BUDDHIST SERMONS ON CHRISTIAN TEXTS

[Tokyo] 1952, Kokudosha. Stiff pictorial wraps. 3-page color fold out map,English & Japanese texts, 12.5 x 18 cm., bit of of the usual paper toning, else clean and solid, 93 pages. *AUTHOR'S SIGNED PRESENTATION-RARE & OBSCURE FIRST EDITION * . *** **** *** . . BLYTH'S TREATISE & IMPRESSIONS ON . . . CHRISTIAN TEXTS VS. BUDDHISM IN JAPAN . . . RARE EXAMPLE: BLYTH'S SIGNED PRESENTATION COPY . * This highly RARE & OBSCURE example was a signed presentation copy from Blyth to his Japanese colleague, "Mr. Nabeshima," penned in his typical 'flowery' flamboyant ink signature. . Blyth signed examples are EXCEPTIONALLY RARE, in our 65 years plus tenure we have had less than five examples. . *** THE BOOK: "An interpretation of Christian intuitions by the Mahayana concepts, and NOT visa-versa, is that Buddhism, in China and Japan, has realized how inexpressive, how crude, how treacherous words are. Only a mind free of intellectual bondage, yet exactly conscious of what it is doing in overstepping the laws of thought is capable of holding fast to conflicting facts, of grasping the inner essence of paradox." Very cool stuff ! . * Per the dust jacket on ZEN AND ZEN CLASSICS, this title was supposed to be volume 8 of the set. While that may be correct, this work predates that set by 8 years for the first edition ! This title was never issued as part of ZEN AND ZEN CLASSICS even though its content should be kept together with that set. It does complete the set as this was Blyth's choice. . *** A very well written, readable set of books. The celebrated Zen master D.T. Suzuki described Blyth as "one of the most eminent exponents of Japanese culture." . *** REGINALD HORACE BLYTH [1898-1964]: He was an English writer and devotee of Japanese culture. He is most famous for his writings on Zen and on Japanese Haiku poetry. . Korea (1925-1935) In 1925, the Blyths moved to Korea (then under Japanese rule), where Blyth became assistant professor of English at Keijo Imperial University in Keijo (now Seoul). While in Korea, Blyth began to learn Japanese and Chinese, and studied Zen under the master Hanayama Taigi of Myoshin-ji Keijo Betsuin (Seoul). In Korea he started to read D. T. Suzuki's books about Zen. In 1933, D.T. Suzuki became his mentor. . Having returned to Seoul in 1936, Blyth remarried in 1937, to a Japanese woman named Kijima Tomiko, with whom he had two daughters. In 1940 they moved to Kanazawa, Japan, which was D. T. Suzuki's home town, and Blyth took a job as an English teacher at the Fourth Higher School (later Kanazawa University). . When Britain declared war on Japan in December 1941 following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Blyth was interned as a British enemy alien . By 1946, Blyth had become Professor of English at Gakushuin University, and became private tutor to the Crown Prince (later emperor) Akihito until the end of his [Blyth's] life.[6] He did much to popularize Zen philosophy and Japanese poetry (particularly haiku) in the West. In 1954, he was awarded a doctorate in literature from Tokyo University, and, in 1959, he received the Zuihosho (Order of Merit) Fourth Grade. . *** ZEN AND HAIKU: Blyth's studies on Haiku, Japanese humor and Zen are "unique contributions towards East-West understanding." Blyth lived & worked in the east 40 years, until his death in 1964. The history of Zen is the history of moments. It cannot be, like the history of ideas, or even the history of the freedom of thought, an account of development, systematization, criticism, modification, replacement and so forth. Zen seems to become deeper sometimes, shallower, broader, narrower sometimes, but there is no progress of the ordinary kind. It is a history only in the sense of being a list of names of great men in the attainment of great and so forth. Zen seems to become deeper sometimes, shallower, broader, narrower sometimes, but there is no progress of the ordinary kind. It is a history only in the sense of being a list of names of great men in t.…