The Truth of This Life
By Katherine Thanas
Edited by Natalie Goldberg
Edited by Bill Anelli
Foreword by Norman Fischer
Foreword by Wendy Johnson
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Shambhala Publications01/23/2018Pages: 176Size: 5.5 x 8.5ISBN: 9781611804683Details“The truth and joy of this life is that we cannot change things as they are.” The import of those words can be found beautifully expressed in the work of the woman who spoke them, Katherine Thanas (1927–2012)—in her art, in her writing, and especially in her Zen teaching. Fearlessly direct and endlessly curious, Katherine’s understanding of Zen was inseparable from her affinity for the arts. She was an MFA student studying painting with Richard Diebenkorn, the preeminent Californian abstract painter, when she met Shunryu Suzuki, author of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, in the sixties. Soon thereafter she decided to drop painting to dedicate herself to Zen, which she did for the last forty years of her life. In these essential teachings taken from her dharma talks—which make up her only book—her love of art and literature shine through in her elegant prose and her vast references, from poets William Stafford and Naomi Shihab Nye to the Zen teachings of Dogen and Robert Aitken. Ranging on subjects from the practice of zazen to the meaning of life, Katherine urges us to “develop an insatiable appetite for inner awareness, to become proficient with this mind.” This slim volume is an important contribution by a well-loved and revered teacher.RelatedCheck items to add to the cart orAuthor BioKatherine Thanas was a renowned dharma teacher who was the founding teacher for the Monterey Bay Zen Center and abbot of the Santa Cruz Zen Center. Katherine was introduced to Zen by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in 1967, and she trained with him at Sokoji, San Francisco Zen Center, Tassajara, and Green Gulch Farm. She received lay ordination from Suzuki Roshi, was ordained as a priest by Zentatsu Baker Roshi in 1975, and received shiho (dharma transmission) from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1988. She died in 2012 at the age of 85.NATALIE GOLDBERG is the author of fifteen books. Writing Down the Bones, her first, has been translated into nineteen languages. Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku is her latest book. For the last forty years she has practiced Zen and taught seminars in writing as a spiritual practice. She lives in northern New Mexico.Bill is a professor of philosophy at Modesto Jr. College in the heart of California’s central valley and has been teaching a wide range of courses there since 2005. He has served on the board of the American Association of Philosophy Teachers and leads workshops and presentations on the teaching of philosophy as well as expertology. Locally Bill directed the Civic Engagement Project at MJC and recently completed a National Endowment for the Humanities’ project, In Search of Common Ground focused on the culture and politics of the central valley. Bill is also chapter leader for Citizen’s Climate Lobby for California’s 10th congressional district. He received lay ordination from Katherine Thanas in 1998.
NORMAN FISCHER is a Zen teacher, poet, translator, and director of the Everyday Zen Foundation. A beloved figure in the Buddhist world, he is also well-known for his efforts at interreligious dialogue. His numerous books include The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path, What Is Zen?: Plain Talk for a Beginner’s Mind, and Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong.Praise"Katherine Thanas stands firm and tall amid this generation of early American Zen pioneers." —Norman Fischer, from the foreword
"The book demonstrates Katherine Thanas Roshi’s ability to tie together personal narratives, Zen teachings, art, and literature: her essays include the words of poets Naomi Shihab Nye, William Stafford, and Rumi alongside those of historical Zen masters such as Dogen and contemporary teachers such as Katagiri Roshi. Using these writings and examples drawn from her own life, she makes even abstruse Zen concepts clear." —Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
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