Taking the Path of Zen

Author: Robert Aitken
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466895233
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 184

Book Description
There is a fine art to presenting complex ideas with simplicity and insight, in a manner that both guides and inspires. In Taking the Path of Zen Robert Aitken presents the practice, lifestyle, rationale, and ideology of Zen Buddhism with remarkable clarity. The foundation of Zen is the practice of zazen, or mediation, and Aitken Roshi insists that everything flows from the center. He discusses correct breathing, posture, routine, teacher-student relations, and koan study, as well as common problems and milestones encountered in the process. Throughout the book the author returns to zazen, offering further advice and more advanced techniques. The orientation extends to various religious attitudes and includes detailed discussions of the Three Treasures and the Ten Precepts of Zen Buddhism. Taking the Path of Zen will serve as orientation and guide for anyone who is drawn to the ways of Zen, from the simply curious to the serious Zen student.

Encouraging Words

Author: Robert Aitken
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 0307772519
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Book Description
Nominated for the Tricycle Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Buddhism in America—a collection of short talks and essays from a renowned meditation teacher. "The inspiration that guided monks and nuns in ancient times is our own deepest incentive as we establish our practice in a world that desperately needs new forms of kinship and love." —Robert Aitken In this inspiring collection, you will find a series of talks and essays that Aitken Rashi has offered his students at meditation retreats during the past two decades. They are arranged according to themes central to all spiritual seekers—attention, emptiness, coming and going, diligence, death and the afterlife, the sacred self, and the moral path. Aitken provides guidance on pursuing religious practice in a lay context, “re-casting the Dharma to include women, jobs, and family.” He also charts his own quest to develop a set of moral codes in keeping with Buddhism's basic precepts and honoring the enormous ethical challenges faced in the twentieth century.

The Mind of Clover

Author: Robert Aitken
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466895241
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 195

Book Description
In Taking the Path of Zen, Robert Aitken provided a concise guide to zazen (Zen meditation) and other aspects of the practice of Zen. In The Mind of Clover he addresses the world beyond the zazen cushions, illuminating issues of appropriate personal and social action through an exploration of the philosophical complexities of Zen ethics. Aitken's approach is clear and sure as he shows how our minds can be as nurturing as clover, which enriches the soil and benefits the environment as it grows. The opening chapters discuss the Ten Grave Precepts of Zen, which, Aitken points out, are "not commandments etched in stone but expressions of inspiration written in something more fluid than water." Aitken approaches these precepts, the core of Zen ethics, from several perspectives, offering many layers of interpretation. Like ripples in a pond, the circles of his interpretation increasingly widen, and he expands his focus to confront corporate theft and oppression, the role of women in Zen and society, abortion, nuclear war, pollution of the environment, and other concerns. The Mind of Clover champions the cause of personal responsibility in modern society, encouraging nonviolent activism based on clear convictions. It is a guide that engages, that invites us to realize our own potential for confident and responsible action.

Taking the Path of Zen

Author: Robert Aitken
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0865470804
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 166

Book Description
Examines the fundamental principles of Zen Buddhism, discusses how to put these beliefs in practice in everyday life, and describes Zen customs and ceremonies.

Ambivalent Zen

Author: Lawrence Shainberg
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 067977288X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
Seeking help with his basketball game, Shainberg embraced Zen Buddhism in 1951 and was catapulted on a life-long spiritual journey. Alternately comic and reverential, Ambivalent Zen chronicles the rewards and dangers of spiritual ambition and presents a poignant reflection of the experiences faced by many Americans involved in the Zen movement.

