Zen Traces

Zen Traces PDF Author: Kenneth Kraft
Publisher: Paul Dry Books
ISBN: 1589881281
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 184

Get Book

Book Description
As Zen takes root in the West, new forms arise. For centuries Zen masters have tested their students with “koans” and “capping phrases.” A koan is a spiritual paradox that must be solved intuitively. A capping phrase is a trenchant comment. Both are meditative practices that reveal deeper truths about the self and, ideally, lead to enlightenment. In Zen Traces, Buddhist scholar Kenneth Kraft plays off these practices in a new idiom. He selects passages from four sources: traditional Zen, present-day Zen, Henry David Thoreau, and Mark Twain. When a koan-like story about a contemporary Zen teacher is paired with a pithy comment by Mark Twain, something fresh emerges. “In this lovely book, Ken Kraft provides a unique opening for American Buddhism and American wisdom in general. The reader will come to fresh and spacious new insights and enjoyments… Cheers for Zen in America and a deep bow to Ken Kraft!”—POLLY YOUNG-EISENDRATH, Ph.D., author of The Present Heart: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Discovery “I highly recommend this delightful book of East-West wisdom—full of surprise, insight, wit, and piercing beauty.”—KATY BUTLER, author of Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death

Zen Traces

Zen Traces PDF Author: Kenneth Kraft
Publisher: Paul Dry Books
ISBN: 1589881281
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 184

Get Book

Book Description
As Zen takes root in the West, new forms arise. For centuries Zen masters have tested their students with “koans” and “capping phrases.” A koan is a spiritual paradox that must be solved intuitively. A capping phrase is a trenchant comment. Both are meditative practices that reveal deeper truths about the self and, ideally, lead to enlightenment. In Zen Traces, Buddhist scholar Kenneth Kraft plays off these practices in a new idiom. He selects passages from four sources: traditional Zen, present-day Zen, Henry David Thoreau, and Mark Twain. When a koan-like story about a contemporary Zen teacher is paired with a pithy comment by Mark Twain, something fresh emerges. “In this lovely book, Ken Kraft provides a unique opening for American Buddhism and American wisdom in general. The reader will come to fresh and spacious new insights and enjoyments… Cheers for Zen in America and a deep bow to Ken Kraft!”—POLLY YOUNG-EISENDRATH, Ph.D., author of The Present Heart: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Discovery “I highly recommend this delightful book of East-West wisdom—full of surprise, insight, wit, and piercing beauty.”—KATY BUTLER, author of Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death

Zen Women

Zen Women PDF Author: Grace Schireson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0861719565
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Get Book

Book Description
This landmark presentation at last makes heard the centuries of Zen's female voices. Through exploring the teachings and history of Zen's female ancestors, from the time of the Buddha to ancient and modern female masters in China, Korea, and Japan, Grace Schireson offers us a view of a more balanced Dharma practice, one that is especially applicable to our complex lives, embedded as they are in webs of family relations and responsibilities, and the challenges of love and work. Part I of this book describes female practitioners as they are portrayed in the classic literature of "Patriarchs' Zen"--often as "tea-ladies," bit players in the drama of male students' enlightenments; as "iron maidens," tough-as-nails women always jousting with their male counterparts; or women who themselves become "macho masters," teaching the same Patriarchs' Zen as the men do. Part II of this book presents a different view--a view of how women Zen masters entered Zen practice and how they embodied and taught Zen uniquely as women. This section examines many urgent and illuminating questions about our Zen grandmothers: How did it affect them to be taught by men? What did they feel as they trying to fit into this male practice environment, and how did their Zen training help them with their feelings? How did their lives and relationships differ from that of their male teachers? How did they express the Dharma in their own way for other female students? How was their teaching consistently different from that of male ancestors? And then part III explores how women's practice provides flexible and pragmatic solutions to issues arising in contemporary Western Zen centers.

Now and Zen

Now and Zen PDF Author: Eiyû Murakoshi
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141991003
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 92

Get Book

Book Description
'In Japan we have an expression, 'Float like Cloud, Flow like Water'. Its meaning is: to live free and unconstrained' In this short introduction to Zen Buddhism, a practising Japanese monk shares the many lessons he has learned from life inside a temple. With charm and humour, he guides us through everything from meditation to tea-drinking ceremonies, the meaning of koans to preparing Zen food. Accompanied by the author's own illustrations, this book invites you to change your perception through the wisdom of monastic life.

The Eight Gates of Zen

The Eight Gates of Zen PDF Author: John Daido Loori
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 083482390X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book

Book Description
This accessible introduction to the philosophy and practice of Zen Buddhism includes a program of study that encompasses practically every aspect of life. The American Zen teacher John Daido Loori shows us that Zen practice should include not only meditation, the study of Zen literature and liturgy, and moral and ethical action, but should also manifest in work, artistic, and everyday activities. The Eight Gates are: 1. Zazen, a type of meditation described as "sitting Zen" 2. Face-to-face meetings between teacher and student 3. Academic study of the sutras related to Zen training, other schools of Buddhism, Buddhist history, psychology, and philosophy 4. Zen rites and rituals and their meaning 5. The moral and ethical requirements set in the Buddhist Precepts 6. Art practice as an extension of Zen practice 7. Body practice as an extension of Zen practice 8. Work as an active function of zazen Beautifully illustrated with Loori's own photographs, this edition also includes a new introduction and an updated reading list.

Tracing Back the Radiance

Tracing Back the Radiance PDF Author: Robert E. Buswell, Jr.
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824814274
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Get Book

Book Description
Chinul (1158–1210) was the founder of the Korean tradition of Zen. He provides one of the most lucid and accessible accounts of Zen practice and meditation to be found anywhere in East Asian literature. Tracing Back the Radiance, an abridgment of Buswell’s Korean Approach to Zen: The Collected Works of Chinul, combines an extensive introduction to Chinul’s life and thought with translations of three of his most representative works.

Time and Trace: Multidisciplinary Investigations of Temporality

Time and Trace: Multidisciplinary Investigations of Temporality PDF Author: Sabine Gross
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004315721
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Get Book

Book Description
Scholars in the arts, the humanities, and the sciences offer a multi-faceted investigation of the fundamental human experience of temporality—from reproductive politics and temporal logic to music and theater, from law to sustainability, from memory to the Vikings.

Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches 2012

Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches 2012 PDF Author: Eileen W. Lindner
Publisher: Abingdon Press
ISBN: 1426746660
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 901

Get Book

Book Description


Ensō

Ensō PDF Author: Audrey Yoshiko Seo
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834805758
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 190

Get Book

Book Description
The enso, or "Zen circle", is one of the most prevalent images of Zen art, and has become a symbol of the clean and strong Zen aesthetic. This books containts examples of traditional enso art from the seventeenth century to the present.

Next to Godliness

Next to Godliness PDF Author: Alice Peck
Publisher: SkyLight Paths Publishing
ISBN: 1594732140
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Get Book

Book Description
Through a beautiful, eclectic array of personal narratives, fiction and sacred texts, find new perspectives on ways to reach out for the Divine within simple acts like washing dishes and more daunting tasks like cleaning up the "messes" in our communities.

The Religious Traditions of Japan 500-1600

The Religious Traditions of Japan 500-1600 PDF Author: Richard Bowring
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521851190
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 516

Get Book

Book Description
The first English-language overview of the interaction of Buddhism and Shintō in Japanese culture.