Dosho Port - The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans

According to the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, who started this whole mess we call Buddhism 2,600 years ago, good friends (kalyana mitta) are the whole of practice. In the Upaddha Sutta, the Buddha says, Admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie is actually the whole of the holy life.

I count Dosho Port Roshi as an admirable companion on the Great Way of Zen. Our friendship is a very particular one. Mostly, we enjoy a mutual love for Zen koan practice, and in my view, Dosho is a master of koan teaching. Someone who is adept in this field of study and practice has to remain open and deeply curious about the meaning of life as transmitted from our Zen ancestors in China, Japan, and Korea to Zen practitioners in the present moment. This transmission is complex and mysterious.

Most koans used today are translations many times over, from Chinese to Japanese to nineteenth-century English to twentieth-century English. Doshos bright mind looks to original Chinese and Japanese sources to help explore the multiplicity of meaning that is at the heart of koan inquiry. I have personally enjoyed and used his fresh translations in my writing, teaching, and personal practice. Our conversations often revolve around koan study. And we have found that there is no end to delving deeply into this mystery.

Xutangs 100 koans appeared in an English translation by Yoel Hoffman in 1977, with answers that are really commentaries from the lineage of eighteenth-century Japanese Zen master Hakuin Ekaku. To my knowledge, there has been no other attempt to render this collection into English, and no published modern interpretations.

Dosho has filled the gap in transmission to the English-speaking Zen world with his clear, warm, and emotionally intelligent writing. He has managed to comment on each koan from the stance of the awakened heart, without sacrificing relatability to our modern life of joys and sorrows. We get to know his wife and teaching partner, Tetsugan, his dog Bodhi, and some of his many sangha friends from the Nebraska Zen Center where he lives and teaches.

Two other skills that Dosho brings to these commentaries are his immense love for our thirteenth-century Japanese ancestor Eihei Dogen, transmitted to him from his first teacher, Dainin Katagiri Roshi. Added to that is his fascination with the history of koan practice and all of the many characters who come to life in the koans. Making these connections is a joy to witness. I am not a scholar myself, but I find his weaving together of these different elements personally inspiring. After all, the point of studying koans is to live the awakened life, not to turn into a scholar. Dosho always leads us back to this moment, where everything we need is spread before us.

The particular lens offered by koan practice helps us to live more deeply and more compassionately. And we get the great good luck of finding intimate friends, including the teachers and students who populate these stories. Dipping into this book for even a few pages will benefit anyone who is intrigued by koan practice and its history, and/or who is doing koan study with a teacher. If this describes you, enjoy your good fortune. Your view of what it means to be a human being is about to be vastly expanded.

Melissa Myozen Blacker

Boundless Way Temple

Worcester, Massachusetts