Upside-Down Zen

Upside-Down Zen

Author: Susan Murphy

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2006-11-13

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 086171279X

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"Upside-Down Zen" invites readers to explore the vivid spirit of Zen Buddhism in fresh ways. Recalling, in another vein, the warm, lyrical style of Lin Jensen's "Bad Dog!, " author Susan Murphy offers a multifaceted take on the spiritual, grounded in the everyday. She uses her skills as storyteller, filmmaker, and poet to uncover the connections between Zen and Western cinema, as well as between Zen and traditions as diverse as Australian aboriginal beliefs and Jewish folktales. In the process, she finds spirituality where it has always belonged -- wherever life is happening. Murphy helps readers make sense of Zen koans, the often oversimplified and misunderstood teaching stories of the tradition, and highlights their wisdom for any reader on the spiritual path. A strong new voice in Western Buddhism, Murphy speaks for the many "unrecorded" women of Zen while bringing a lively, literate approach to a sometimes daunting genre.


Book Synopsis Upside-Down Zen by : Susan Murphy

Download or read book Upside-Down Zen written by Susan Murphy and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-11-13 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Upside-Down Zen" invites readers to explore the vivid spirit of Zen Buddhism in fresh ways. Recalling, in another vein, the warm, lyrical style of Lin Jensen's "Bad Dog!, " author Susan Murphy offers a multifaceted take on the spiritual, grounded in the everyday. She uses her skills as storyteller, filmmaker, and poet to uncover the connections between Zen and Western cinema, as well as between Zen and traditions as diverse as Australian aboriginal beliefs and Jewish folktales. In the process, she finds spirituality where it has always belonged -- wherever life is happening. Murphy helps readers make sense of Zen koans, the often oversimplified and misunderstood teaching stories of the tradition, and highlights their wisdom for any reader on the spiritual path. A strong new voice in Western Buddhism, Murphy speaks for the many "unrecorded" women of Zen while bringing a lively, literate approach to a sometimes daunting genre.

Upside-down Zen

Upside-down Zen

Author: Susan Murphy

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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Book Synopsis Upside-down Zen by : Susan Murphy

Download or read book Upside-down Zen written by Susan Murphy and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Red Thread Zen

Red Thread Zen

Author: Susan Murphy

Publisher: Catapult

Published: 2016-10-01

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 161902876X

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Love, attachment, the passions, gender, carnality, birth, bodily being, mortality, belonging, suffering, hope, despair, personhood, imagination, vitality, the struggle to be fully human – how do these things dwell wholly in emptiness, how do we reconcile their vivid life with 'no–thingness'? The red (or 'vermilion') thread originally connoted the color of the silk undergarments courtesans were obliged to wear. Most spiritual traditions do their best to distance themselves as thoroughly as possible from such direct and intimate contact with the fact of impassioned human bodily being, if not to declare open war upon the flesh, and the female body that most plainly bears flesh into the world. Spirituality has trouble dealing with the fact that we arrive here covered in blood. But the red thread can never be cut. Why not? Why would no perfectly accomplished saint ever even dream of cutting it? Red Thread Zen will set out to explore every corner of the magnificent koan of being 'still attached to the red thread, or 'line of tears'. This is an argument against the bloodless and socially disengaged form of 'Buddhism' that is generally being gestated in the West, one that shades too readily into the blandest of bland self–help.


Book Synopsis Red Thread Zen by : Susan Murphy

Download or read book Red Thread Zen written by Susan Murphy and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2016-10-01 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Love, attachment, the passions, gender, carnality, birth, bodily being, mortality, belonging, suffering, hope, despair, personhood, imagination, vitality, the struggle to be fully human – how do these things dwell wholly in emptiness, how do we reconcile their vivid life with 'no–thingness'? The red (or 'vermilion') thread originally connoted the color of the silk undergarments courtesans were obliged to wear. Most spiritual traditions do their best to distance themselves as thoroughly as possible from such direct and intimate contact with the fact of impassioned human bodily being, if not to declare open war upon the flesh, and the female body that most plainly bears flesh into the world. Spirituality has trouble dealing with the fact that we arrive here covered in blood. But the red thread can never be cut. Why not? Why would no perfectly accomplished saint ever even dream of cutting it? Red Thread Zen will set out to explore every corner of the magnificent koan of being 'still attached to the red thread, or 'line of tears'. This is an argument against the bloodless and socially disengaged form of 'Buddhism' that is generally being gestated in the West, one that shades too readily into the blandest of bland self–help.

