Lamp to Lamp: 1,500 Years of Chan Buddhist Poetry

Rooted in the raw mystery of nature, this centuries-spanning journey through the Chan Buddhism poetic tradition awakens sudden, quiet insight.

Featuring works from both renowned Buddhist ancestors as well as sages unknown in the West, these beautiful poems deepen our understanding of Chan Buddhism’s evolution. We discover that the distinctive, naturalistic style of Chan expression—earthy yet transcendent, direct yet mysterious—was nurtured not only in Tang-dynasty China but over the course of many centuries on the Korean peninsula, in the mountains of Central Asia, in the highlands of Siberia, and in the rainforests of Canton. And it was developed by both male and female poets.

In these poems, moments of personal struggle, sudden insight, and deep connection to nature bring English-language readers as close as possible to a mind-to-mind encounter with the Chan tradition’s founders and innovators from the sixth century to the twentieth century. With a substantive introduction and short biographies of each of the poets included, this essential anthology is a testament to poetry’s role in the journey of spiritual awakening.  

In these poems, moments of personal struggle, sudden insight, and deep connection to nature bring English-language readers as close as possible to a mind-to-mind encounter with the Chan tradition’s founders and innovators from the sixth century to the twentieth century. With a substantive introduction and short biographies of each of the poets included, this essential anthology is a testament to poetry’s role in the journey of spiritual awakening.