Denkoroku
| Author | Keizan |
|---|---|
| Translator | Francis Dojun Cook (1991, 2003) |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | English from Japanese |
| Genre |
Philosophy Religion |
|
Publication date
|
1300 |
| ISBN |
Denkōroku (伝光録?, Record of the Transmission of the Light) is a kōan collection written in 1300 by Keizan Jokin Zenji, the Great Patriarch of Sōtō Zen Buddhism, based on approximately a year of his Dharma talks.
The book includes 53 enlightenment stories covering 1600 or more years based on the traditional legendary accounts of Dharma transmission in the Sōtō lineage. Successive masters and disciples in the book are Shakyamuni Buddha circa 360 to 440 BCE in India, to Zen master Ejō in about 1230 or 1240 in Japan.
While other translations are available as of 2012, this article was developed for the most part from the introduction and translator's note by Francis Dojun Cook.
Dharma transmissions covered 28 ancestors from India and 23 from China, followed by Dōgen and Ejō in Japan. Out of modesty and his sense of propriety, Keizan, the 54th ancestor, omitted himself and Tettsu Gikai, one of his teachers who was a student of Ejō and was still alive in 1300. Each chapter is a few pages, except in a couple cases where the author wants to explain a point.
The format for each koan account is in four parts: (1) the main koan case that is the enlightenment encounter between master and disciple, (2) a brief biographical account on the life of the disciple including context for the encounter, (3) Keizan's teisho or commentary on the koan, and (4) a verse written by Keizan summarizing the point, following the Zen tradition of understanding presented by the master or disciple in poetry.
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