• The Faith to Doubt: Glimpses of Buddhist Uncertainty — Stephen Batchelor. Counterpoint / Berkeley, 2015 (first published Parallax Press, 1990).
A reflection on ganhwa seon and the spirit of questioning at the heart of Zen Buddhist practice.

​

• What Is This? Ancient Questions for Modern Minds — Martine & Stephen Batchelor (The Tuwhiri Project, 2023)

Retreat talks on the practice of ganhwa seon. Accompanying book to The Faith to Doubt: Glimpses of Buddhist Uncertainty.

• The Way of Korean Zen — Kusan Sunim (Shambhala, 2009).

A presentation of the Korean Zen tradition and ganhwa seon by one of the greatest zen masters of the 20th century.

• Shattering the Great Doubt: The Chan Practice of Huatou — Sheng Yen (Shambhala, 2009)
Talks from Sheng Yen’s huatou (hwadu) meditation retreats.
 

• Knocking Gently on the Door of Chan: On the Practice of Huatou — Chan Master Guo Ru (Chan Grove, 2014)

A modern handbook on taking a gentle approach to the practice of huatou (hwadu) practice.

• The Letters of Chan Master Dahui Pujue — Jeffrey L. Broughton and Elise Yoko Watanabe (Oxford University Press, 2017)

Classic huatou instructions in letter form from the systematizer and propagator of ganhwa seon practice.

• The Recorded Sayings of Chan Master Zhongfeng Mingben — Jeffrey L. Broughton (tr.). Oxford University Press, 2023.
Writings of a Yuan-era master influential across East Asia. His letters to Zen practitioners at the back of the book are particularly helpful.

We also recommend the online ganhwa seon course by Haemin Sunim, one of our visiting teachers.

The Tallahassee Chan Center has created a playlist of videos by GuoGu that is a good introduction to the practice of huatou (hwadu) meditation.