For Blyth, almost anything could be interpreted as an example of Zen, including the Western literary canon. He expounded his theories in Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics (), Japanese Humor (), and the four-volume Haiku (), and through those books, spurring a generation of Westerners to investigate Zen and Japanese culture. Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics embraces the classical literature of China and Japan and the whole extent of English literature, with numerous quotations not only from English but also from French, German, Italian, and Spanish writing. Don Quixote has a chapter all to himself, and the author considers him possibly the purest example in all of world literature of a man who lives by Zen. In English, the Zen attitude toward life is found most consistently in Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Dickens, and Stevenson. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Zen, haiku, or indeed English literature. R.H. Blyth was born in London in and studied English literature at London www.doorway.ru by:
Fortunately, at some point a guard loaned him a copy of R. H. Blyth's Zen in English Literature and the Oriental Classics. Fascinated by Blyth's book, Robert reread it so many times the guard became afraid he'd break its spine and so reclaimed it. But through a fateful coincidence he and Blyth himself were transferred to the same camp. It was R.H Blyth's belief that "all that is good in European literature and culture is simply and solely that which is in accordance with the Spirit of Zen." He thereafter applied himself to the task of searching the writings of East and West in an attempt to discover that Spirit. Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics embraces the classical literature of China and Japan and the whole. Blyth's early publication 'Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics', published when he was interned in Japan during World War II, and his Zen and Zen Classics Series exerted a significant influence on the Western Writers'- and Zen-community, although nearly all of his books were published in Japan only.
Blyth has a deep appreciation of Zen and haiku and literature and sees how a certain kind of insight and experience turns into a profound text — can be extremely simple language and content but immensely moving and deep. Zen in English literature and oriental classics Item Preview Zen in English literature and oriental classics by Blyth, Reginald Horace. Publication date R H Blyth, one of the first Westerners to seriously study and write about Zen Buddhism, sets out to show the nature of Zen and how it is expressed (and not expressed) in English literature and Oriental classics.
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