The term "zen" is used freely by those seeking to calm and simplify their lives. But to truly reap the benefits of Zen, one must understand what it is and how to change his or her thinking and actions to achieve it. Zen monk and sensei Domyo Burk shows readers how to get started on the path to enlightenment and peace, regardless of cultural or religious affiliations. In this book, readers get:- An introduction to what Zen is-and what it isn't.- A foundation for how to get started in Zen practice.- Explanations of the essential teachings of Zen and how they can free readers from the dissatisfaction that is inherent in modern life and improve mental and physical health.- Step-by-step instructions for engaging in Zazen meditation.- Guidance on increasing mindfulness, seeking clarity and enlightenment, and living by the Zen moral code.- Tips for maintaining daily Zen practice, using it to deal with difficult and painful situations, and mastering the art of living.

    Through spirited Q&A sessions with Zen master Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi, The Heart of Zen takes a gradual, step-by-step approach to what has become a vexing problem in spiritual circles. What is missing is integration. If awakening truly transforms every part of the life of a person, where are we getting stuck? How can negative emotions like anger, shame, envy, and jealousy continue to arise? How do our relative egos relate to the Zen teaching of Emptiness, and what does this mean for our intimate relationships, our emotional bodies, our views of the world and its problems? The Heart of Zen represents the next generation of spiritual books because it addresses awakening and spiritual life within the context of creating lasting change through the integration of spiritual insight into the flow and flux of everyday life. Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi explains how well trained meditation students may learn to be nonreactive to emotions, but they seldom learn how to transform their negative emotions (and the ego that holds them) as part of a more deeply integrated, lived spirituality. This book describes precisely what this means in great detail and with exercises for the reader to follow. Part discussion on these intricate topics and part experiential guide, The Heart of Zen offers a one-of-a-kind take on enlightenment, emotional maturity, and the integration required to take one's seat in true liberation.

    Ben Connelly’s Inside the Grass Hut unpacks the timeless poem and applies it to contemporary life. His book delivers a wealth of information on the context and content of this eighth-century work, as well as directly evokes the poem’s themes of simple living, calm, and a deep sense of connection to all things.Each pithy chapter focuses on a single line of the poem, letting the reader immerse himself thoroughly in each line and then come up for air before moving on to the next. Line by line, Connelly shows how the poem draws on and expresses elements from the thousand years of Buddhist thought that preceded it, expands on the poem’s depiction of a life of simple practice in nature, and tells stories of the way these teachings manifest in modern life. Connelly, like Shitou before him, proves himself adept at taking profound and complex themes from Zen and laying them out in a practical and understandable way.Eminently readable, thoroughly illuminating, Inside the Grass Hut shows the reader a path of wholehearted engagement—with the poem, and with the world. Destined to become a trusted, dog-eared companion.

    We spend our lives searching for that one thing we think will finally make us happy; that promotion at work, those amazing shoes, having the perfect home. But is happiness something deeper than that, more fundamental? How can this deeper happiness be achieved? His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa reveals that the secret to happiness lies in the mind. Exploring the simple ways we can train our minds to recognise a happiness that is already there, he gives us the tools to calm anxiety, let go of expectations and embrace an appreciation for life as it is, rather than as we feel it should be. Happiness is a State of Mind is the toolbox you need to live a more fulfilling life. Choose to make today a happy day.

    The long-awaited first book from a prominent modern American Zen teacher.For Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, intimacy is what Zen practice is all about: the realization of the essential lack of distinction between self and other that inevitably leads to wisdom and compassionate action. She approaches the practice of intimacy beginning at its most basic level--the intimacy with ourselves that is the essential first step. She then shows how to bring intimacy into our relationships with others, starting with those dearest to us and moving on to those who don't seem dear at all. She then shows how to grow in intimacy so that we include everyone around us, all of society, the whole world and all the beings it contains. Each chapter is accompanied by practices she uses with her students at the Village Zendo for manifesting intimacy in our lives.

    I began by just writing down what I wanted to accomplish on a piece of paper. I noticed soon after that this wasn’t very effective. I would write them down on paper, set the paper aside, and I’d remember after a few months. I needed a system that would ensure that my objectives became reality. Over the years, I have tested several systems for organizing and achieving my objectives. I had breakdowns, surrenders, resumptions, and tactical changes. I resorted to the most diverse strategies. Today, after ten years of tests and experiments, I have my own system that offers a rate of success of over 90 percent. There are still instances when I fail, but I can say that I manage pretty well. My vision for this book was to provide a system for organizing time and personal objectives, constructed around annual objectives. A good system of organization does not guarantee success, unless you also work to transform it into reality. In other words, this book will not do the work for you. But, with this book in your hand, the most thrilling part is just about to start.

