#000581
The Complete Book of Zen
Wong Kiew Kit
A wide-angle popular introduction to Zen by Wong Kiew Kit, a Malaysian Shaolin and chi kung master who writes from inside the tradition rather than as a detached scholar. The book traces Zen's migration from India through China — where it fused with a Taoist sensibility as Chan — and on to Japan and Vietnam, then turns to its principles and practice: meditation, the koan, the lineage of patriarchs, and Zen's links to the martial and healing arts. Wong's approach is practical and enthusiastic, aimed at the general reader curious about how Zen might be lived rather than merely studied. It's an accessible on-ramp, though one colored throughout by the author's own Shaolin Wahnam school and its particular claims about chi kung.
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The author
Wong Kiew Kit (b. 1944) is a Malaysian master of Shaolin kungfu and chi kung who presents himself as a fourth-generation successor in a Shaolin lineage and founded the Shaolin Wahnam Institute, which has taught students internationally. He was named "Chi Kung Master of the Year" at a 1997 chi kung congress in San Francisco. Readers should know that his more expansive claims — particularly that chi kung can cure chronic and serious illnesses — are promotional and lack scientific validation, and are regarded skeptically outside his own school.
The book
The Complete Book of Zen (Element Books, 1998) surveys Zen's history from Bodhidharma's India through China, Japan, and Vietnam, then lays out its principles and practices: seated meditation, koan work, the patriarchal lineage, and connections to the martial and healing arts.
How it reads
Friendly and practical, an easy entry point, but written from a practitioner's advocacy rather than a historian's remove; some claims about chi and enlightenment are asserted rather than examined.
For more context
Standard scholarly histories of Chan and Zen (Dumoulin, McRae) give the academic version; Wong's own institute lists his many books.
Sources - The Complete Book of Zen — Goodreads - Books by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Wong Kiew Kit
- Publisher
- Element Books
- Year
- 1998
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Spirituality & Philosophy
- Location
- Colorado
Places