Taking the Path of Zen

Taking the Path of Zen

Author: Robert Aitken

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2015-12-15

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1466895233

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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.


Book Synopsis Taking the Path of Zen by : Robert Aitken

Download or read book Taking the Path of Zen written by Robert Aitken and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2015-12-15 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Bring Me the Rhinoceros

Bring Me the Rhinoceros

Author: John Tarrant

Publisher: Shambhala Publications

Published: 2008-11-11

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 9780834823495

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Bring Me the Rhinoceros is an unusual guide to happiness and a can opener for your thinking. For fifteen hundred years, Zen koans have been passed down through generations of masters, usually in private encounters between teacher and student. This book deftly retells more than a dozen traditional koans, which are partly paradoxical questions dangerous to your beliefs and partly treasure boxes of ancient wisdom. Koans show that you don’t have to impress people or change into an improved, more polished version of yourself. Instead you can find happiness by unbuilding, unmaking, throwing overboard, and generally subverting unhappiness. John Tarrant brings the heart of the koan tradition out into the open, reminding us that the old wisdom remains as vital as ever, a deep resource available to anyone in any place or time.


Book Synopsis Bring Me the Rhinoceros by : John Tarrant

Download or read book Bring Me the Rhinoceros written by John Tarrant and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2008-11-11 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bring Me the Rhinoceros is an unusual guide to happiness and a can opener for your thinking. For fifteen hundred years, Zen koans have been passed down through generations of masters, usually in private encounters between teacher and student. This book deftly retells more than a dozen traditional koans, which are partly paradoxical questions dangerous to your beliefs and partly treasure boxes of ancient wisdom. Koans show that you don’t have to impress people or change into an improved, more polished version of yourself. Instead you can find happiness by unbuilding, unmaking, throwing overboard, and generally subverting unhappiness. John Tarrant brings the heart of the koan tradition out into the open, reminding us that the old wisdom remains as vital as ever, a deep resource available to anyone in any place or time.

Zen and the Art of Dealing with Difficult People

Zen and the Art of Dealing with Difficult People

Author: Mark Westmoquette

Publisher: Watkins Media Limited

Published: 2021-12-14

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1786786109

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This is a unique guide to coping with challenging people using practical Zen and mindfulness tools. It helps readers explore their reactions, break free from knee-jerk response patterns and see if these people may in fact prove to be useful teachers in life – troublesome Buddhas. This is a guide to applying the teachings of mindfulness and Zen to the troublesome or challenging people in our lives. Perhaps you can see there’s often a pattern to your behaviour in relation to them and that it often causes pain – perhaps a great deal of pain. The only way we can grow is by facing this pain, acknowledging how we feel and how we’ve reacted, and making an intention or commitment to end this repeating pattern of suffering. In this book, Mark Westmoquette speaks from a place of profound personal experience. A Zen monk, he has endured two life-changing traumas caused by other people: his sexual abuse by his own father; and his stepfather’s death and mother’s very serious injury in a car crash due to the careless driving of an off-duty policeman. He stresses that by bringing awareness and kindness to these relationships, our initial stance of “I can’t stand this person, they need to change” will naturally shift into something much broader and more inclusive. The book makes playful use of Zen koans – apparently nonsensical phrases or stories – to help jar us out of habitual ways of perceiving the world and nudge us toward a new perspective of wisdom and compassion.


