Since its original publication in 1953, Zen in the Art of Archery has become one of the classic works on Eastern philosophy, the first book to delve deeply into the role of Zen in philosophy, development, and practice of Eastern martial arts. Wise, deeply personal, and frequently charming, it is the story of one man's penetration of the theory and practice of Zen Buddhism.

Eugen Herrigel, a German professor who taught philosophy in Tokyo, took up the study of archery as a step toward the understanding of Zen. Zen in the Art of Archery is the account of the six years he spent as the student of one of Japan's great Zen masters, and the process by which he overcame his initial inhibitions and began to look toward new ways of seeing and understanding. As one of the first Westerners to delve deeply into Zen Buddhism, Herrigel was a key figure in the popularization of Eastern thought in the West, as well as being a captivating and illuminating writer.

"Enjoying religion" seems to be a contradiction because religion is generally perceived as a serious or even suppressive phenomenon. This volume is the first to study the increase of enjoying religion systematically by presenting eleven new case studies, occurring on four continents. The volume concludes that in our late modern secular societies the enjoyment of religion or of its loose elements is growing. In particular when scholars concentrate on "lived religion" of ordinary people, the cheerful experiences appear to prevail. Many people use pleasant (elements of) religion to add meaning to their lives, to find spiritual fulfillment or a way to salvation, and to experience belonging to a larger unity. At the same time, diverse cultural dynamics of late modern society such as popular culture, commercialization, re-enchantment, and feminization influence this trend of enjoying religion. In spite of secularization, playing with religion appears to be attractive.

In 1989, Bill Porter, having spent much of his life studying and translating Chinese religious and philosophical texts, began to wonder if the Buddhist hermit tradition still existed in China. At the time, it was believed that the Cultural Revolution had dealt a lethal blow to all religions in China, destroying countless temples and shrines, and forcibly returning thousands of monks and nuns to a lay life.
But when Porter travels to the Chungnan mountains -- the historical refuge of ancient hermits -- he discovers that the hermit tradition is very much alive, as dozens of monks and nuns continue to lead solitary lives in quiet contemplation of their faith deep in the mountains.
Part travelogue, part history, part sociology, and part religious study, this record of extraordinary journeys to an unknown China sheds light on a phenomenon unparalleled in the West. Porter's discovery is more than a revelation, and uncovers the glimmer of hope for the future of religion in China.

Introduction to Zen Training is a translation of the Sanzen Nyumon, a foundational text for beginning meditation students by Omori Sogen--one of the foremost Zen teachers of the twentieth century. This book addresses many of the questions which arise when someone first embarks on a journey of Zen meditation--ranging from how long to sit at one time to how to remain mindful when not sitting--and it concludes with commentaries on two other fundamental Zen texts, Zazen Wasen (The Song of Meditation) and the Ox-Herding Pictures. Written to provide a solid grounding in the physical nature of Zen meditation training, this text delves into topics such as: Breathing Pain Posture Physiology Drowsiness How to find the right teacher The differences between the two main Japanese schools of Zen: Soto and Rinzai Zen As a master swordsman, Omori Sogen's approach to Zen is direct, physical, and informed by the rigorous tradition of Zen and the martial arts that flourished during Japan's samurai era. For him, the real aim of Zen is nothing short of Enlightenment--and Introduction to Zen Training is a roadmap in which he deals as adeptly with hundreds of years of Zen scholarship as he does with the mundane practicalities of meditation. Sogen prescribes a level of rigor and intensity in spiritual training that goes far beyond wellness and relaxation, and that is rarely encountered. His is a kind of spiritual warriorship he felt was direly needed in the middle of the twentieth century and that is no less necessary today. With a new foreword from Daihonzan Chozen-ji, the headquarters Zen temple established by Omori Sogen in Hawaii, this book is an essential text for every student of Zen meditation.

This book reveals the truth of self Leo Buscaglia has discovered on two trips to Asia by traveling the "way of the bull," as well as describing the people and physical locales of Southeast Asia prior to the Vietnam War. The meaning of the title originated in the 12th century Zen book, 10 Bulls by Chinese Zen master Kakuan. In this book the bull represents life, energy, truth and action. "The way" concerns the possible step one man might take to gain insight, find oneself and discover one's true nature. Leo reminds us, however, that each person must find that path individually in order for it to have true meaning.

