These thirty-four powerful essays, poems, and dialogs based on Taoist and Buddhist thought constitute a guide to what the author calls 'non-volitional living' -- the ancient understanding that our efforts to grasp our true nature are futile. While this may sound disheartening, fully comprehending this truth is the key to our liberation. This final volume in the author's output of eight books will make his many fans' collections of his works complete. The pseudonymous author, one of the earliest and most original interpreters of Buddhism, belongs with Reps, Watts, and Kapleau on the bookshelves of serious students of Eastern spiritual thought.

This classic gem of Eastern spirituality is especially timely in the current climate of interest in Buddhism. In giving us his version of the perennial philosophy, Wei Wu Wei brings a fresh perspective to conventional notions about time, love, thought, God, friendship, loneliness and religion. Using the further pseudonym OOO, the author was obviously having some fun with this final book, which he wrote entirely as a dialog between a wise owl and a naive rabbit. In the introduction, which he signs Wei Wu Wei, he states "I fear that OOO might reply to my suggestion or plea (to represent human beings in such a dialog) by again raising his eyebrows -- a habit he has -- and pointing out that human beings have neither the charm, the frankness, nor the simplicity of our animal brothers, and that their discussions would be cantankerous and obscured by the mists of conceptuality.".

Fingers Pointing Towards the Moon was the first of a series of extraordinary spiritual manifestos written by the anonymous Wei Wu Wei. Like a master instructing every reader who has the dedication to read this book, the author maintains direct and unrelenting perspective, giving Fingers Pointing to the Moon its status as one of Zen Buddhism's essential classics. The depth of understanding evinced by Wei Wu Wei places him with Paul Reps, Alan Watts, and Philip Kapleau as one of the earliest and most profound interpreters of Zen.

One of the best-loved of Wei Wu Wei's books, 'Open Secret' enlightens us as to the true nature of the self, as well as time, space, and enlightenment itself. The work includes extensive commentary on the Heart Sutra, regarded by Buddhists as the summation of the Buddha's wisdom. The pseudonymous author studied deeply in Eastern and Western philosophy and metaphysics, along with the esoteric teachings of the great religions. In his writing he distils this knowledge into uniquely elegant prose -- full of humour, metaphors, profundity, and his essential understanding of the open secret of life.

'Posthumous Pieces' is the favourite of many serious students of Wei Wu Wei's books, who say that it delivers his message in a concise and consistent way. In addition to addressing the nature of time, space, and the self, he also skewers illusions about mantras, karma, science, and death. The profound aphorisms he is known for are here in abundance.