Zen

At Home in the Muddy Water: A Guide to Finding Peace Within Everyday Chaos

by Ezra Bayda

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"As with my dad's first book, BEING ZEN, I could read AT HOME IN THE MUDDY WATER countless times and always find it useful. There always seems to be something or someone in life that I want to change. I see repetitive patterns in the way I relate to others and to life. I watch myself react and put up defenses and strategies of control. I think I am clear, with a good analysis of the situation, of myself, and of others. And yet, the same patterns return. The same difficulties and questions come again and again, varying only in the circumstances under which they arise, but not in the base emotions and beliefs themselves. AT HOME IN THE MUDDY WATER helps me to see and experience my difficulties on a deeper level, getting to the very base, the very core of my hurt, my fear, my anger and my pain. This book, like BEING ZEN, helps me to deal with life daily, whether it be with reacting to something as small as being cut off on the freeway to something larger, like depression, self-doubt, and difficulties with relationships. Many times, I must admit, the equanimity my dad speaks of in his books feels out of reach. But I know it is possible to achieve because I have watched him in spiritual practice for over 27 years. My dad still feels pain; he still gets hurt, angry, disappointed and filled with fear. But he relates to all of these things differently than most. His spiritual practice, as so clearly laid out in these books, allows him to experience life in all of its colors and shapes, in happiness or in grief, in peace or in total chaos. The practice is always the same: simply to BE HERE. The tools are out there, but it is up to each of us to put them to use for ourselves. AT HOME IN THE MUDDY WATER is such a tool."

Publisher: Shambhala | More reviews: amazon.com

Wisdom from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life (Charming Petite Series)

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Publisher: Peter Pauper Press | More reviews: amazon.com

Keep Me in Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri

by Dosho Mike Port

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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.

Publisher: Wisdom Publications | More reviews: amazon.com

The Diamond That Cuts Through Illusion: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Diamond Sutra

by Thich Nhat Hanh

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"The Diamond Sutra is a companion sutra, or sermon of the Buddha, to the more famous Heart Sutra. The Heart Sutra is said to be a summation of the Diamond Sutra. Suffice to say that the Diamond Sutra is pretty difficult to understand, let alone appreciate. Thich Nhat Hanh takes on this difficult sutra with patience and thorough explanations. The repetitous language of the sutra will put off most new Buddhists, but in this book, Thich Nhat Hanh breaks down explanations section by section, so you have time to digest what's being taught.

I think Thich Nhat Hanh makes a great effort in teaching such a challenging text, and having worked my way through this book a couple times, I have found the Diamond Sutra to be one of my most favorite sutras in Buddhism. Hopefully you will too."

