Download or read book Reading Zen in the Rocks written by François Berthier and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2005-05 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic essay on the "karesansui" garden by French art historian Berthier has now been translated by Graham Parkes, giving English-speaking readers a concise, thorough, and beautifully illustrated history of Zen rock gardens. 37 halftones.

Download or read book The Book of Tea written by Kakuzo Okakura and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2006 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Book of Tea is a brief but classic essay on tea drinking, its history, restorative powers, and rich connection to Japanese culture. Okakura felt that "Teaism" was at the very center of Japanese life and helped shape everything from art, aesthetics, and an appreciation for the ephemeral to architecture, design, gardens, and painting. In tea could be found one source of what Okakura felt was Japan's and, by extension, Asia's unique power to influence the world. Containing both a history of tea in Japan and lucid, wide-ranging comments on the schools of tea, Zen, Taoism, flower arranging, and the tea ceremony and its tea-masters, this book is deservedly a timeless classic and will be of interest to anyone interested in the Japanese arts and ways. Book jacket.

Download or read book Zen Training written by Katsuki Sekida and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2005-09-13 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pioneering guide to zazen—Zen-style seated meditation—provides practical instructions on how to begin or elevate your practice and progress along the Zen path Zen Training is a comprehensive handbook for zazen, seated meditation practice, and an authoritative presentation of the Zen path. The book marked a turning point in Zen literature in its critical reevaluation of the enlightenment experience, which the author believes has often been emphasized at the expense of other important aspects of Zen training. In addition, Zen Training goes beyond the first flashes of enlightenment to explore how one lives as well as trains in Zen. The author also draws many significant parallels between Zen and Western philosophy and psychology, comparing traditional Zen concepts with the theories of being and cognition of such thinkers as Heidegger and Husserl.

Download or read book Zen Poems written by Peter Harris and published by Everyman's Library. This book was released on 1999-03-23 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The appreciation of Zen philosophy and art has become universal, and Zen poetry, with its simple expression of direct, intuitive insight and sudden enlightenment, appeals to lovers of poetry, spirituality, and beauty everywhere. This collection of translations of the classical Zen poets of China, Japan, and Korea includes the work of Zen practitioners and monks as well as scholars, artists, travelers, and recluses, ranging from Wang Wei, Hanshan, and Yang Wanli, to Shinkei, Basho, and Ryokan.

Download or read book Authentic Japanese Gardens written by Yoko Kawaguchi and published by Fox Chapel Publishing. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This beautifully illustrated book offers a practical guide to recreating traditional Japanese-style gardens. Authentic Japanese Gardens is the only book that explains how non-Japanese plants and materials can be used to achieve the natural, minimalist look of Japanese garden designs. This revised, photo-heavy edition features new text and stunning new color photography. Now available in paperback and re-sized to 8.5” x 11”, this book was formerly published as Serene Gardens (ISBN: 978-1-78009-517-2).

Download or read book Japanese Death Poems written by and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 1998-04-15 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A wonderful introduction the Japanese tradition of jisei, this volume is crammed with exquisite, spontaneous verse and pithy, often hilarious, descriptions of the eccentric and committed monastics who wrote the poems." --Tricycle: The Buddhist Review Although the consciousness of death is, in most cultures, very much a part of life, this is perhaps nowhere more true than in Japan, where the approach of death has given rise to a centuries-old tradition of writing jisei, or the "death poem." Such a poem is often written in the very last moments of the poet's life. Hundreds of Japanese death poems, many with a commentary describing the circumstances of the poet's death, have been translated into English here, the vast majority of them for the first time. Yoel Hoffmann explores the attitudes and customs surrounding death in historical and present-day Japan and gives examples of how these have been reflected in the nation's literature in general. The development of writing jisei is then examined--from the longing poems of the early nobility and the more "masculine" verses of the samurai to the satirical death poems of later centuries. Zen Buddhist ideas about death are also described as a preface to the collection of Chinese death poems by Zen monks that are also included. Finally, the last section contains three hundred twenty haiku, some of which have never been assembled before, in English translation and romanized in Japanese.

