Download or read book Zen in America written by Helen Tworkov and published by Kodansha. This book was released on 1994 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This expanded edition of the highly acclaimed investigation of Zen teaching in America, by the founder and editor of America's first Buddhist magazine, lays bare the issues at the heart of the Zen mission. Through in-depth portraits of five American Zen masters, Tworkov creates a trenchant sociological picture of an important strand of American spiritual life. 27 photos.
Download or read book A Glimpse of Nothingness written by Janwillem van de Wetering and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In A Glimpse of Nothingness, celebrated mystery novelist Janwillem van de Wetering offers a sequel to his earlier memoir, The Empty Mirror, which concerned the author's experiences at a Zen monastery in Japan in the middle 1960s. Originally published in 1975, A Glimpse of Nothingness chronicles van de Wetering's time at the Moon Springs Hermitage in Maine. The book offers a complete and compelling description of the Zen path pursued by one sensitive Westerner who began his quest by seeking for the sense of it all-and who eventually came to realize at least a part of it. The follow-up to this book is van de Wetering's Afterzen.
Download or read book One Bird One Stone written by and published by Renaissance Books. This book was released on 2002-04-20 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One Bird, One Stone is a distinctly American take on the ancient tradition and practice of Zen Buddhism. Drawn from the archives of major Zen centers in America and interviews with some of the most seminal figures of American Zen, including Philip Kapleau, Bernie Glassman, and Walter Nowick, One Bird, One Stone presents the notable encounters between teachers and students, the moments of insight and wisdom, the quotable quotes, and the humor of Zen as it has flowered in America over the last hundred-plus years.
Download or read book Zen Mind Beginner s Mind written by Shunryu Suzuki and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2020-06-02 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named one of the 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Twentieth Century (Spirituality & Practice) A 50th Anniversary edition of the bestselling Zen classic on meditation, maintaining a curious and open mind, and living with simplicity. "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few." So begins this most beloved of all American Zen books. Seldom has such a small handful of words provided a teaching as rich as has this famous opening line. In a single stroke, the simple sentence cuts through the pervasive tendency students have of getting so close to Zen as to completely miss what it's all about. It is an instant teaching on the first page--and that's just the beginning. In the fifty years since its original publication, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind has become one of the great modern spiritual classics, much beloved, much reread, and much recommended as the best first book to read on Zen. Suzuki Roshi presents the basics--from the details of posture and breathing in zazen to the perception of nonduality--in a way that is not only remarkably clear, but that also resonates with the joy of insight from the first to the last page.
Download or read book Zen Conversations written by Richard Bryan McDaniel and published by . This book was released on 2021-06-21 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 42 Zen Teachers talk about the scope of Zen teaching and practice in North America ... Discovering Zen / The Function of Zen / Zen Practice / Adapting Zen to the West / Compassionate Action / Ecodharma Geoffrey Shugen Arnold / Chimyo Atkinson / Mitra Bishop / Melissa Myozen Blacker / Domyo Burk / Shinge Chayat / Wayne Coger / Mike Fieleke / Diane Fitzgerald / Koun Franz / Patrick Gallagher / Genru Gauntt / Bernie Glassman / Sunyana Graef / Ruben Habito / Taigen Henderson / Robert Kennedy / Bodhin Kjolhede / Rebecca Li / Albert Low / David Loy / Elaine MacInnes / Genjo Marinello / Myokyo McLean / Seiho Morris / John Negru / Dang Nghiem / Rinzan Pechovnik / Phap Vu / Dosho Port / Yoshin Radin / Bobbie Rhodes / David Dae An Rynick / Hozan Alan Senauke / Henry Shukman / Shodo Spring / Joan Sutherland / John Tarrant / Robert Waldinger / Rinsen Weik / Zen Mountain Monastery / Tetsugan Zummach
Download or read book Zen at War written by Brian Daizen Victoria and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2006-06-22 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling history of the contradictory, often militaristic, role of Zen Buddhism, this book meticulously documents the close and previously unknown support of a supposedly peaceful religion for Japanese militarism throughout World War II. Drawing on the writings and speeches of leading Zen masters and scholars, Brian Victoria shows that Zen served as a powerful foundation for the fanatical and suicidal spirit displayed by the imperial Japanese military. At the same time, the author recounts the dramatic and tragic stories of the handful of Buddhist organizations and individuals that dared to oppose Japan's march to war. He follows this history up through recent apologies by several Zen sects for their support of the war and the way support for militarism was transformed into 'corporate Zen' in postwar Japan. The second edition includes a substantive new chapter on the roots of Zen militarism and an epilogue that explores the potentially volatile mix of religion and war. With the increasing interest in Buddhism in the West, this book is as timely as it is certain to be controversial.
