Naked in the Zendo: Stories of Uptight Zen, Wild-Ass Zen, a nd Enlightenment Wherever You Are
by Grace Shireson, forward by Joan Halifax
★★★ 1/2
A collection of charming and funny stories on how to turn the awareness we find on the meditation cushion into wisdom for every day.
We need to remove our ego's clothing to truly see ourselves and the world as they are. Grace Schireson's stories about her Zen journey--from child to grandmother--share deep insight about how we can find awareness, feel it in our bodies, and experience it wherever we are. Grace's path is at times ordinary--with stories of youthful naiveite ("Will Zen Get You High?"), parenting ("You Exist; Therefore, I Am Embarrassed"), and pets ("The Honorable Roshi Bully Cat")--and groundbreaking--with stories of her studies with Suzuki Roshi ("What's Love Got to Do with It?"), Keido Fukushima Roshi ("Don't Bow"), and more. Each story, whether humorous or poignant, highlights the power of awareness to transform our lives and the remarkable work of this pioneering woman in American Zen.
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Embracing Each Moment: A Guide to the Awakened Life
by Anam Thubten
★★★★ 1/2
"The awakened life is the essence and aim of the Buddhist teachings, according to Anam Thubten, and this book is a guide to cultivating the awakened mind and heart that allows this wonderful kind of life to happen. He illuminates the path to awakened living in a way that’s concise and completely accessible to anyone of any background—reflective of the diverse backgrounds of the students who attend his popular talks on which the book is based. "We all want to be happy," says Anam Thubten. "This seems to be our strongest impulse. Primarily our happiness comes from our state of mind, though we can’t deny the fact that outside circumstances play a big role. When we learn to embrace each moment of our lives, we’re empowered to let go of our emotional patterns and false beliefs about ourselves, and we discover the compassion that’s been there all along."
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“I've also learned that you don't always get to pick the people with whom you travel the journey. You sometimes may think you do, but don't be deceived. And the corollary of that - and this was my real lesson - is that you start to realize that you can love even the people you don't like and must love and help everyone.”
― Lama Surya Das, Awakening the Buddha Within: Eight Steps to Enlightenment
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“When one of the emperors of China asked Bodhidharma (the Zen master who brought Zen from India to China) what enlightenment was, his answer was, “Lots of space, nothing holy.” Meditation is nothing holy. Therefore there’s nothing that you think or feel that somehow gets put in the category of “sin.” There’s nothing that you can think or feel that gets put in the category of “bad.” There’s nothing that you can think or feel that gets put in the category of “wrong.” It’s all good juicy stuff—the manure of waking up, the manure of achieving enlightenment, the art of living in the present moment.”
― Pema Chödrön, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living
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“Each river is different, but they all eventually lead to the ocean. No matter what we’re doing or when, or whether it brings us happiness or remorse, gain or loss, we’re all on our individual paths to enlightenment. Even when we’ve done something we consider wrong, we’re still on our path to enlightenment.”
― Chris Prentiss,
Zen and the Art of Happiness
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