Download or read book The Book of Bamboo written by David Farrelly and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bamboo’s amazing versatility, strength, and beauty have given it a larger role in human culture than any other plant. Both sustainable and plentiful, it has been used for millennia to make objects ranging from clothing and housing to more exotic luxuries like phonograph needles and children’s toys, to name but a few. This acclaimed sourcebook--part history, part illustrated catalog, part cultivation guide--details the myriad uses of bamboo, along with an immense bounty of information and lore on how to grow, maintain, and harvest this extraordinary plant; how to use it in craft and construction projects, including floors, fences, papers, and play equipment; and bamboo’s place in the literary, visual, and musical arts. An encyclopedic roster of more than 1,200 bamboo species is a book in itself, as is author David Farrelly’s A-to-Z catalog of artifacts made from bamboo: acupuncture needles, blowguns, bridges, kites, ships, violins, windmills, and a thousand other things. Strong, flexible, and beautiful in both its natural and finished states, bamboo is an abundant resource that could beneficially replace many less sustainable materials currently in use, and continue to transform our culture in the process.

Download or read book The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma written by Bodhidharma and published by North Point Press. This book was released on 2009-11-01 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fifth-century Indian Buddhist monk, Bodhidharma is credited with bringing Zen to China. Although the tradition that traces its ancestry back to him did not flourish until nearly two hundred years after his death, today millions of Zen Buddhists and students of kung fu claim him as their spiritual father. While others viewed Zen practice as a purification of the mind or a stage on the way to perfect enlightenment, Bodhidharma equated Zen with buddhahood and believed that it had a place in everyday life. Instead of telling his disciples to purify their minds, he pointed them to rock walls, to the movements of tigers and cranes, to a hollow reed floating across the Yangtze. This bilingual edition, the only volume of the great teacher's work currently available in English, presents four teachings in their entirety. "Outline of Practice" describes the four all-inclusive habits that lead to enlightenment, the "Bloodstream Sermon" exhorts students to seek the Buddha by seeing their own nature, the "Wake-up Sermon" defends his premise that the most essential method for reaching enlightenment is beholding the mind. The original Chinese text, presented on facing pages, is taken from a Ch'ing dynasty woodblock edition.

Download or read book Sound Of 1 Hand written by Out Of Print and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 1975-12-17 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When The Sound of the One Hand came out in Japan in 1916 it caused a scandal. Zen was a secretive practice, its wisdom relayed from master to novice in strictest privacy. That a handbook existed recording not only the riddling koans that are central to Zen teaching but also detailing the answers to them seemed to mark Zen as rote, not revelatory. For all that, The Sound of the One Hand opens the door to Zen like no other book. Including koans that go back to the master who first brought the koan teaching method from China to Japan in the eighteenth century, this book offers, in the words of the translator, editor, and Zen initiate Yoel Hoffmann, the clearest, most detailed, and most correct picture of Zen that can be found. What we have here is an extraordinary introduction to Zen thought as lived thought, a treasury of problems, paradoxes, and performance that will appeal to artists, writers, and philosophers as well as Buddhists and students of religion."

Download or read book Zen Sourcebook written by Stephen Addiss and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction by Paula Arai. This is the first collection to offer selections from the foundational texts of the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Zen traditions in a single volume. Through representative selections from their poetry, letters, sermons, and visual arts, the most important Zen Masters provide students with an engaging, cohesive introduction to the first 1200 years of this rich -- and often misunderstood -- tradition. A general introduction and notes provide historical, biographical, and cultural context; a note on translation, and a glossary of terms are also included.

Download or read book Let It Bleed written by Pamela Des Barres and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-04-18 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author of the international bestseller I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie, Pamela Des Barres shares with women the art of memoir writing. For the last fourteen years, Pamela Des Barres has been teaching an eight-week women's "femoir" writing workshop. She found that the music-loving ladies who showed up at her door had pent-up stories to tell. Many of them had read her two memoirs, which were wildly personal and deeply confessional, and felt comfortable opening up and experiencing that same freedom of expression. In this book, Des Barres guides women through the process of writing their memoirs. She has developed exercises to help her "dolls" recall, remember, relive, and reveal their memories, transgressions, temptations, their sleepless nights and brilliant afternoons, loves and losses, fears and regrets, secrets, sins, and sorrows. The assignments in Femoir have proven incredibly cathartic for her students. Just as intimate as one of her in-person workshops, this book includes some of Des Barres's own stories, as well as those of the women she's taught. Every person has an incredible story to tell—they just need to figure out how to tell it. By understanding themselves better through these writing exercises, women learn to be more fearless, free-spirited, and willing to try something new.