Book Synopsis Zen and the Art of Dealing with Difficult People by : Mark Westmoquette

Download or read book Zen and the Art of Dealing with Difficult People written by Mark Westmoquette and published by Watkins Media Limited. This book was released on 2021-12-14 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a unique guide to coping with challenging people using practical Zen and mindfulness tools. It helps readers explore their reactions, break free from knee-jerk response patterns and see if these people may in fact prove to be useful teachers in life – troublesome Buddhas. This is a guide to applying the teachings of mindfulness and Zen to the troublesome or challenging people in our lives. Perhaps you can see there’s often a pattern to your behaviour in relation to them and that it often causes pain – perhaps a great deal of pain. The only way we can grow is by facing this pain, acknowledging how we feel and how we’ve reacted, and making an intention or commitment to end this repeating pattern of suffering. In this book, Mark Westmoquette speaks from a place of profound personal experience. A Zen monk, he has endured two life-changing traumas caused by other people: his sexual abuse by his own father; and his stepfather’s death and mother’s very serious injury in a car crash due to the careless driving of an off-duty policeman. He stresses that by bringing awareness and kindness to these relationships, our initial stance of “I can’t stand this person, they need to change” will naturally shift into something much broader and more inclusive. The book makes playful use of Zen koans – apparently nonsensical phrases or stories – to help jar us out of habitual ways of perceiving the world and nudge us toward a new perspective of wisdom and compassion.

Pagan Portal-Zen Druidry

Pagan Portal-Zen Druidry

Author: Joanna van der Hoeven

Publisher: John Hunt Publishing

Published: 2013-04-26

Total Pages: 78

ISBN-13: 1780993919

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Taking both Zen and Druidry and embracing them into your life can be a wonderful and ongoing process of discovery, not only of the self but of the entire world around you. Looking at ourselves and at the natural world around us, we realise that everything is in constant change and flux - like waves on the ocean, they are all part of one thing that is made up of everything. Even after the wave has crashed upon the shore, the ocean is still there, the wave is still there - it has merely changed its form. The aim of this text is to show how Zen teachings and Druidry can combine to create a peaceful life path that is completely and utterly dedicated to the here and now, to the earth and her rhythms, and to the flow that is life itself. ,


Book Synopsis Pagan Portal-Zen Druidry by : Joanna van der Hoeven

Download or read book Pagan Portal-Zen Druidry written by Joanna van der Hoeven and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2013-04-26 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking both Zen and Druidry and embracing them into your life can be a wonderful and ongoing process of discovery, not only of the self but of the entire world around you. Looking at ourselves and at the natural world around us, we realise that everything is in constant change and flux - like waves on the ocean, they are all part of one thing that is made up of everything. Even after the wave has crashed upon the shore, the ocean is still there, the wave is still there - it has merely changed its form. The aim of this text is to show how Zen teachings and Druidry can combine to create a peaceful life path that is completely and utterly dedicated to the here and now, to the earth and her rhythms, and to the flow that is life itself. ,

Upside-down Zen

Upside-down Zen

Author: Susan Murphy

Publisher: Lothian Children's Books

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 9780734404992

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Zen Buddhism is a direct path into reality - the self and the hard and exhilarating questions of being alive. UPSIDE-DOWN ZEN is an invitation to walk the path of crooked wisdom, exploring the vivid spirit of Zen Buddhism and how it is taking root in the West. Originally recorded as oral teachings, these essays were written for anyone with an interest in meditation, self-knowledge and the opening of insight and compassion in ordinary life. Susan Murphy's writing conveys the richness and depth of Zen. By concentrating her gaze on the particular - the lived moment - she is able to explore the timeless wisdom of traditional Zen teachings in a contemporary setting. Drawing on modern cinema, Australian Aboriginal spirituality, Australian literature, traditional Japanese poetry and Jewish folklore to illuminate the old Zen koans. These lyrical commentaries resonate with the poetry of life and art. Her insights are rooted in those seemingly insignificant moments that are suffused with poignancy and truth. A feast of Zen wisdom, culture and philosophy, Upside-Down Zen will broaden and intensify our understanding of Buddhist teachings in the West.