Publisher: Parallax Press | More reviews: amazon.com

Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness

by James H. Austin

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"James H. Austin M. D.is an experimental neurologist who spent several sabbaticals in Japan doing things to cat brains and practicing Zen rather earnestly at the same time, and altogether probably spent 30 or so years sitting Zazen (not only in Japan but wherever he went), experiencing at least one odd physical event, one interesting internal absorption (trance-hallucination, maybe) and one lightning-strike of kensho or wisdom-insight. He does not seem to consider himself to have gotten as far as a state of on-going enlightenment, but he believes that such a state is the result of an accumulation of a series of such kensho experiences. He says that he is not a dualist. But the interesting point is that his monism is purely materialistic. Perhaps not precisely "Matter alone is, nothing that is not matter is," but something more like "Physical states governed by physical laws alone are, nothing that is not subject to physical laws is." He is the classic man of science. And although he experienced and is describing what most would consider a spiritual insight, he seeks to explain it and value it in biological, physiological, neurological terms, as a rsult of predictable and understandable processes in the brain and nothing else. But his moment of kensho left him so awed that he was tempted to refer it to God. This temptation he overcomes.The odd physical experience he had is recounted in chapter 94 (after a very long prelude!) He heads the chapter with famous lines by p'ang Chi-Shih:How wonderous this, how mysterious!
I carry wood, I draw water.And he has spent a lot of time explaining the Zen emphasis on the here and now. Then: One day after 25 minutes of Zazen, he goes in to shave. "Suddenly, for the first time ever, I really feel both hands. My tactile sensations are enormously enhanced. Perception increases dramatically on the right hand to the elbow; on the left hand not as strongly and only to the wrist. ONly the sense of touch is enhanced, as it is elicited by the towel in my hands....I still retain all the usual distinctions between myself as subject and towel as object...Astonishing, delicious perception! How much richer than ordinary feeling." After a few seconds, the change fades away. There follows pages of theorizing about what could have happened in the brain to cause such a sensation.Later, an experience during a prolonged sitting in which "conscious drops out" although he remains erect and awake, and then conscious returns with a hallucinated red maple leaf as the only object in a place entirely black and silent, glistening black and infinitely silent. Then the leaf evaporates, and bliss overwhelms what he calls "the experient,' and all sense of space and bodily consciousness is erased temporarily.Finally, 10 years later, a chapter called "A Taste of Kensho" :"It strikes unexpectedly at 9 am on the surface platform of the London subway system. (Due to a mistake)...I wind up at a station where I have never been before....The view is the dingy interior of the station, some grimy buildings, a bit of open sky. Instantly the entire view aquires three qualities: Absolute Reality, Intrinsic Rightness, Ultimate Reflection. With no transition, it is all complete....Yes, there is the paradox of this extraordinary viewing. But there is no viewer. The scene is utterly empty, stripped of every last extension of an I-Me-Mine (his name for ego-self). Vanished in one split second is the familiar sensation that this person is viewing a city scene. The new viewing proceeds impersonally, not pausing to register the paradox that there is no human subject "doing" it. Three insights penetrate the experient, each conveying Total Understanding at depths far beyond simple knowledge: This is the eternal state of affiars. There is nothing more to do. There is nothing whatever to fear. The result of this kensho is a rather deep re-ordering of the personality, and even some changes in the physical body (the absorption also made physiological changes, but did not re-order the personality much.) His analysis of these events is that they are physiological, measurable states in the brain, and that they "etch" (his metaphor) the brain, destroying some brain cells and activating other ones, so that an enlightened person is actually a person whose brain has been changed by the physiological process of meditation (and sometimes by other processes, such as drug-induced or naturally occuring lesions of some sort), but meditative processes, though slower, are also more controlled and more likely to be beneficial. His explanation is at odds both with Advaistic mysticism and with theistic dualistic mysticism. But it is also clear that he is describing the same experience that all mystics describe. Although his neurological explanations are novel, his process and product fit quite well in the Zen setting, which is non-theistic and also not particularly "spiritual." HIs description of the ongoing state of enlightenment is that after emptying the brain of lots of clutter and junk, including the personal ego, one is able to "return to the marketplace with bliss-bestowing hands." This fits with my understanding of Jesus and mystics as well--that having been set free, they now can act compassionately and freely.And the place where enlightenment shows up is in ordinary daily life, which is now lived directly, "mindlessly" (meaning non-analytically).Although Dr. Austin seem to be saying exact opposite things from most other mystics, they are somehow looking at the same exact elephant from two different sides and describing it differently while still talking about the same thing. My other thought is that what we think about "enlightenment" doesn't matter at all. It is a thing in itself, and it really doesn't matter what we say about it or what we think it means. I enjoyed this book, though my brain kind of blurred over the technical neurology stuff."

Publisher: The MIT Press | More reviews: amazon.com

Eloquent Silence: Nyogen Senzaki's Gateless Gate and Other Previously Unpublished Teachings and Letters

by Nyogen Senzaki

The most comprehensive collection available of Nyogen Senzaki’s brilliant teachings, Eloquent Silence brings new depth and breadth to our knowledge and appreciation of this historic figure. It makes available for the first time his complete commentaries on the Gateless Gate, one of the most important and beloved of all Zen texts, as well as on koans from the Blue Rock Annals and the Book of Equanimity. Amazingly, some of these commentaries were written while Senzaki was detained at an internment camp during WWII. Also included are rare photographs, poems reproduced in Senzaki’s beautiful calligraphy and accompanied by his own translations, and transcriptions of his talks on Zen, esoteric Buddhism, the Lotus Sutra, what it means to be a Buddhist monk, and other subjects. Roko Sherry Chayat has edited Nyogen Senzaki’s words with sensitivity and grace, retaining his wry, probing style yet bringing clarity and accessibility to these remarkably contemporary teachings.

