The Awakened One: A Life of the Buddha by Sherab Chodzin Kohn It's one of the great archetypal stories-and in it is contained the seeds of liberation for all beings. This retelling is both readable and informed by an understanding of Buddhist history and teaching. This volume also includes a short history of Buddhism and
The Poetry of Zen Edited by Sam Hamill and J P Seaton This exquisite little book is a delight to hold and look at. It's even more delightful when you start to read the poetic articulations of enlightenment it contains. So, although it looks great in your hand, don't neglect opening it up! For more
A Jewish Mother in Shangri-la by Rosie Rosenzweig An old joke tells of a Jewish woman who treks to the Himalayas to seek an audience with a guru sitting in seclusion on a mountaintop. When at last she comes before him, she implores: "Sheldon, come home!" Rosie Rosenzweig was that Jewish mother-but in real life,
Waking Up to What You Do: A Zen Practice for Meeting Every Situation with Intelligence and Compassion By Diane Eshin Rizzetto If you think of the Precepts as a sort of Buddhist Ten Commandments, Diane Rizzetto may change your view. She sees the precepts as, above all, a practice. Rather than keeping your behavior in
Voices of Insight, edited by Sharon Salzberg This book was actually put together as a benefit project-with the royalties to benefit Ram Dass to help pay his medical bills-but it turned out better than expected. It's basically a digest of American Insight Meditation teachers-some of them appearing in print for the first time before they
Beneath a Single Moon: Buddhism in Contemporary American Poetry, edited by Kent Johnson and Craig Paulenich Oh, just open this marvelous book sometime-anywhere-and fall into it. It's an anthology of the work of 45 poets who (at least around 1990, when this was published) practiced some form of Buddhism and had some idea that the
Dakini's Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism by Judith Simmer-Brown Dakinis-those semi-wrathful feminine figures of Tibetan Buddhist cosmology-get a bum rap today. They often end up serving as poster-girls for goddess-spirituality or as exemplars of the "shadow" for proponents of Jungian psychology. The reality is a lot more complex than that-and much more
In Buddha's Kitchen: Cooking, Being Cooked, and Other Adventures in a Meditation Center by Kimberley Snow Anyone who's ever sat a meditation retreat knows how that much time on the cushion can cause one's inner absurdities to spew like Mount Vesuvius. It can be agony when it's happening, but hilarious to recall later. Kimberley Snow's
Mountain Record of Zen Talks By John Daido Loori This book, now more than a quarter-century old, is one of the best ways to get acquainted with the late esteemed Zen master John Daido Loori (1931-2009). He was a lineage holder in both Soto (a dharma heir of Taizan Maezumi) and Rinzai schools, and
The Awakened One: A Life of the Buddha by Sherab Chodzin Kohn It's one of the great archetypal stories-and in it is contained the seeds of liberation for all beings. This retelling is both readable and informed by an understanding of Buddhist history and teaching. This volume also includes a short history of Buddhism and
The Poetry of Zen Edited by Sam Hamill and J P Seaton This exquisite little book is a delight to hold and look at. It's even more delightful when you start to read the poetic articulations of enlightenment it contains. So, although it looks great in your hand, don't neglect opening it up! For more
A Jewish Mother in Shangri-la by Rosie Rosenzweig An old joke tells of a Jewish woman who treks to the Himalayas to seek an audience with a guru sitting in seclusion on a mountaintop. When at last she comes before him, she implores: "Sheldon, come home!" Rosie Rosenzweig was that Jewish mother-but in real life,
Waking Up to What You Do: A Zen Practice for Meeting Every Situation with Intelligence and Compassion By Diane Eshin Rizzetto If you think of the Precepts as a sort of Buddhist Ten Commandments, Diane Rizzetto may change your view. She sees the precepts as, above all, a practice. Rather than keeping your behavior in
Voices of Insight, edited by Sharon Salzberg This book was actually put together as a benefit project-with the royalties to benefit Ram Dass to help pay his medical bills-but it turned out better than expected. It's basically a digest of American Insight Meditation teachers-some of them appearing in print for the first time before they
Beneath a Single Moon: Buddhism in Contemporary American Poetry, edited by Kent Johnson and Craig Paulenich Oh, just open this marvelous book sometime-anywhere-and fall into it. It's an anthology of the work of 45 poets who (at least around 1990, when this was published) practiced some form of Buddhism and had some idea that the
Dakini's Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism by Judith Simmer-Brown Dakinis-those semi-wrathful feminine figures of Tibetan Buddhist cosmology-get a bum rap today. They often end up serving as poster-girls for goddess-spirituality or as exemplars of the "shadow" for proponents of Jungian psychology. The reality is a lot more complex than that-and much more
In Buddha's Kitchen: Cooking, Being Cooked, and Other Adventures in a Meditation Center by Kimberley Snow Anyone who's ever sat a meditation retreat knows how that much time on the cushion can cause one's inner absurdities to spew like Mount Vesuvius. It can be agony when it's happening, but hilarious to recall later. Kimberley Snow's
Mountain Record of Zen Talks By John Daido Loori This book, now more than a quarter-century old, is one of the best ways to get acquainted with the late esteemed Zen master John Daido Loori (1931-2009). He was a lineage holder in both Soto (a dharma heir of Taizan Maezumi) and Rinzai schools, and
