The Great Road: Zen Master Dogen and the Art of Continuous Practice

“The Great Road winds around a single question: what is our human life, really, and what are we supposed to do about it? Along this road, Bodhidharma sits beside Simone Weil; Dogen converses with Emily Dickinson; Descartes meets Mahakashyapa; and Wordsworth, Robert Creeley, Gertrude Stein, and Kierkegaard turn up hitchhiking alongside Suzuki Roshi, Blanche Hartman, and Sojun Mel Weitsman—because continuous practice is not particular to Dogen or to Zen. It is the form of any serious human life. As Fischer teaches us, continuous practice means closing the gap between one’s deepest aspirations and one’s ordinary speaking, thinking, and acting.”

“Repetition is central in Zen practice, offering us an opportunity to see with fresh eyes. That’s the relationship you will want with this book, returning to it again and again for new insights. Norman has given us a deep and accessible book. He invites us into continuous practice and the miracle of presence in everyday life.”

“Beautifully written and conceived, The Great Road is a brilliant and inspiring elucidation of the dharma of continuous practice—our life—brought to us by an author whose insight, compassion, and singular sensibility and vision as a poet have helped to create the master Zen teacher he is. Drawing on the vast wealth of his decades of spiritual practice, as well as his deeply rooted literary and philosophical underpinnings, Fischer’s depth of humane understanding and his ability to make it accessible, practical, and real to others is found on every page. Truly, in Fischer’s hands, the adage that the great road is so wide you can’t fall off could not be more clearly apparent than in his latest offering. To read it is to see; to live it reveals the miracle of life as it is and may be found. To date, The Great Road may be Norman Fischer’s very best.”

“Norman Fischer’s commentary on Dogen’s ‘Continuous Practice’ is an exploration of the what and how of our Zen practice and life. After practicing for 40 years, I found Norman’s book to be inspiring as it offers new revelations about the path of Zen. This straightforward commentary is spiced with his poetry, as well as the poetry of others and Western philosophy. Norman raises the question, ‘What is our human life, really, and what are we supposed to do about it?’ A deeply thoughtful and thought-provoking book, resulting in original insights and a fresh exploration of what it means to be a human who uses Buddhism as the vehicle to travel the great path of life. Like Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind , Norman’s wisdom speaks to both the beginner and the old hand.”

“‘We are inconceivably beyond ourselves,’ Norman Fischer says in The Great Road , echoing Wordsworth, Kierkegaard, Weil, Descartes, Wittgenstein, Whalen, Creeley, but most of all Dogen and his ‘continuous practice.’ Fischer practices vernacular philosophy as if it were a kind of poetry. No need to be a religious believer, a Zen practitioner, a meditator, or even a poetry reader to be charmed by this book. It is recommended even for committed grumps like me because it is an intimate conversation about the experience of impermanence. Fischer proposes no creed, only new paths of attention to the lives we’ve been given.”

“A true delight! Norman Fischer has long been one of the best interpreters of Zen Buddhism for the modern world. With his new book, he takes us into the depths, acting as an astute, keen-eyed, kind-hearted guide to the meaning of Zen’s ‘continuous practice.’ Fischer’s subtle understanding of language, honed through his work as an acclaimed poet, allows him to unveil the living heart of Zen practice through what would otherwise be hard-to-understand Chinese and Japanese sources. By illuminating the everyday relevance of Zen’s most far-reaching teachings, Fischer gives us a book that is simultaneously thought-provoking, inspiring, and deeply hopeful.”