Download or read book The Art of Flint Knapping written by D. C. Waldorf and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Poison Blossoms From a Thicket of Thorn written by Hakuin Zenji and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2014-07-21 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hakuin Ekaku Zenji (1686–1769) was one of the greatest Zen masters ever to live. Originator of the famous koan "What is the sound of a single hand?" he is credited with reviving the Rinzai sect of Zen in Japan, and today all masters of that sect trace their lineage back to him. Through his numerous descendants, his influence is now felt worldwide, with his "Song of Zazen" chanted daily in temples around the globe. Norman Waddell has spent decades reading and translating Hakuin's vast writings. He has published several previous selections, all leading to his work on this monumental gathering, the Keiso Dokuzui, little known in Japan and never before translated into any foreign language. Interpreting such a text requires immersion in the material in its original language, as well as complete mastery of the available commentary. Probably no one alive is as fully prepared for this important and difficult task as Dr. Waddell. For this collection, Hakuin gathered together an enormous number and variety of pieces—commentaries, memorials, poems, koans, teisho (lectures), letters, and more. Having presented many of them live to the throng of students residing in and around his temple as well as to other audiences around the country,

Download or read book Japanese Americans written by Jonathan H. X. Lee and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-11-10 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive story of the complicated and rich story of the Japanese American experience-from immigration, to discrimination, to adaptation, achievement and contributions to the American mosaic. Japanese Americans: The History and Culture of a People highlights the enormous contributions of Japanese Americans in history, civil rights, politics, economic development, arts, literature, film, popular culture, sports, and religious landscapes. It not only provides context to important events in Japanese American history and in-depth information about the lives and backgrounds of well-known Japanese Americans, but also captures the essence of everyday life for Japanese Americans as they have adjusted their identities, established communities, and interacted with other ethnic groups. This innovative volume will become the standard resource for exploring why the Japanese came to the USA more than 130 years ago, where they settled, and what experiences played a role in forming the distinctive Japanese American identity.

Download or read book Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record written by Thomas Cleary and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2002-12-10 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Blue Cliff Record is a classic text of Zen Buddhism, designed to assist in the activation of dormant human potential. The core of this extraordinary work is a collection of one hundred traditional citations and stories, selected for their ability to bring about insight and enlightenment. These vignettes are known as gongan in Chinese and koan in Japanese. Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record is a fresh translation featuring newly translated commentary from two of the greatest Zen masters of early modern Japan, Hakuin Ekaku (1685–1768) of the Rinzai sect of Zen and Tenkei Denson (1648–1735) of the Soto sect of Zen. This translation and commentary on The Blue Cliff Record sheds new light on the meaning of this central Zen text.

Download or read book The Way of Chuang Tz written by Zhuangzi and published by New Directions Publishing. This book was released on 1965 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Free renderings of selections from the works of Chuang-tzŭ, taken from various translations.

Download or read book Opening the Hand of Thought written by Kosho Uchiyama and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2005-06-10 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over thirty years, Opening the Hand of Thought has offered an introduction to Zen Buddhism and meditation unmatched in clarity and power. This is the revised edition of Kosho Uchiyama's singularly incisive classic. This new edition contains even more useful material: new prefaces, an index, and extended endnotes, in addition to a revised glossary. As Jisho Warner writes in her preface, Opening the Hand of Thought "goes directly to the heart of Zen practice... showing how Zen Buddhism can be a deep and life-sustaining activity." She goes on to say, "Uchiyama looks at what a person is, what a self is, how to develop a true self not separate from all things, one that can settle in peace in the midst of life." By turns humorous, philosophical, and personal, Opening the Hand of Thought is above all a great book for the Buddhist practitioner. It's a perfect follow-up for the reader who has read Zen Meditation in Plain English and is especially useful for those who have not yet encountered a Zen teacher.