Zen

The Zen Teaching of Huang-Po: On the Transmission of Mind

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" There seems to be unanimous agreement that this deceptively compact text repays careful digestion, a mine of wisdom compressed within its pages -for those prepared to dig it out. Huang Po's discourses (and the Wan Ling record) remain some the most lucid expositions of Zen. They were delivered when the Zen tradition was still fresh. Huang po's 'sermons' were addressed to practising Buddhists. They presuppose that you are 'looking' into the meaning hinted at - the 'MIND' - which is neither 'yours' nor 'mine' - and in that sense 'VOID' - yet
embraces everything in the phenomenal universe.

Zen is sometimes regarded as an 'obscure' doctrine, but Huang P'o sermons have a refreshing sense of focus. Skirting the boundaries of what is virtually indescribable, he necessarily ends up uttering paradoxes - sometimes paradox -within-paradox, within paradox - and yet, in such a way that it actually brings focus, 'jiggling' the mind out of its habitual tendency to cling to dualities and contraries. In short, it resumes its inherent condition. We don't 'do' it - 'IT' does itself. All we have to do - is to get out of the way.

Thus, Huang P'o's 'direct pointing to the Mind.'This is Zen as it was originally taught, before all the wrangling about 'fixed koans' and answers - or getting stuck with 'just sitting.'Huang P'o speaks with unshakeable conviction that we can AWAKEN RIGHT NOW - if we look into what he is saying. He doesn't want to tie anyone up. It has to be 'your own thing' - nobody else can do it for you. This is squeaky clean Dharma!

P.S Besides the Huang-Po material, Blofeld also translated
Hui-hai's 'Treatise on Entering the Gate to Sudden
Enlightenment.' Between them, these two Zen 'sermons'
represent some of most lucid expositions of Zen - ever
set down in writing. They posess astonishing focus and
compression, without a wasted word.
"

Publisher: Grove Press | More reviews: amazon.com

Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

by Dainin Katagiri

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"So much of our life squeeze revolves around the tension between impermanence and our interdependence with all sentient beings. This focus on the deeper nature of time and space is so richly presented, filled with examples that take a deeper understanding to the core of our bones.
"So if you want to know yourself and society as it really is and live comfortably in the transient reality of a moment, make your body and mind calm. Settle on yourself as if your body and mind were a huge building rising toward the sky from your round cusion. Open your mind again and again to see what impermanence means."
This will be a book always by my side. Highly recommended."

Publisher: Shambhala | More reviews: amazon.com

Zen of Seeing: Seeing/Drawing as Meditation

by Frederick Franck

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"I was overjoyed to see this book back in print. I bought, devoured, and used this book in 1975 as an art student. Have you ever been so interested in doing an activity that time seemed to stand still? When you stop, it's almost like waking up from a pleasant dream or coming home from a long trip. That's what Franck is writing about here: the process of taking a tiny element of nature, a leaf or a stick or a seashell, and getting to know it in an unbelievably intimate way by drawing it. It absolutely does not require artistic "ability" to do this. Nonartists will be astounded what an adventure it is to take an hour or two and do this activity. It is therapeutic. It feeds the soul on a level that is akin to meditation, hence the title. My drawing teacher said, "I am not going to teach you to draw, I am going to teach you to see." Franck does this, and weaves into the text Zen stories and koans that shed light on the reasons for doing this activity in the first place. Enlightenment can be found in the art of tea, in the art of archery, in chanting and meditating, and Franck has shown us that drawing is a very valid method to add to this list. Thank you to the person who decided to reintroduce this classic. When so many books focus on creativity as a way to succeed in business, it's refreshing to return to developing creativity for its own sake. Buy this book, but promise to also plop down under a tree somewhere and draw!"

Publisher: Vintage | More reviews: amazon.com

Buddha Mind, Buddha Body: Walking Toward Enlightenment

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Buddha Mind, Buddha Body expands upon the themes in Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Understanding Our Mind. It opens with the question: Is free will possible? This concept becomes a leitmotif as the author considers how the mind functions and how we can work with it to cultivate more freedom and understanding, how to be in closer touch with reality, and how to create the conditions for our own happiness. Nhat Hanh discusses the connection between psychology, neuroscience, and meditation. He describes the importance of creativity and visualization in a successful meditation practice, presents basic Buddhist practices (particularly walking and sitting meditation), and writes movingly about the importance of brotherhood and sisterhood in finding love, happiness, and harmonious coexistence with others. Punctuated with memorable stories from the life of the Buddha as well as anecdotes and observations from his own life, Buddha Mind, Buddha Body conveys powerful life lessons in Nhat Hanh’s characteristically light, humorous style.

