Branching streams flow in the darkness

the long version

"The Sandokai - a poem by the eighth-century Zen master Sekito Kisen (Ch. Shitou Xiqian) - is the subject of these talks given by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, author of the influential Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Delivered in 1970 at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the teachings reveal a Zen teacher in his prime elucidating for his Western students a venerated, ancient, and difficult work, one of the core texts of Zen. The poem addresses the question of how the oneness of things and the multiplicity of things coexist (or, as Suzuki Roshi expresses this complex thought, "things-as-it-is"). Included with the talks are questions from students and his direct answers to them, along with a meditation instruction."--BOOK JACKET.