The book begins with a brief autobiography of Master Sheng-Yen, followed by the chapter on "The Ch'an Seven Day Retreat." Both of these were lectures given at the editor's request, to provide background for the book. The chapter on "Four Conditions For Practicing Ch'an" is actually an expansion of a previous retreat lecture, again, provided at the editor's request. All the other lectures are based on tape recorded transcripts of retreat lectures.

The major part of the book then consists of selections from among many lectures. The purpose was to present a broad picture of Master Sheng-Yen's methodology of meditation, and his explanation of the experience of enlightenment. The emphasis was to focus on the practice of meditation, and on guidelines for making progress.

Two long chapters, "On Silent Illumination" and "On Contemplating Mind, " are based on commentaries on poems by two famous Ch'an Masters, Hung-Chi, and Han-Shan. The poems are didactic, and are addressed to advanced practitioners. Master Sheng-Yen uses the poems as points of departure for his own commentary, which has its own focus in the actual retreat situation.

As presented, the talks are the end result of translation, transcription, and editing. Inevitably, this filtering results in some loss of the original flavor of Master Sheng-Yen's language and delivery. However, the translators and editors have strived to preserve the original sense and meaning of Master Sheng-Yen's words, while rendering them into acceptably good English. To the extent that this goal has not been achieved, the fault lies with the coordinating editor.