    Offering an alternative view, A Philosophy of Emptiness reclaims these hollow feelings as a positive and even empowering state, an antidote to the modern obsession with substance and foundation.   Digging through early and non-Western philosophy, Gay Watson uncovers a rich history of emptiness. She travels from Buddhism, Taoism, and religious mysticism to the contemporary world of philosophy, science, and art practice. Though most Western philosophies are concerned with substance and foundation, she finds that the twentieth century has seen a resurgence of emptiness and offers reasons why such an apparently unappealing concept has attracted modern musicians, artists, and scientists, as well as preeminent thinkers throughout the ages. Probing the idea of how a life without foundation might be lived—and why a person might choose this path—A Philosophy of Emptiness links these concepts to contemporary ideas of meditation and the mind, presenting a rich and intriguing take on the concept of emptiness and the history of thought.

    Chanted daily by many Zen practitioners, it is also studied extensively in the Tibetan tradition, and it has been regarded with interest more recently in the West in various fields of study—from philosophy to quantum physics. In just a few lines, it expresses the truth of impermanence and the release of suffering that results from the understanding of that truth with a breathtaking economy of language. Kazuaki Tanahashi’s guide to the Heart Sutra is the result of a life spent working with it and living it. He outlines the history and meaning of the text and then analyzes it line by line in its various forms (Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, Mongolian, and various key English translations), providing a deeper understanding of the history and etymology of the elusive words than is generally available to the nonspecialist—yet with a clear emphasis on the relevance of the text to practice. This book includes a fresh and meticulous new translation of the text by the author and Roshi Joan Halifax.

    In additional to being the author of the most famous koan ever written, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” he is credited with reviving the Rinzai sect of Zen in Japan, perhaps the most important and most rigorous branch in the Golden Age of Buddhism. His “Song of Zazen” is chanted in monasteries daily all over the world. Hakuin taught that there are three essentials to Zen practice: Great Faith, Great Doubt, and Great Resolve. Only Dogen comes close to matching the power and breadth of his writing and teaching.Norman Waddell has spent his life reading and commenting on the vast work of Hakuin. He has published several previous selections, all leading to his work on this major, monumental gathering, the Keiso Dokuzui, never before translated in any foreign language. Translating sacred texts requires years of practice and intimate familiarity with the material in its original language, as well as complete mastery of the available commentary. There’s no one alive better capable of handling this important and difficult offering.For this collection Hakuin gathered more than 200 individual pieces, consisting of commentaries, memorials, poems, koans, and teisho (lectures). They were offered to the many students living around his temple as well as to the countless lay followers around the country, and Hakuin spent his life offering these teachings together with his own commentary. Result is an organic, growing collection of understanding and advice, certain to engage Zen students as well as religious practitioners in other spiritual disciplines

    Zen master Sekkei Harada uses the enigmatic "Ten Verses of Unfathomable Depth" as the basis of his practical and theoretical discussion of these concerns. Unfathomable Depths presents a concise treatment of Soto theory and practice, while delivering approachable and workable advice from one of Zen's most esteemed teachers. Rooting himself in Tong'an Changcha's classical poem, Harada intimately speaks to the world of Zen today.

    The back cover of the book states, "'Who Is Singing in Chinese?' is a moving account of the Zen path, from the first koan interview with the teacher, through moments of despair, brushes with the supernatural, and flashes of insight, leading to a new relationship--to the self, to others, and to this world."

    Daishin Morgan looks at how we can understand ourselves and our relationship with others without dividing the world into opposites of right and wrong or good and bad and still find a basis for moral action. There is no place for a God or an Absolute conceived as above or outside of experience, as all things are undivided in their essential nature. In the first part of the book Daishin looks at the role of the will, faith, hope, cause and effect, acceptance and other subjects from the perspective of non-duality. In the second part, he goes on to offer an interpretation of the main scriptures that are used regularly in Soto Zen. This book takes seriously the teaching that enlightenment is an ever-present reality rather than a state we may realize at some future date. Reality cannot be divided into enlightened and unenlightened existence. One of the many implications of this is that Zen meditation should be understood as an expression of enlightenment rather than as a means to an end. Daishin clarifies some of the implications of this outlook and shows the profound effect it can have on how we live. Rev.Daishin Morgan is a disciple of the late Rev.Master Jiyu-Kennett, founder of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. He has been a Zen Buddhist monk for 36 years and abbot of Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey in Northumberland since 1982.