Bernard Faure's previous works are well known as guides to some of the more elusive aspects of the Chinese tradition of Chan Buddhism and its outgrowth, Japanese Zen. Continuing his efforts to look at Chan/Zen with a full array of postmodernist critical techniques, Faure now probes the "imaginaire, " or mental universe, of the Buddhist Soto Zen master Keizan Jokin (1268-1325). Although Faure's new book may be read at one level as an intellectual biography, Keizan is portrayed here less as an original thinker than as a representative of his culture and an example of the paradoxes of the Soto school. The Chan/Zen doctrine that he avowed was allegedly reasonable and demythologizing, but he lived in a psychological world that was just as imbued with the marvelous as was that of his contemporary Dante Alighieri.

Drawing on his own dreams to demonstrate that he possessed the magical authority that he felt to reside also in icons and relics, Keizan strove to use these "visions of power" to buttress his influence as a patriarch. To reveal the historical, institutional, ritual, and visionary elements in Keizan's life and thought and to compare these to Soto doctrine, Faure draws on largely neglected texts, particularly the "Record of Tokoku" (a chronicle that begins with Keizan's account of the origins of the first of the monasteries that he established) and the "kirigami," or secret initiation documents.

Autumn Light: My Fifty Years in Zen is the story of one woman's witness to the remarkable half-century when Buddhist philosophy and practice took root in the religious landscape of the West. Author Edwina Norton has been a devoted practitioner of the Soto school of Zen for the past 50 years. In 2013, at the age of 78, she was ordained a Zen priest and immediately thereafter participated in a rigorous three-month training at Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery in California. Told in the intimate voice of a dharma friend, Autumn Light weaves Norton's life experiences with the Zen teachings and practice that sustained her through personal and professional challenges while raising two sons alone. Now retired to the Pacific Northwest, she practices with a small, diverse Zen community of young and older Zen students. Her late-in-life commitment as a priest has sparked a series of challenges that have tested her resolve to follow the rigorous practices of the Zen tradition. Priesthood has also rewarded her with unexpected, new insights into the meaning of her life.

'Thich Nhat Hanh shows us the connection between personal, inner peace and peace on earth' The Dalai Lama How do we say what we truly mean? How can we learn to listen with compassion and understanding? How do we find true connection with one another? Celebrated Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh shares the five steps to truly mindful communication. Drawing on his experience working with couples, families, colleagues and even on international conflict, the world's most famous monk has created a simple guide to communicating with yourself, others and the world. 'The monk who taught the world mindfulness' Time

Dating back to the eighth century C.E., the " Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch" is a foundational text of Chan/Zen Buddhism that reveals much about the early evolution of Chinese Chan and the ideological origins of Japanese Zen and Korean Son. Purported to be the recorded words of the famed Huineng, who was understood to be the Sixth Patriarch of Chan and the father of all later Chan/Zen Buddhism, the "Platform Sutra" illuminates fundamental Chan Buddhist principles in an expressive sermon that describes how Huineng overcame great personal and ideological challenges to uphold the exalted lineage of the enlightened Chan patriarchs while realizing the ultimate Buddhist truth of the original, pure nature of all sentient beings.

Huineng seems to reject meditation, the value of good karma, and the worship of the buddhas, conferring instead a set of "formless precepts" on his audience, marked by embedded notes in the text. In his central message, an inherent, perfect buddha nature stands as the original true condition of all sentient beings, which people of all backgrounds can experience for themselves. Philip Yampolsky's masterful translation contains extensive explanatory notes and an edited, amended version of the Chinese text. His introduction critically considers the background and historical setting of the work and locates Huineng's place within the history and legends of Chan Buddhism. This new edition features a foreword by Morten Schl?tter further situating the "Platform Sutra" within recent historical research and textual evidence, and an updated glossary that includes the modern pinyin system of transcription.

We live in the Golden Age of publishing for spiritual, esoteric, and new age books of all conceivable stripes (and then there is the Internet). Amongst this wild proliferation of available information there has occurred a cheapening effect, in which many teachings have been watered down to make them palatable for a public with diminishing attention spans and suffering from information overload. For the sincere spiritual seeker there needs to be an awareness of the various ways we can go astray on the path, or fall off the path altogether. The whole idea of spirituality is to be awake, yet it is all too easy to simply end up in yet another dream world, thinking that we have found some higher truth. Rude Awakening: Perils, Pitfalls, and Hard Truths of the Spiritual Path is dedicated to examining, under a sharp light, the many ways our spiritual development goes wrong, or disappears altogether in the sheer crush of books and the routine grind of daily life.

Eihei Dogen (1200-1253) is the most renowned of all the Japanese Zen masters, and he is also one of the greatest writers and philosophers Japan has ever produced. This title provides short, inspirational selections from his work, chosen by two of today's top authorities.

