Reviews

"In Living Buddha Zen, Hixon emerges as a conservative keeper of the Zen flame. At the same time, however, he pushes past the known boundaries of his own cultural alphabet as well as the verbal conventions of Zen, in order to retrieve from unknown territory a new way of retelling the classic teaching tales.

'"Like the great Zen classics, this book embodies Zen as 'the full moon way, complete from the very beginning. "'


–from the Introduction by Helen Tworkov,
editor, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review



"Lex Hixon's bold, free meditation on Keizan Zenji's Denkoroku, or Transmission of the Light, is less a traditional commentary than a celebration of its profound wisdom. An original and very welcome contribution."

–Peter Matthiessen,
author, Snow Leopard; Nine-Headed Dragon River



"Living Buddha Zen is your most amazing book so far."

--Robert Aitken, Roshi
Honolulu Diamond Sangha
author, Taking the Path of Zen; The Gateless Barrier


"Lex Hixon cuts through any notion of time or place to bring us the living lineage of the true Dharma Eye. His felicitous prose is like a sparkling brook; his closing poems are remarkable expressions of intimacy and delight. With its unimpeded warmth, its boundless generosity of spirit, Living Buddha Zen goes directly to the reader's heart."

-Reverend Roko Sherry Chayat,
Dharma Teacher and Director,
Zen Center of Syracuse


"Living Buddha Zen surprised me. This manuscript is not a new translation of an old classic at all! Rather it is an invitation to enter directly into the awakening process itself. Not by talking about it, but by allowing these stories to serve as doorways. Lex Hixon's expression of the Dharma is alive, immediate, universal-leaping with broad warmth over discriminations of gender and affiliation. As I read Living Buddha Zen, I am deeply nourished."

-Susan Ji-on Postal, Zen Priest,
Empty Hand Zendo, Rye, NY

"True to the Dharma name he received from Abbess Aoyama Sundo Roshi, Jikai or Ocean of Compassion, Lex Hixon, in a warm and all-embracing way offers an original and very stimulating interpretation of one of Zen's most important works, bringing it to the attention of a wider Western audience."

–Patricia Dai-En Bennage
Resident Senior Priest
Mt. Equity Zendo, Pennsylvania
Translator, Abbess Aoyama's Zen Seeds

"'Me energies emanating from Lex Hixon's encounter with Zen Master Keizan are those of celebration, rejoicing, and ecstasy. This serves to take us to the heart of the matter."

–Nancy Baker, Professor of Philosophy,
Sarah Lawrence College





LIVING BUDDHA ZEN
by Lex Hixon
review by Ron Hogen Green, M.R. 0.

Living Buddha Zen is a presentation of Lex Hixon's realization of the Denkoroku: The Record of Transmitting the Light, by Zen Master Keizan. It is not just a translation or commentary on this great work but, to use Lex Hixon's own word's, an assimilation.

The Denkoroku is a text which traces transmission from Shakyamuni Buddha, to Mahakashyapa, and onward through fiftythree generations to Dogen's transmission to Ejo.

Each of the fifty-three transmissions in Living Buddha Zen follow a similar format, modeled on Master Keizan's original work. First there is the moment of transmission presented in koan form, followed by Hixon's commentary and closing poem. The power of Master Keizan's original work is interwoven and ever-present in Living Buddha Zen.

In the White Plum Lineage the Denkoroku is taken up for koan study towards the end of formal training. Students must present their own realization of the transmission of each of the fifty-three ancestors, thus recapitulating the mind to mind transmission that spans the centuries, while embodying it anew in their own presentation and realization.

The Denkoroku is about the specific moment of realization for each of these dharma ancestors and is an important text in the Soto tradition. As such, it is a direct refutation of the "there is no enlightenment" claims of some Soto practitioners.

Two other English translations of the Denkoroku are available, but to my knowledge, this is the first published commentary on the work. This volume is a distinct departure in style quite different from other serious collections of koan commentary. Sensei Hixon's writing is broad and generous, gentle and eclectic. The two other translations of the Denkoroku available in English that I am aware of are: Francis H. Cook's and Thomas Cleary's. Hixon's personal flavor is more intimate and gentle then these literal and academic translations. Here is a section of transmission thirty-two by Cook.


The thirty-second patriarch, Zen Master Ta-man, met the thirty first patriarch on the road to Huang-mei. The patriarch asked him:
"What is your family name?"
The master replied, "I have a nature but it is not an ordinary name."
The patriarch asked, "What is its name?"

Replied the master, "It is Buddha nature." The patriarch asked, "Have you no name?" The master answered, "Because Buddha nature is empty, I have none."
The Patriarch thought to himself that he was a vessel of the Dharma and transmitted the Dharma and robe to him.

Hixon's translation reads:

While walking along a remote mountain road, the living Buddha meets and instantly recognizes his destined successor, a homeless boy of seven. "What is your name?" the master probes.
The reply is immediate and firm: "I am essence, not name."
The playful sage asks the serious boy: "Does this essence which you are have a name?"
"Awakeness" the child responds.
The awakened one now probes to the very depth: "Is awakeness your name?" The boy cries out:" I am nameless."
In silence, the brimful reservoir of Light pours Light into this boundless diamond vessel. Only enlightenment shines.

Hixon's commentaries gather strength as the book unfolds, culminating in stark, intimate poems. Here is his poem from transmission thirty-eight to Tozan.

While expressing this koan
with human tongue
I hear the fish-shaped
wooden drum
whole beats throbbing,
passing easily
through floors, walls, doors,
the sound of wood preaching
deep underwater words.

This book presents a direct understanding of Soto Zen. In someone else's hand, the gentleness and eclectic style might be mushy and soft, but Lex Hixon has brought these stories alive as koans, as teachings of reality and realization in a way that broadens the historical boundaries of ancestral Soto Zen to include buddhas in all times and places.



Larson Publications, 1995, $15.95 paper. Ron Hogen Green is a senior student M.R.O. student. He is currently working as the Monastery Registrar after recently moving to the area.

Sadly, Lex Hixon died of cancer on November 1, 1995 at the age of 53 at his home in Riverdale, N.Y. He will be greatly missed by the dharma community.

Lex Hixon first became interested in Eastern spiritual traditions when he was an undergraduate at Yale where he began study with a Hindu master. He has been involved as a practitioner and supporter of many of the world's great mystical traditions. He studied the Sufism and at the time of his death was about to receive transmission in the Soto Zen tradition from Bernard Tetsugen Glassman, Roshi, who gave the transmission posthumously in a memorial service held for Hixon. He was also a member of an Eastern Orthodox church. He holds a doctorate in comparative religion from Columbia.

Allen Ginsberg speaks for many when he calls Hixon "...a pioneer in the spiritual renaissance in America over the last four decades." Hixon hosted the radio program In the Spirit for many years on W-BAI where he interviewed many religious teachers and was responsible for introducing their practices to many Americans. He was the founder of Free Spirit magazine and is the author of many books on religious subjects. He has been a friend and supporter of ZMM.