Book Synopsis Upside-down Zen by : Susan Murphy

Download or read book Upside-down Zen written by Susan Murphy and published by Lothian Children's Books. This book was released on 2004 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zen Buddhism is a direct path into reality - the self and the hard and exhilarating questions of being alive. UPSIDE-DOWN ZEN is an invitation to walk the path of crooked wisdom, exploring the vivid spirit of Zen Buddhism and how it is taking root in the West. Originally recorded as oral teachings, these essays were written for anyone with an interest in meditation, self-knowledge and the opening of insight and compassion in ordinary life. Susan Murphy's writing conveys the richness and depth of Zen. By concentrating her gaze on the particular - the lived moment - she is able to explore the timeless wisdom of traditional Zen teachings in a contemporary setting. Drawing on modern cinema, Australian Aboriginal spirituality, Australian literature, traditional Japanese poetry and Jewish folklore to illuminate the old Zen koans. These lyrical commentaries resonate with the poetry of life and art. Her insights are rooted in those seemingly insignificant moments that are suffused with poignancy and truth. A feast of Zen wisdom, culture and philosophy, Upside-Down Zen will broaden and intensify our understanding of Buddhist teachings in the West.

Iron Flute

Iron Flute

Author: Nyogen Senzaki

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Published: 2011-07-26

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 1462901980

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This book of koans contains some of the most important Zen sayings of all time along with insightful commentary. Koans are the intellectually unsolvable problem-riddles at the core of the Rinzai tradition of Zen Buddhism, perhaps the most well-known one being "what is the sound of one hand clapping." Though widely recognized, most koan remain narrowly understood. In this new edition of The Iron Flute, one hundred of the most challenging and enlightening koan from the Chinese Chan (Zen) patriarchs of the Tang and Sung dynasties are presented, along with commentary from the great Zen masters Genro, Fugai, and Nyogen, and an in-depth biography of author Nyogen Senzaki (1876-1958), a pioneer in bringing Zen Buddhism to the West. The Iron Flute stands alone as the definitive work on koan-an essential pathway to the tenets and practice of Zen Buddhism.


Book Synopsis Iron Flute by : Nyogen Senzaki

Download or read book Iron Flute written by Nyogen Senzaki and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2011-07-26 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book of koans contains some of the most important Zen sayings of all time along with insightful commentary. Koans are the intellectually unsolvable problem-riddles at the core of the Rinzai tradition of Zen Buddhism, perhaps the most well-known one being "what is the sound of one hand clapping." Though widely recognized, most koan remain narrowly understood. In this new edition of The Iron Flute, one hundred of the most challenging and enlightening koan from the Chinese Chan (Zen) patriarchs of the Tang and Sung dynasties are presented, along with commentary from the great Zen masters Genro, Fugai, and Nyogen, and an in-depth biography of author Nyogen Senzaki (1876-1958), a pioneer in bringing Zen Buddhism to the West. The Iron Flute stands alone as the definitive work on koan-an essential pathway to the tenets and practice of Zen Buddhism.

Zen Socks (A Stillwater and Friends Book)

Zen Socks (A Stillwater and Friends Book)

Author: Jon J Muth

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Published: 2015-09-29

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13: 0545860490

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Stillwater, the beloved Zen panda, now in his own Apple TV+ original series! On life's journey...kindness is the key.Leo and Molly love their new neighborhood. Most of all they love their friend Stillwater. The three friends are quite a team! From Caldecott Honoree Jon J Muth comes a story about sharing, another about patience, and a third about compassion. With warmth and fun, they learn from one another in the most surprising ways....


Book Synopsis Zen Socks (A Stillwater and Friends Book) by : Jon J Muth

Download or read book Zen Socks (A Stillwater and Friends Book) written by Jon J Muth and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2015-09-29 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stillwater, the beloved Zen panda, now in his own Apple TV+ original series! On life's journey...kindness is the key.Leo and Molly love their new neighborhood. Most of all they love their friend Stillwater. The three friends are quite a team! From Caldecott Honoree Jon J Muth comes a story about sharing, another about patience, and a third about compassion. With warmth and fun, they learn from one another in the most surprising ways....