For Nirvana features exceptional examples of the poet Cho Oh-Hyun's award-winning work. Cho Oh-Hyun was born in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, Korea, and has lived in retreat in the mountains since becoming a novice monk at the age of seven. Writing under the Buddhist name Musan, he has composed hundreds of poems in seclusion, many in the sijo style, a relatively fixed syllabic poetic form similar to Japanese haiku and tanka. For Nirvana contains 108 Zen sijo poems (108 representing the number of klesas, or "defilements," that one must overcome to attain enlightenment). These transfixing works play with traditional religious and metaphysical themes and include a number of "story" sijo, a longer, more personal style that is one of Cho Oh-Hyun's major innovations. Kwon Youngmin, a leading scholar of sijo, provides a contextualizing introduction, and in his afterword, Heinz Insu Fenkl reflects on the unique challenges of translating the collection.

As spiritual paths, Zen and Christianity can learn from one another. In this book, Anglican priest and Zen teacher Christopher Collingwood sets out how Zen can return Christians to their roots with renewed energy, and allow others to consider Christianity in a new and more favourable light. For the many Christians searching for a greater depth of spirituality, Zen offers a way to achieve openness. Drawing on Zen experience and the teachings of Jesus as depicted in the gospels, Zen Wisdom for Christians enables Christians to explore avenues of thought and experience that are fresh and creative. Using examples of Zen koans and Zen readings of Christian texts, the author provides a radical reorientation of life - away from one based on self-centredness and the notion of a separate, isolated self, to a way that is inclusive and at one with all. Zen Wisdom for Christians proves that the practice of Zen can lead Christians towards deeper spirituality and enhance religious experience through mutual appreciation, in a way that is truly eye-opening and life-changing.

Zen is a way of life and this inspirational new book, with beautiful illustrations, poetry, aphorisms and still-pointed text discusses Zen's origins in Buddhism, how to achieve enlightenment through meditation and contemplation, and even how to cook and garden in the spirit of Zen. Above all it's beautifully bound and illustrated, and perfect as a companion as well as a gift.

'The monk who taught the world mindfulness' Time In this masterful work, one of the most revered spiritual leaders in the world today shares his wisdom on how to be the change we want to see in the world. In these troubling times we all yearn for a better world. But many of us feel powerless and uncertain what we can do. Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) is blazingly clear: there's one thing that we have the power to change-and which can make all the difference: our mind. How we see and think about things determines all the choices we make, the everyday actions we take (or avoid), how we relate to those we love (or oppose), and how we react in a crisis or when things don't go our way. Filled with powerful examples of engaged action he himself has undertaken, inspiring Buddhist parables, and accessible daily meditations, this powerful spiritual guide offers us a path forward, opening us to the possibilities of change and how we can contribute to the collective awakening and environmental revolution our fractured world so desperately needs.

This collection of autobiographical and teaching stories from peace activist and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is thought provoking and inspiring. Collected here for the first time, these stories span his life. There are stories from his childhood and the traditions of rural Vietnam. There are stories from his years as a teenage novice, as a young teacher and writer in war torn Vietnam, and of his travels around the world to teach mindfulness, make pilgrimages to sacred sites and influence world leaders. The tradition of Zen teaching stories goes back at least to the time of the Buddha. Like the Buddha, Thich Nhat Hanh uses story-telling to engage people's interest so he can share important teachings, insights and life lessons.

Following his translation of just over half the original text in 2014, Norman Waddell presents the complete teaching record of Zen master Hakuin, now available in English with extensive explanations, notes, and even the wry, helpful comments that students attending Hakuin's lectures inscribed in their copies of the text With this volume, Norman Waddell completes his acclaimed translation of the teaching record of one of the greatest Zen masters of all time, Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1769). Hakuin lived at a time when Japanese Buddhism as a whole and his own Rinzai sect in particular were at low ebb. Through tremendous force of character and creative energy, he initiated a reform movement that swept the country, and today, all Rinzai Zen masters trace their lineage through him. This outcome is all the more extraordinary because Hakuin's base of operations was a small temple in the country town of Hara, where he grew up, not in one of the nation's political, cultural, or commercial centers. This book represents the first full publication of the Keiso Dokuzui in any foreign language. Inspired by the enthusiastic reception that greeted his 2014 selections from the text, Waddell returned to work and now gives us the opportunity to examine the entirety of Hakuin's record and to benefit as never before from the example and instruction of this exuberant personality and remarkable teacher. Poison Blossoms contains a highly diverse set of materials: formal and informal presentations to monastic and lay disciples, poems, practice instructions, inscriptions for paintings, comments on koans, letters, and funeral orations. While most items are brief, easily read in a quick sitting, the book also includes extended commentaries on the Heart Sutra, one of Mahayana Buddhism's central texts; on the famously difficult Five Ranks of Tung-shan; and on the accomplishments of his eminent predecessor Gudo Toshoku. Having devoted himself for more than three decades to the study and translation of Hakuin's works, Norman Waddell is peerless when it comes to conveying into English the vital, sometimes elegant, often earthy voice of this outstanding teacher. His command of the subject enables Waddell to elucidate the vast array of idioms and images that Hakuin employed to enliven his poetry and prose-historical and mythological elements, street slang, doctrinal and cultural allusions that would otherwise place these writings beyond the grasp of anyone but a specialist. Waddell's five previous Hakuin translations, each important in its own right, can now be recognized as stepping stones to this towering achievement.

