About
The Eye never sleeps:
Striking to the heart of zen

Dennis Genpo Merzel has authored this contemporary commentary on the first known Zen poem. The poem's name is Verses on the Faith Mind in English, Hsin hsin ming in Chinese, and Shin jin mei in Japanese. The poem was originally written in Chinese and consists of 146 four-word lines. The authorship of the poem has traditionally been ascribed to the Third Patriarch of Zen Buddhism, Chien-chih Seng-ts'an (in Japanese, Kanchi Sosan) who lived during the latter half of the sixth century CE. However scholars suggest that some of the language employed in the poem are characteristic of a later period of history. Richard B. Clarke's translation of Verses on the Faith Mind appears at the end of the book.

Over the course of a retreat, Dennis Genpo Merzel would read a portion of Verses on the Faith Mind, and then discuss it extemporaneously. These talks were recorded and form the basis of the present book.

Buddhist Mysticism | Quotations drawn from The Eye never sleeps... | Bibliographic references | ©1999 by D. Platt