• 1. Textuality: the 'dependent origination' of Huang Po; 2. Reading: the practice of insight; 3. Understanding: the context of enlightenment; 4. Language: the sphere of immediacy; 5. Rhetoric: the instrument of meditation; 6. History: the genealogy of mind; 7. Freedom: the practice of constraint; 8. Transcendence: 'going beyond' Huang Po; 9. Mind: the 'Great Matter'of Zen; 10. Enlightenment: the awakening of mind; Conclusion: Zen in theory and practice.

'One of the last great books of the century is Dale Wright's critical philosophical meditations on Huang Po … it represents a culmination of the kind of twentieth century approach to philosophy exemplified by Blofeld, while also marking a transition to a next-century philosophical methodology that is sensitive to the nuances of textual history and the significance of grounding a critical discussion of metaphysical issues in an insightful understanding of the historicity of Huang Po's life and times … It is clear that Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism, written in a lucid and evocative, yet jargon-free, no-nonsense style will quickly become a standard work for scholars and students interested in an intensive, detailed study of a leading exponent of the classical age of Zen thought.' Steven Heine, Journal of Buddhist Ethics