Bringing together the meditation instructions and dharma talks given by Martine and Stephen Batchelor during a Sŏn (Chan/Zen) retreat at Gaia House, What is this? Ancient questions for modern minds takes us through the practice of radical questioning at the heart of the Korean Sŏn Buddhist tradition and suggests how we can benefit from this form of meditation today.
These talks illuminate how a practice that originated in China more than a thousand years ago can now draw on ideas from the natural sciences, ancient and modern western philosophy, Romantic poetry, and the early Buddhism of the Pali canon.
The reader can use the book both as a practice manual and as a companion in facing the challenge of living a fully human life in the contemporary world. To accompany each of the talks, Jim Champion has written a series of questions.