Publisher: Parallax Press | More reviews: amazon.com

Zen And The Art Of Knitting: Exploring the Links Between Knitting, Spirituality, and Creativity

by Bernadette Murphy

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"My aunt taught me to knit when I was a little girl spending summers with her. My interest in the art has waxed and waned over the years as my children grew up and my career evolved. Now I'm in a place in my life where I find my interest in peace, serenity and spirituality is growing. This book has been a treasure for me. I haven't tried the projects, but I really enjoy the writing and the ideas. It makes me want to go teach knitting at the Boys and Girls Club. It makes me want to knit for charity (several of us "knitticts" have started making premie blankets, caps, booties to donate to inner city hospitals). It makes me want to open a yarn shop. It's encouraged me to have knitting projects available for "pick up" at all times. There is one by my rocker in the living room. One on the sunporch. One in my office for lunch and breaktime. One project road-tripped for 2,000 miles this summer. And one will fly to California with me for my son's wedding this fall. Bernadette Murphy has shown me that the process of knitting is just as important as the finished product and that was a very liberating concept for me. I keep a copy of Zen and the Art of Knitting on my nightstand (and one on my sun porch) because reading it is so calming to me. It really helps me unwind (pardon the pun) when I need to relax. "

Publisher: Adams Media | More reviews: amazon.com

Being Zen: Bringing Meditation to Life

by Ezra Bayda

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"As my dad wrote BEING ZEN, he sent me one chapter at a time to proof-read and offer feedback. The information wasn't new to me, as we'd talked about the ideas and experiences mentioned in the book many times. And so I thought that once published, reading BEING ZEN would be like a review for me. However, each time I read a chapter, there was something new and helpful there, not because it was new information, but because my life and my relationship to everything in my life is always changing. I figure I could read this book 100 times and gain something new each time. I could turn to any page and find a reminder there that applies to my life and the issues and difficulties on my plate at any given moment. Most often, it's the last thing I want to do. My dad's "practice" is HARD!!! But I've seen it transform him and his life from one ruled by anger to one filled with love, compassion, and true happiness found in his wilingness to just BE with anything life presents. This book can help anyone who is willing to use it. And to all of you... you can either write-off my opinion as that of the biased daughter, or take it to heart from someone who has watched her father grow and change 180 degrees over the past 26 years and who has become her best friend and greatest teacher."

Publisher: Shambhala | More reviews: amazon.com

Finding the Still Point (Book and CD): A Beginner's Guide to Zen Meditation (Dharma Communications)

by John Daido Loori

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"If you want to try Zen (or want to try it again), I cannot imagine a finer way of doing it than by using this neat little guide. -- David Lukashok"

Publisher: Shambhala | More reviews: amazon.com

This Is It: and Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience

by Alan W. Watts

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"Zenmeister and superb wordsmith Watts becomes increasingly obscure, paradoxical, antithetical in these essays compiled in part to take the reader on a journey toward the realm of cosmic consciousness. That's okay by me, because he ends up saying some of the things I've heard before and I have started to believe: the spiritual and material are inseparable and that clarity comes about not after some years of study, and years of indoctrination and years of doing what is felt to be right and holy and blessed....it is neigh impossible to make rational what is emotional. Clarity is now. It is here, it is now.Watts' essays have not ignored the fact that people perceive things differently and that people are different--this book has some of Watts trademark wordworkings with definitions, modern parables, and comparisons of how the nature of the Zen experience should be/is....but...The ultimate point is...one doesn't have to go through what anyone preaches and evvyelse tells you to do to have one, it will be anyway. We in the Western 'Judeo-Christian' influenced world would perhaps rather believe in the order, the hierarchy of a supreme consciousness, hence we blind ourselves to the miracle of "it is now", "this is it"...the paradox of Watts' many writings, histories, descriptives is somewhat understandable. We don't wanna believe personal and spiritual awareness could come so easy. We say, "Where's the levels, where are the steps to happiness, where the intellectual satisfaction of a journey sought for...." Watts has provided the academics for those who want it,...but..."

Publisher: Vintage | More reviews: amazon.com

The Depression Book: Depression as an Opportunity for Spiritual Growth

by Cheri Huber

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"I found this book insulting to people experiencing deep depression. The book's advice of embracing the depression by renting a movie or baking a black cake and throwing yourself a pity party is trivializing of a very devasting experience. I would be truly shocked if the writers of this book have experienced the overwhelming pain of depression.

If you are looking for an interesting approach for combatting feeling down after a bad day, this is your book. It is cute if you are not searching for a solution to the crippling affects of clinical depression."

Publisher: Keep It Simple Books | More reviews: amazon.com

Suffering Is Optional: Three Keys to Freedom and Joy

by Cheri Huber

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""It takes courage to look deeply into oneself," Cheri Huber writes in the Introduction to this book. She has been practicing Zen meditation for nearly thirty years. This book is the insightful culmination of both her own experience on the cushion, and the results of a 12-week course she taught on suffering. As children we experienced life by living in each moment. As adults we have been conditioned to suffer: "we want what we don't get, aren't satisfied with what we do get, are separated from those or that which we love, and are forced to endure those and that which we do not love," Huber writes. "We suffer when we resist life. We suffer when we believe life should be different. We suffer when we think there is something wrong with life that needs to be changed or fixed." The "clamor of modern life and the endless chatter in our heads" (p. 83) restrict our ability to see beyond our conditioned suffering and return to our childlike sense of wonder in everything we experience. "It took us a while to get trained in these faulty belief systems," Huber writes, "and it will take us a while to unhook ourselves. We sit still, we see the conditioning and the sabotage for what it is, and we find the courage not to go back to old, familiar, hurtful ways" (p. 16). These "automatic, conditioned, karmic patterns" steal our time, our joy, our good feeling toward ourselves. They steal our life (p. 21). The "three keys" to ending our suffering involve paying attention to everything (pp. 3-54), believing nothing (pp. 57-92), and not taking anything personally (pp. 95-131).For anyone interested in looking deeply into the nature of suffering and learning how to return to the present moment, Huber's recommended book offers "helpful awareness, helpful insight, helpful friend" (p. 101).G. Merritt"

Publisher: Keep It Simple Books | More reviews: amazon.com