Download or read book Taking the Path of Zen written by Robert Aitken and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2015-12-15 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a fine art to presenting complex ideas with simplicity and insight, in a manner that both guides and inspires. In Taking the Path of Zen Robert Aitken presents the practice, lifestyle, rationale, and ideology of Zen Buddhism with remarkable clarity. The foundation of Zen is the practice of zazen, or mediation, and Aitken Roshi insists that everything flows from the center. He discusses correct breathing, posture, routine, teacher-student relations, and koan study, as well as common problems and milestones encountered in the process. Throughout the book the author returns to zazen, offering further advice and more advanced techniques. The orientation extends to various religious attitudes and includes detailed discussions of the Three Treasures and the Ten Precepts of Zen Buddhism. Taking the Path of Zen will serve as orientation and guide for anyone who is drawn to the ways of Zen, from the simply curious to the serious Zen student.
Download or read book Silence and Noise written by Ivan Richmond and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh new voice in American Buddhism -- a twenty-nine-year-old raised among Buddhists in California -- offers wisdom for both longtime practitioners and a new generation of students in this fascinating memoir of his Zen upbringing. Over half a century ago, when the first Zen Masters came to America, eager young students in search of enlightenment flocked to hear their teachings. Many, like Ivan Richmond's parents, became Buddhist teachers themselves while raising their children at monasteries and retreat centers. Growing up in the seventies in the deliberate silence of a Buddhist community, young Ivan knew only the hippies and redwoods of Northern California. When his family left in 1983, he became an immigrant in his own country, suddenly entering a mainstream society that was full of paradox and pop culture, uncertainty and noise. This is the story of his struggle to find peace amidst the chaos. Whether dispensing kernels of Buddhist insight taught to him as a child or reflecting on the merits of rock concerts, Richmond narrates his emergence from seclusion with a sensitivity that is often touching, frequently funny, and always honest. The story of the powerfully resonant journey of this foot soldier in the front lines of American Buddhism is an essential read for anyone interested in the current state of Zen in America.
Download or read book Zen Master Who written by James Ishmael Ford and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-10-20 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surprisingly little has been written about how Zen came to North America. "Zen Master Who?" does that and much more. Author James Ishmael Ford, a renowned Zen master in two lineages, traces the tradition's history in Asia, looking at some of its most important figures -- the Buddha himself, and the handful of Indian, Chinese, and Japanese masters who gave the Zen school its shape. It also outlines the challenges that occurred as Zen became integrated into western consciousness, and the state of Zen in North America today. The author includes profiles of modern Zen teachers and institutions, including D. T. Suzuki and Alan Watts, and such topics as the emergence of liberal Buddhism, and Christians, Jews, and Zen. This engaging, accessible book is aimed at anyone interested in this tradition but who may not know how to start. Most importantly, it clarifies a great and ancient tradition for the contemporary seeker.
Download or read book Shoes Outside the Door written by Michael Downing and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2002-08-15 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A close-up look at the scandals that rocked the San Francisco Zen Center, a leader in alternative religious practice and the counterculture in America, and their repercussions. The remarkable forty-year history of the people who established the first Buddhist monastery outside of Asia in the history of the world has never been told. Michael Downing wondered why. "I'm living proof of why you better not speak out," explained one ordained Zen priest. "The degree to which I was scapegoated publicly was most effective in keeping everyone else quiet." In 1959, a Soto Zen priest took leave of his family in Japan to minister to the congregation of a Buddhist temple in San Francisco. Alan Watts and others spread the word that an authentic Zen Roshi was living there, and students, poets, drifters, and seekers began to attend his lectures. Impressed by their sincerity and commitment, Suzuki Roshi began to offer instruction in zazen (meditation) and other Buddhist practices to these devoted young spiritual pioneers. The San Francisco Zen Center was born. And then, in 1983, meltdown. A sex scandal rocked Zen Center, and it triggered tragedies and headlines about abuse of power that called into question the whole matter of alternative religious practice in America. Overnight the most prominent community of Buddhists in the West found itself at the vanguard of a cultural revolt against spiritual authority. For Shoes Outside the Door, Michael Downing spent three years studying documents and interviewing more than eighty people who were there, at ground zero. As engaging as any mystery, as mysterious as any political campaign, as political as any family gathering, this story will haunt and challenge readers as they unravel this essential chapter of American history.
Download or read book American Dharma written by Ann Gleig and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past couple of decades have witnessed Buddhist communities both continuing the modernization of Buddhism and questioning some of its limitations. In this fascinating portrait of a rapidly changing religious landscape, Ann Gleig illuminates the aspirations and struggles of younger North American Buddhists during a period she identifies as a distinct stage in the assimilation of Buddhism to the West. She observes both the emergence of new innovative forms of deinstitutionalized Buddhism that blur the boundaries between the religious and secular, and a revalorization of traditional elements of Buddhism such as ethics and community that were discarded in the modernization process. Based on extensive ethnographic and textual research, the book ranges from mindfulness debates in the Vipassana network to the sex scandals in American Zen, while exploring issues around racial diversity and social justice, the impact of new technologies, and generational differences between baby boomer, Gen X, and millennial teachers.