The stereotype of Zen Buddhism as a minimalistic or even immaterial meditative tradition persists in the Euro-American cultural imagination. This volume calls attention to the vast range of "stuff" in Zen by highlighting the material abundance and iconic range of the Soto, Rinzai, and Obaku sects in Japan. Chapters on beads, bowls, buildings, staffs, statues, rags, robes, and even retail commodities in America all shed new light on overlooked items of lay and monastic practice in both historical and contemporary perspectives. Nine authors from the cognate fields of art history, religious studies, and the history of material culture analyze these "Zen c matters" in all four senses of the phrase: the interdisciplinary study of Zen's matters (objects and images) ultimately speaks to larger Zen matters (ideas, ideals) that matter (in the predicate sense) to both male and female practitioners, often because such matters (economic considerations) help to ensure the cultural and institutional survival of the tradition. Zen and Material Culture expands the study of Japanese Zen Buddhism to include material inquiry as an important complement to mainly textual, institutional, or ritual studies. It also broadens the traditional purview of art history by incorporating the visual culture of everyday Zen objects and images into the canon of recognized masterpieces by elite artists. Finally, the volume extends Japanese material and visual cultural studies into new research territory by taking up Zen's rich trove of materia liturgica and supplementing the largely secular approach to studying Japanese popular culture. This groundbreaking volume will be a resource for anyone whose interests lie at the intersection of Zen art, architecture, history, ritual, tea ceremony, women's studies, and the fine line between Buddhist materiality and materialism.

"The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called 'yourself.'"

One of the most important and influential books of the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live and a meditation on how to live better. The narrative of a father on a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest with his young son, it becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life's fundamental questions. A true modern classic, it remains at once touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward.

In the thirteenth century, Zen master Dogen--perhaps the most significant of all Japanese philosophers, and the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen sect--wrote a practical manual of "Instructions for the Zen Cook ." In drawing parallels between preparing meals for the Zen monastery and spiritual training, he reveals far more than simply the rules and manners of the Zen kitchen; he teaches us how to "cook," or refine our lives. In this volume Kosho Uchiyama Roshi undertakes the task of elucidating Dogen's text for the benefit of modern-day readers of Zen. Taken together, his translation and commentary truly constitute a "cookbook for life," one that shows us how to live with an unbiased mind in the midst of our workaday world.

Life becomes an endless meditation when we make a conscious decision to live in the present. Every act becomes a reality. Most of us live our whole lives in either the past or in expectations. We become the puppets of automatic reactions created by past experience, and while we continue on hoping and dreaming of a better future, we often just end up in the same old muddle. The aim of this book is to help you learn how to acknowledge and change styles of reactive behaviour which are no longer useful to you. The hope of this book is to help you to live in the endless meditation of the present. This is the afterlife, so what are you waiting for?

In the Zen tradition archery (or swordsmanship) is not just a sport or a form of self-defence but an art, a religious ritual and one of the many possible paths to Enlightenment.

Few Westerners have tried as hard as Eugen Herrigel, a German professor who lived for many years in Japan, to learn Zen from a Master. In this classic text he gives an unsparingly honest account of how he was initiated, step by step, into the 'Great Doctrine' of archery. At first he was baffled by what he was taught - that art must become artless, that the archer must aim at himself - yet gradually he began to glimpse the depth of wisdom concealed in such paradoxes. While many Western writers on Zen serve up second-hand slogans, Herrigel's hard-won insights were his own discoveries. His fine book offers a beautifully lucid introduction to one of the most haunting and subtle spiritual traditions in the world.

A revered Buddhist master illuminates the practice and wisdom of Chan.