Ian Kilroy

Songs from the Denkoroku Ian Kilroy

Songs from the Denkoroku is a series of poems inspired by Zen Master Keizan's Record of Transmitting the Light, a classic of Zen Buddhist literature. Each poem in the sequence is based on the enlightenment experience of the historical Buddha, onwards through the successive generations of Zen teachers, up to Master Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen Buddhism, and beyond. The writing of these poems was suggested by the author's Zen teacher, Taigu Turlur, as a preparation for the author's own Dharma Transmission, as he became the 93rd in the line of succession, a line that stretches back to the Buddha's original awakening under the Bodhi tree, some 2,500 years ago. The poems are teachings in themselves, capturing the spirit of Zen's 'direct pointing to reality' - a spiritual tradition whose profound teachings awaken us to the true nature of reality, and that reconciles us with our place in it.