The Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of Arizona is honored to announce the receipt of a $5,000 Digitization Project Grant from Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK) America for 2025.
This generous grant supports our ongoing initiative, the "Digitization of Translation Notes of the Rinzai Roku," a foundational Zen Buddhist text attributed to Linji Yixuan (d. 866). The project aims to preserve and enhance access to critical scholarly materials related to the Rinzai Roku, thereby contributing to the broader field of Buddhist studies and facilitating future research endeavors.
The Center acquired a set of rare translation notes of the Rinzai Roku in the summer of 2017. These notes were the collaborative work of Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Philip Yampolsky, Burton Watson, Gary Snyder, Iriya Yoshitaka, and Yanagida Seizan, who participated in a translation project in the 1950s. The documents are currently preserved in the Center library. The Center is in the process of digitizing the physical copies and making them public.
The digitization project ensures that these materials are preserved for future generations, become accessible to scholars and students worldwide through the library system, and serve as invaluable resources for teaching translation studies and deepening our understanding of classical Zen texts.
We extend our sincere gratitude to BDK America for their support in preserving this significant piece of Buddhist scholarship. For more information about the project and to access digitized materials, please visit our Rare Buddhist Texts Archive at https://cbs.arizona.edu/projects/rare-buddhist-texts-archive.