for centuries, revealing a never-before-seen fact of Zen. The Ceasing of Notions is one such text. It takes a unique form: a dialogue between two imaginary figures, a master and his disciple, in which the disciple tenaciously pursues the master with follow-up questions that propel the dialogue toward ever more profound insights. And - as will quickly become clear - these questions prove to be none other than the reader's very own. Soko Morinaga brings alive this compact and brilliant text with his own vivid commentary.

Soko Morinaga Roshi was born in 1925. After graduating from high school, he entered Zen practice. He was ordained as a monk by Zuigan Goto in 1948. From 1949 through 1963, he trained in the monastery of Daitokuji and received the seal of Dharma transmission from Sesso Oda Roshi. While actively working in the lay communiity, delivering talks and writing books and articles, he served as the head of Hanazono University, the primary training university of the Rinzai sect, in Kyoto. He had a long-standing connection with the Buddhist Society of London and traveled there every year to participate in the summer school jointly sponsored by various Buddhist sects. Morinaga Roshi is the author of Novice to Master. He died in 1995. Martin Collcutt is a professor of East Asian Studies and History at Princeton University, where he teaches Japanese intellectual and cultural history. He also has a particular interest in the introduction and development of the monastic practice in Japanese Rinzai Zen. In the 1960s he studied and practiced Zen in Japan and met Morinaga Roshi at Daishuin in Kyoto. Subsequently he served as Roshi's interpreter on some of his visits to the United States and England. His academic background in Japanese Zen and his personal and long-standing involvement with Morinaga Roshi and his teaching makes Professor Collcutt's informative introduction a valuable contribution to the understanding of this classic text.

Contents: The Ceasing of Notions: AN EARLY ZEN TEXT FROM THE DUNHUNG CAVES With Selected Comments by Soko Morinaga Roshi and an Introduction by Martin Collcutt
Introduction	1
A TREATISE ON THE CEASING OF NOTIONS
An Instructive Talk between Master Nyuri and Disciple Emmon	15
Selections from Novice to Master by Soko Morinaga Roshi	95
About the Author and Translators	119