Publisher: Wisdom Publications | More reviews: amazon.com

The Long Road Turns to Joy: A Guide to Walking Meditation

by Thich Nhat Hanh

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"I've been waiting for an author to capture the experience of walking meditation. For years I have been baffled by those who say that walking is boring and that running is preferable. I have always found meditative walking to be joyful and now there is one who paints such a lovely picture of this mystical experience accessible for so many.A soul-enriching work in every sense."

Publisher: Parallax Press | More reviews: amazon.com

Be the Person You Want to Find: Relationship and Self-Discovery

by Cheri Huber

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"This is an amazing book with a powerful message... for those who are ready for it. This is labled as a "relationship" book however is not about changing anyone but oneself. In this little book, the author attempts to talk the reader out of trying to change others and into giving themselves the love you are seeking from someone else. Want caring, devotion and unconditional love?? Give it to yourself! One of her main "arguements" is that one can not feel anyway in a relationship that they do not feel out of a relationship. For example, if you feel lonely without a mate, once the initial "honeymoon" phase ends, you will again feel lonely, regardless of your mate. You change your perspective, increase your awareness, and then your expirience will change! Simple idea, not easy in practice. BUT definetly possible.

This book is empowering and suggests a mind shift. It gives YOU, the reader, the power to change your life, your reaction to life and, therefor, your feelings. This book is based on zen principle's, primarily that awareness is healing. I believe it to be life and relationship changing, if you allow it to be!! "

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

The Key: And the Name of the Key Is Willingness

by Cheri Huber

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"I offer these words in loving-kindness as the words and pictures in this awesome book are offered to you.In 1991, Tich Nhat Hanh's simple statement, "Understanding and love are not two things, but just one," in "Peace is Every Step," put on me the middle way. The awesome, life changing wisdom in this little book has kept me there. Lovingly scribbled and illustrated (thanks so much June!) on the pages of this treasure is a practical approach to realizing the "Now What, But How" Compassion that is Zen. If you do not read anything else by Cheri Huber, read "The Key." If you find you love, "The Key," as I did, be sure to read "That Which You Are Seeking Is Causing You to Seek.""

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

Opening the Hand of Thought, Revised and Expanded Edition: Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice

by Kosho Uchiyama

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"Three Books by Kosho Uchiyama
February 21, 2000 and September 28, 2004
Reviewer: Eric Arbiter from Houston,TX

"Opening the Hand of Thought", "The Wholehearted Way", and From "Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment"

I am re-posting this review because "Opening the Hand of Thought" went out of print for several years. It has just been re-released with wonderful new introductory materials.

Ten years ago I had determined to take up Zen practice and this book was a key ingredient in that process. I was truly saddened that it was not available to help others as a guiding inspiriation for doing zazen during the time it was out of print.

I am so grateful to Wisdom Publications and the authors for taking the time to refine and make this seminal work available again for people sincerely seeking to undertake the practice of zazen (Zen seated meditation). Below is the original review, of these three books, with a few additional observations in parenthesis.

I have re-read these books so many times that I think of them as different components of the same work, since the subjects interweave to produce a wonderful fabric of integrated Zen practice viewed from different perspectives. At first glance all of these books might seem "lightweight". I thought so at first because of their covers. Especially "Opening the Hand of Thought- Approach to Zen" (this is no longer the case with the new edition). It suggests a new-age type of quick fix book about Zen. Nothing could be further from the truth. This was just the book I needed, though I didn't yet know it. Having come to Zen meditation 2 years before reading this book, I was still unclear about meditation (zazen). (Ten years later I am still unclear about it- but I am still sitting!) Many of us reach the point where we realize that we need and want to practice meditation. Then we get to the same point of the monk in Master Dogen's (1200-1250) quote in Fukan Zazen-gi:

"When Yakusan was sitting [in meditation], a monk asked him 'What do you think when you sit?' The master said, 'I think of not thinking.' The monk inquired further, 'How do you think of not thinking?' Yakusan replied, '[by sitting] beyond thinking'".