Download or read book Keep Me in Your Heart a While written by Dosho Port and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-10 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the great pioneers of Zen in America, Dainin Katagiri had a teaching style that was at once powerful, gentle, and sometimes even casual. For his student, Dosho Mike Port, some of Katagiri's most profound teachings came in the simple moments of everyday interactions. Keep Me in Your Heart a While is built around a series of these vivid, truth-revealing incidents that evoke the feel of ancient Zen koans. Each chapter starts with an encounter with Katagiri and unfolds from there, touching on subjects such as the nature and the purpose of Zen, the dynamic and working of realization, and the evolving relationship between teacher and student. In sharing what it was like to train with one of the first generation of American Zen teachers, Dosho Mike Port preserves and revitalizes this incredible path, making it available to the next generation of seekers.
Download or read book Holding the Lotus to the Rock written by Shigetsu Sasaki and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the pioneers of American Zen Buddhism tells his own story of spiritual evangelism on American shores, from his wanderings in the American West to his troublesome dealings with the FBI and his eventual founding of the First Zen Institute of America.
Download or read book Zen Buddhism written by Daisetz T. Suzuki and published by Harmony. This book was released on 1996-07-01 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No other figure in history has played a bigger part in opening the West to Buddhism than the eminent Zen author, D.T. Suzuki, and in this reissue of his best work readers are given the very heart of Zen teaching. Zen Buddhism, which sold more than 125,000 as an Anchor paperback after its publication in 1956, includes a basic historical background as well as a thorough overview of the techniques for Zen practice. Concepts and terminology such as satori, zazen, and koans, as well as the various elements of this philosophy are all given clear explanations. But while Suzuki takes nothing for granted in the reader's understanding of the fundamentals, he does not give a merely rudimentary overview. Each of the essays included here, particularly those on the unconscious mind and the relation of Zen to Western philosophy, go far beyond other sources for their penetrating insights and timeless wisdom. What is most important about D.T. Suzuki's work, however--and what comes across so powerfully in these selections--is his unparalleled ability to communicate the experiential aspect of Zen. The intensity here with which Zen philosophy comes to life is without parallel in the canon of Buddhist literature. Suzuki stands apart from all teachers before or since because of his exceptional ability to eloquently capture in words the seemingly inexpressible essence of Zen.
Download or read book Eat Sleep Sit written by Kaoru Nonomura and published by Kodansha USA. This book was released on 2010-08-05 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the age of thirty, Kaoru Nonomura left his family, his girlfriend, and his job as a designer to undertake a year of ascetic training at Eiheiji, one of the most rigorous Zen training temples in Japan. This book is Nonomura's account of his experiences. He skillfully describes every aspect of training, including how to meditate, how to eat, how to wash, and even how to use the toilet, in a way that is easy to understand even for readers with no knowledge of Zen Buddhism. This first-person account also describes Nonomura's struggles in the face of beatings, hunger, exhaustion, fear, and loneliness, the comfort he draws from his friendships with the other trainees, and his quiet determination to give his life spiritual meaning. After writing Eat Sleep Sit, Kaoru Nonomura returned to his normal life as a designer, but his book has maintained its popularity in Japan, selling more than 100,000 copies since its first printing in 1996. Beautifully written, and a fascinating insight into a lifestyle of hardships that few people could endure, this is a book that will appeal to all those with an interest in Zen Buddhism and to anyone with an interest in the quest for spiritual growth.
Download or read book Zen Odyssey written by Janica Anderson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-01-19 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explore two lives—and a relationship—that profoundly shaped American Zen. Ruth Fuller Sasaki and Sokei-an Shigetsu Sasaki: two pioneers of Zen in the West. Ruth was an American with a privileged life, even during the height of the Great Depression, before she went to Japan and met D. T. Suzuki. Sokei-an was one of the first Zen priests to come to America; he brought the gift of the Dharma to the United States but in 1942 was put in an internment camp. One made his way to the West and the other would find her way to the East, but together they created the First Zen Institute of America and helped birth a new generation of Zen practitioners: among them, Alan Watts, Gary Snyder, and Burton Watson. They were married less than a year before Sokei-an died, but Ruth would go on to helm trailblazing translations in his honor and to become the first foreigner to be the priest of a Rinzai Zen temple in Japan. With lyrical prose, authors Steven Schwartz and Janica Anderson bring Ruth and Sokei-an to life. Two dozen intimate photographs photos show us two people who aren’t mere historical figures, but flesh and blood people, walking their paths.
Download or read book Zen Confidential written by Shozan Jack Haubner and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A screenwriter and stand-up comic’s hilarious and profound account of his journey into Zen monkhood—featuring a foreword by Leonard Cohen Shozan Jack Haubner is the David Sedaris of Zen Buddhism: a brilliant humorist and analyst of human foibles, whose hilarity is informed by the profound insights that have dawned on him—as he's stumbled and fallen into spirituall practice. Raised in a truly strange family of Mel-Gibson-esque Catholic extremists, he went on to study philosophy (becoming very un-Catholic in the process) and to pursue a career as a screenwriter and stand-up comic in the clubs of L.A. How he went from life in the fast lane to life on the stationary meditation cushion is the subject of this laugh-out-loud funny account of his experiences. Whether he’s dealing with the pranks of a juvenile delinquent assistant in the monastery kitchen or experiencing profound compassion in the presence of his spiritual teacher, Haubner’s voice is one you'll be compelled to listen to. Not only because it’s highly entertaining, but because of its remarkable insight into the human condition.
