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The journey of Buddhism over centuries, from India to China and then to Japan, is the stuff of mythology. But now, in our own time, we have witnessed and documented its historic crossing of the Pacific and its subsequent evolution in the Americas and Europe. In 1982, writer Peter Muryo Matthiessen, the first dharma successor of Roshi Bernie Glassman, traveled with Glassman to pay respects to the teachers in their lineage, some of the great living Zen masters of twentieth–century Japan. What took place was an important meeting of minds representing the past, present, and future of Zen practice, an intimate connection between ancestors and descendants marking a critical point in the Zen journey from the East to the West. This historic event was captured in the moment by the selective lens of Peter Cunningham. Matthiessen's exquisite poetic accounts of this pilgrimage, which formed a part of his book Nine–Headed Dragon River, accompany the photos.
Long Strange Journey presents the first critical analysis of visual objects and discourses that animate Zen art modernism and its legacies, with particular emphasis on the postwar “Zen boom.” Since the late nineteenth century, Zen and Zen art have emerged as globally familiar terms associated with a spectrum of practices, beliefs, works of visual art, aesthetic concepts, commercial products, and modes of self-fashioning. They have also been at the center of fiery public disputes that have erupted along national, denominational, racial-ethnic, class, and intellectual lines. Neither stable nor strictly a matter of euphoric religious or intercultural exchange, Zen and Zen art are best approached as productive predicaments in the study of religion, spirituality, art, and consumer culture, especially within the frame of Buddhist modernism. Long Strange Journey’s modern-contemporary emphasis sets it off from most writing on Zen art, which focuses on masterworks by premodern Chinese and Japanese artists, gushes over “timeless” visual qualities as indicative of metaphysical states, or promotes with ahistorical, trend-spotting flair Zen art’s design appeal and therapeutic values. In contrast, the present work plots a methodological through line distinguished by “discourse analysis,” moving from the first contacts between Europe and Japanese Zen in the sixteenth century to late nineteenth–early twentieth-century transnational exchanges driven by Japanese Buddhists and intellectuals and the formation of a Zen art canon; to postwar Zen transformations of practice and avant-garde expressions; to popular embodiments of our “Zenny zeitgeist,” such as Zen cartoons. The book presents an alternative history of modern-contemporary Zen and Zen art that emphasizes their unruly and polythetic-prototypical natures, taking into consideration serious religious practice and spiritual and creative discovery as well as conflicts over Zen’s value amid the convolutions of global modernity, squabbles over authenticity, resistance against the notion of “Zen influence,” and competing claims to speak for Zen art made by monastics, lay advocates, artists, and others.
Combining humor, honesty, and plainspoken advice, Momma Zen distills the doubts and frustrations of motherhood into vignettes of Zen wisdom Drawing on her experience as a first-time mother and her years of Zen meditation and study, Karen Miller explores how the daily challenges of parenthood can become the most profound spiritual journey of our lives. Her compelling and wise memoir follows the timeline of early motherhood from pregnancy through toddlerhood. Momma Zen takes readers on a transformative journey, charting a mother’s growth beyond naive expectations and disorientation to finding fulfillment in ordinary tasks, developing greater self-awareness and acceptance—to the gradual discovery of "maternal bliss," a state of abiding happiness and ease that is available to us all. In her gentle and reassuring voice, Karen Miller convinces us that ancient and authentic spiritual lessons can be as familiar as a lullaby, as ordinary as pureed peas, and as frequent as a sleepless night. She offers encouragement for the hard days, consolation for the long haul, and the lightheartedness every new mom needs to face the crooked path of motherhood straight on.
