In Japan, the traditional Rinzai Zen koan curriculum includes the use of jakugo, or "capping phrases." Once a monk has successfully replied to a koan, the Zen master orders the search for a classical verse to express the monk's insight into the koan. Special collections of these jakugo were compiled as handbooks to aid in that search. Until now, Zen students in the West, lacking this important resource, have been severely limited in carrying out this practice. Zen Sand combines and translates two standard jakugo handbooks and opens the way for incorporating this important tradition fully into Western Zen practice.

For the scholar, Zen Sand provides a detailed description of the jakugo practice and its place in the overall koan curriculum, as well as a brief history of the Zen phrase book. This volume also contributes to the understanding of East Asian culture in a broader sense. Many of the capping phrases contained in its pages are drawn from the sayings of celebrated Zen masters, Buddhist sutras, classic Taoist and Confucian texts, and famous Chinese histories and poems. The phrases are full of allusions to persons and events from Chinese history and literature (particularly of the Tang period), many of them obscure and known only to specialists. Zen Sand helps to fill this gap with an extensive glossary of the literary and historical figures and images found there.