What is beyond thinking? This is where Uchiyama makes his point of departure, walking us through just this juncture. He describes the movement of the mind and what need be done or not done about it. He even includes a diagram of the action of the mind getting caught up in thoughts and alternatively falling asleep. He speaks of zazen as neither developing thoughts, nor hating them, but releasing them (hence the title Opening the Hand of Thought). Zazen is opening the hand of thought (not grasping thought) and returning to seeing the wall millions of times.

"Opening the Hand of Thought" addresses the vast world of seated meditation and the religious and personal underpinnings behind it. It is as though Uchiyama Roshi is your own grandfather, telling you about his life, and your life, too. It is about living the "most refined way". This is not a detached dry retelling of ancient stories about someone else, but the vital story of ourselves living the life of ourselves (which he says is the very life of the buddhas, patriarchs and matriarchs). It is the way of "not being dragged around by our thoughts" and living our lives based on this even-mindedness. We take this into our daily lives in every encounter.

"From the Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment- Refining Your Life" at first appears to be a popular cookbook appending Zen to the title for more interest. Again, not so. This is Uchiyama Roshi's commentary on another of Master Dogen's texts: Tenzo Kyokun (Instructions to the Zen Cook) which was part of Dogen's manual for his monks. Translator and practitioner Thomas Wright says in the introduction: "Now, what possible connection could a text written for a group of male monks some 750 years ago have for present-day Europeans and Americans, neither living in a monastery nor particularly familiar with the society or way of looking at life which differs totally from our modern Western societies? That is the question to which Kosho Uchiyama Roshi addresses himself when he began writing the commentary that accompanies Dogen's text". I would say that the emphasis of this book is on Master Dogen's "three minds": magnanimous mind, joyful mind and parental mind. Through meditation we come to the place where we see that the world is none other than the self and that we take care of others because they are really ourselves. Everything which arises in your life IS your life.

"The Wholehearted Way" is Uchiyama Roshi's commentaries on Master Dogen's Bendowa, his early manifesto about the practice of zazen. It is followed by questions and answers (probably asked by his chief disciple, Ejo) directed at various misunderstandings of what Dogen felt to be the true significance of zazen.

"Sitting is itself the practice of the buddha. Sitting itself is nondoing. It is nothing but the true form of the self.
Apart from sitting there is nothing to seek as the buddha-dharma."

Eihei Dogen, Shobogenzo-Zuimonki

Uchiyama Roshi's commentaries are in the same vein as the other books, bringing these ancient teachings to us in a fresh and vital way so that they function in our daily lives. The translations and introductions are done by three of Roshi's close disciples and long-time practitioners, Tom Wright, Daniel Taigen Leighton and Shohaku Okumura. Their comments in themselves are worthy of our study.

There is for me tremendous appeal in the great scope and depth of Roshi's teachings expressed in his straightforward and engaging way. Although carefully thought out, I get the feeling, (as I expressed earlier) of being spoken to directly. He takes great pains to really look into and study certain Buddhist terms that can cause confusion if we are unclear about them. For example, he devotes several pages to the term "buddha-dharma".

I consider these three books to be essential in the deepening of my practice of Zen and meditation. Here are Uchiyama's closing words in his foreword to "Opening the Hand of Thought":

"Above all, I hope that when you read this book, (Opening the Hand of Thought) you will forget your sentiments about exotic foreign lands and read with a completely fresh mind. I hope that, as you read, you will look at your own life and apply what I have written to your everyday life. That is the only place where the real world of Zen is"."

Publisher: Wisdom Publications | More reviews: amazon.com