Taking Our Places

Author: Norman Fischer
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060587199
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
This engaging contemplation of maturity addresses the long neglected topic of what it means to grow up, and provides a hands–on guide for skilfully navigating the demands of our adult lives. Growing up happens whether we like it or not, but maturity must be cultivated. Challenged to consider his own sense of maturity while mentoring a group of teenage boys, Fischer began to investigate our preconceptions about what it means to be "an adult" and shows how crucial true maturity is to leading an engaged, fulfilled life. Taking Our Places details the marks of a mature person and shows how these attributes can help alleviate our suffering and enrich our relationships. Discussing such qualities as awareness, responsibility, humour, acceptance, and humility, Fischer brings a fresh and at times surprising new perspective that can turn old ideas on their heads and reinvigorate our understanding of what it means to be mature.

Original Dwelling Place

Author: Robert Aitken
Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 266

Book Description
Just as Taking the Path of Zen is the definitive handbook for Zen practice, the essays gathered in Original Dwelling Place are essential for the light they shed on Aitken Roshi's own journey and the effect he has had on American Zen Buddhism. Gathered here are essays about the Zen texts Aitken has studied with avidity and close attention throughout the years, texts that were early and lasting influences. In an opening section entitled "Ancestors", Aitken pays homage to the masters who influenced his own development and Zen Buddhism generally. In other meditations, Robert Aitken writes on political revolution and matters of ethics. He helps illuminate the proper use of money, power, and sexual love in a modern world that is often tainted by materialism and decadence. He reflects on death, on marriage, and on Zen practice, always pointing out the path to pleasure in the everyday "dewdrop" world.

The Practice of Perfection

Author: Robert Aitken
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 0307817474
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Book Description
Robert Aiken, author of Encouraging Words and Taking the Path of Zen, is America’s most senior Zen Roshi. In this new book he presents the Ten Pãramitãs, of Transcendental Perfections—namely, giving, mortality, forbearance, zeal, focused meditation, wisdom, compassionate means, aspiration, spiritual power, and knowledge—two-thousand-year-old ideals that can serve us as both methods and goals. The Pãramitãs are the “skillful means” a person may employ to nurture and develop his or her spiritual and moral life. In religious instruction we are often met be restrictions, and are told what not to do. The Pãramitãs, explained from a Zen perspective, offer the seeker ten positive means of action, ten ways to live a life of clarity and grace in a modern world where neither seems easy or even possible. The transcendental perfections can lead us toward a life that is both spiritually invigorated and socially engaged. Aitken Roshi’s way of teaching—anecdotal, careful, insightful, and easily accessible—leads us further along the path of harmony and balance. Each of the inspiring and instructional essays in this book is followed by a section in which Aitken answers questions most often asked by his own students in their course of study. The Practice of Perfection will be useful to seekers of all cultures and faiths.

The Zen Path Through Depression

Author: Philip Martin
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060654465
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Book Description
Drawing on his own struggle, Philip Martin reveals another path people can travel to get through depression – one that not only eases the pain, but mends the spirit. Extremely accessible to people with little or no Zen experience as well as to longtime students of Buddhism,The Zen Path Through Depression shows how the insights and exercises of Zen offer relief for those suffering from depression.This groundbreaking guide shows how to cope and heal, and even how to see the experience as an opportunity for spiritual growth and learning. Leading readers step-by-step through a recovery process that uses walking meditation and other meditative ways of enhancing awareness, koans, and other Zen teachings, Martin offers true help and spiritual guidance on the path to healing and contentment.

A Thousand Paths to Zen

Author: Robert Allen
Publisher: Spruce
ISBN: 9781840725612
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Zen is a path to spiritual fulfilment. In order to follow it you need to be able to do two things: sit on your butt and breathe. How hard is that? Do you need to be a buddhist to do Zen? No. Zen and Buddhism are kissing cousins but they aren't married. Any Christian, Jew, Muslim, or atheist can study Zen without comprising his or her beliefs. There are three things that will help along the way: great faith - not faith in a Christian sense but simply a firm belief that the Zen path will lead to enlightenment; great doubt - you must be prepared to take nothing for granted and examine everything for yourself from the ground up; and great perseverance - Zen is not instant enlightenment, it takes years of constant effort. Travel the path and enjoy!