Quest for Eternal Sunshine chronicles the triumphant, true story of Mendek Rubin, a brilliant inventor who overcame both the trauma of the Holocaust and decades of unrelenting depression to live a life of deep peace and boundless joy. Born into a Hassidic Jewish family in Poland in 1924, Mendek grew up surrounded by extreme anti-Semitism. Armed with an ingenious mind, he survived three horrific years in Nazi slave-labor concentration camps while virtually his entire family was murdered in Auschwitz. After arriving in America in 1946—despite having no money or professional skills—his inventions helped revolutionize both the jewelry and packaged-salad industries. Remarkably, Mendek also applied his ingenuity to his own psyche, developing innovative ways to heal his heart and end his emotional suffering. After Mendek died in 2012, his daughter, Myra Goodman, found an unfinished manuscript in which he’d revealed the intimate details of his healing journey. Quest for Eternal Sunshine—the extraordinary result of a posthumous father-daughter collaboration—tells Mendek’s whole story and is filled with eye-opening revelations, effective self-healing techniques, and profound wisdom that have the power to transform the way we live our lives. An inspirational biography of a Holocaust survivor overcoming depression and PTSD. An essential new addition to Jewish Holocaust history.
THE ZEN OF SOLO TRAVEL is a book about the healing power of motion. Author Michael Jason Sherman presents a fast-moving, powerful and often hilarious memoir about a solo journey he took to Japan, when he was seeking spiritual answers to real questions in his life - about marriage and divorce, fatherhood, career, emotional well-being and living one's personal destiny.The book is both a revealing story about a man seeking a higher version of himself, but also a series of spiritual principles about the Solo Traveler, a metaphor for all of us moving through the emotional journey of our daily lives. This unique book is mirroring itself - in that through reading, we learn about powerful principles from the world of Zen, Aikido, and other spiritual teachings, as we watch Michael discover these principles as he races around the subways, Buddhist temples, baseball stadiums, karaoke bars and other mystifying environs of Tokyo, Kyoto and other parts, discovering the secrets of Japan. For all the spiritual seekers out there, this book will help you connect to the larger landscape of yourselves. Through Michael's frenetic, reflective, and often side-splittingly funny narrative, the reader is able to imagine their own solo journey, It brings us back to ourselves, and to the movement that our spirit is calling us to. THE ZEN OF SOLO TRAVEL has inspired people from all over the world to pack their bags, jump in the car (or hop on a plane, train, uber and so on), in order to leave everything behind and connect to the healing power of the road. Inspired by Kerouac and other great writers, this book helps you feel alive, giving you the sense that the answers you need about real issues in your life can come to you through a meditation of motion that takes you away from your day-to-day situations. It a testament to what it means to take responsibility for our own healing journey, from the inside out.
Pithy phrases handed down through a distinguished line of Chinese and Japanese Zen masters.
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.
In this spiritual memoir chronicling the journey of a man who became both an ordained Zen meditation teacher and an ordained priest in the Lutheran Church of Sweden, Gustav Ericsson shares reflections and glimpses into the story of how he learned to stop and sit down, be still and listen. Artfully crafted around a travel journal from a deeply reflective trip to Japan, My Christian Journey with Zen is an expression of the author's spiritual path, focusing on how his meditation practice has grown in both his life and in his service as a parish priest and hospital chaplain.
A “straightforward, simple, and wise” guide to living an awakened life through mindfulness and meditation (Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart) We can use whatever life presents to strengthen our spiritual practice—including the turmoil of daily life. What we need is the willingness to just be with our experiences—whether they are painful or pleasing—and open ourselves to the reality of our lives without trying to fix or change anything. But doing this requires that we confront our most deeply rooted fears and assumptions in order to gradually become free of the constrictions and suffering they create. Then we can awaken to the loving-kindness that is at the heart of our being. While many books aspire to bring meditation into everyday experience, Ezra Bayda's Being Zen gives us practical ways to actually do it, introducing techniques that enable the reader to foster qualities essential to continued spiritual awakening. Topics include how to cultivate: • Perseverance: staying with anger, fear, and other distressing emotions. • Stillness: abiding with chaotic experiences without becoming overwhelmed. • Clarity: seeing through the conditioned beliefs and fears that "run" us. • Direct experience: encountering the physical reality of the present moment—even when that moment is exactly where we don't want to be. Like Pema Chödrön, the best-selling author of When Things Fall Apart, Ezra Bayda writes with clear, heartfelt simplicity, using his own life stories to illustrate the teachings in an immediate and accessible way that will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers.
One hundred poems by a revered Japanese Zen master.