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Endless Vow is the first English-language collection of the literary works of Soen Nakagawa Roshi. An intimate, in-depth portrait of the master of Eido Tai Shimano, his Dharma heir, introduces the poems, letters, journal entries, and other writings of Soen Roshi, which are illustrated with his calligraphies. In a postscript, some of his best-known American students—including Peter Matthiessen and Ruth McCandless—reminisce about this legendary figure of American Buddhist history.
A Sot Zen priest and Dharma successor of Kosho Uchiyama Roshi explores eight of Zen's most essential and universal liturgical texts and explains how the chants in these works support meditation and promote a life of freedom and compassion.
At one time or another, most of us have experienced an all-consuming desire for a material object, a desire so strong that it seems like we couldn't possibly be happy without buying this thing. Yet, when we give in to this impulse, we often find ourselves feeling frustrated and empty. Advertisers, of course, aim to hook us in this way, and, from a global perspective, our tendency to get hooked fuels the rampant over-consumption that is having a devastating impact on the world's stability and on the environment. According to the contributors to this unique anthology, Buddhism can shed valuable light on our compulsions to consume. Craving and attachment—how they arise and how to free ourselves of them—are central themes of Buddhist thought. The writings in this volume, most of which have never been previously published, offer fresh perspectives and much-needed correctives to our society's tendency to believe that having more will make us happier. Hooked! includes a range of writings on how to apply Buddhist thought and ethics to understand and combat the problem of over-consumption as individuals and collectively. Contributors include popular Western teachers, Asian masters, scholars, and practitioners such as: • Pema Chödrön—on what is actually happening at the moment we're "hooked," and how to get beyond that. • Joseph Goldstein—on how mindfulness training can help us stop "wanting to want." • Bhikshuni Thubten Chödrön—on how consumer mentality influences spiritual practice. • Judith Simmer-Brown—on how cultivating spiritually based activism and compassionate action can help us address the negative effects of consumerism. • Rita Gross—on how understanding moderation can curb overconsumption. • Santikaro Bhikkhu—on practicing generosity in a consumer world.
A vow is like a GPS system for your life. When taken on mindfully it can be a source of surprising wisdom and powerful energy, enabling you to accomplish things you never dreamed possible. It can have profound effects even beyond the original intention—and it can even live on after you’re gone. A vow can be as small as the aspiration to smile at someone at least once every day, or it can be as big as marriage; it can be as personal as deciding to be mindful whenever you pick up the phone, or it can be as universal as a commitment to save all sentient beings. But whatever its inspiration, when it’s done with conscious intention a vow becomes a conduit for the energy of your life. In this guide to the vow-directed life, Jan Chozen Bays provides a wealth of practical exercises to use for formulating and implementing vows of your own and for using them to navigate your life with honesty and compassion.
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.
As recently as a few decades ago, most people would have described America as a predominantly Protestant nation. Today, we are home to a colorful mix of religious faiths and practices, from a resurgent Catholic Church and a rapidly growing Islam to all forms of Buddhism and many other non-Christian religions. How did this startling transformation take place? A great many factors contributed to this transformation, writes Amanda Porterfield in this engaging look at religion in contemporary America. Religious activism, disillusionment with American culture stemming from the Vietnam war, the influx of Buddhist ideas, a heightened consciousness of gender, and the vastly broadened awareness of non-Christian religions arising from the growth of religious studies programs--all have served to undermine Protestant hegemony in the United States. But the single most important factor, says Porterfield, was the very success of Protestant ways of thinking: emphasis on the individual's relationship with God, tension between spiritual life and religious institutions, egalitarian ideas about spiritual life, and belief in the practical benefits of spirituality. Distrust of religious institutions, for instance, helped fuel a religious counterculture--the tendency to define spiritual truth against the dangers or inadequacies of the surrounding culture--and Protestantism's pragmatic view of spirituality played into the tendency to see the main function of religion as therapeutic. For anyone interested in how and why the American religious landscape has been so dramatically altered in the last forty years, The Transformation of Religion in America offers a coherent and persuasive analysis.
While the world's major religions differ in their beliefs, they share common spiritual values. Although Christians and Muslims disagree about the divinity of Jesus, the New Testament and the Qur'an affirm a common set of spiritual virtues that are also found in Hinduism and Buddhism. For Christians, the fundamental spiritual virtues are most memorably stated in the Beatitudes that begin the Sermon on the Mount. Strangers on the Shore explores the virtues in the Beatitudes as they are expressed in the New Testament, the Muslim Qur'an, the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, and the writings and traditions of Buddhism.
Just as D.T. Suzuki introduced the West to Zen philosophy, Nyogen Senzaki introduced the West to Zen practice. One of the first Zen masters to emigrate from Japan to the United States, Senzaki became the first great Buddhist teacher to fully immerse himself in the everyday life of the West, and his teachings and practice-centers influences a generation of Western Zen practitioners. "Like a Dream, Like a Fantasy" offers an intimate, in-depth look at one of Zen's earliest American teachers. The book features over 40 separate pieces, including essential talks, essays, and poetry. These works not only offer instruction in Zen, but also reveal Senzaki as a man and provide a rare look into the pioneer days of Zen in America. A striking collection that resonates both as a chronicle and a companion, "Like a Dream, Like a Fantasy" is a powerful and informative title that sparkles with numerous treasures.
"An unforgettable account, crackling with energy and full of heart, of how one man discovers the twin worlds of the martial arts and Buddhist practice. This is the kind of book that can change your life." -- Philip Zaleski, Editor of The Best Spiritual Writing series, author of Gifts of the Spirit and The Recollected Heart
An intimate mystery encompasses you and tugs upon your heart—what does it mean to follow that tug across the arc of a spiritual life? Reflecting out of more than fifty years of practice in Zen Buddhism, Unitarian Universalism, and other contemplative traditions, James Ishmael Ford invites us into a journey through life's mysteries and the stages of spiritual development. Lightly structured by the archetypal Buddhist oxherding images, Ford’s exploration is rooted in the Zen way while being deeply enriched by various strains of world mysticism. The book, sprinkled with insights and quotes from Buddhist, Daoist, and Christian traditions, serves as a map and a companion to spiritual seekers or pilgrims—whether within one religious tradition or cobbling together a way of one’s own. “Here is the most natural of all natural experiences,” writes Ford. “In the midst of our suffering, our longing, our desperation, we capture a glimpse. Something touches us. And with that, if we are lucky and really notice some movement of some spirit within us, we turn our attention to the intimate way.”