This text is a collection of anecdotes, dialogues, and poems by or about the 8th-century Zen adept P'ang Yun.

A few words is a book of thought, experiment, expression, and alchemy. It is the hand-book for the "zen" of connections that don't appear yet do; that nothing is far away or wrong... A few words shares with free associative insights how not to worry, how not to be obligated with the need to seem or appear. It is written almost nonsensically with a whimsical craft to make you laugh without knowing why? The author is also a worldwide radio music performer, yoga meditation philosopher, and degreed scientist. This book is an 8 x 8 in a matte hardcover.

While it seeks neither to define Zen nor answer its most famous koan (a riddle unanswerable by conventional thinking, in this case the sound of one hand clapping), this bestselling little book with 437,000 copies in print possesses a maverick Zen spirit that points to a different way of looking at the world. With each page featuring a quote, phrase, story, koan, haiku, or poem, Zen Companion combines the feeling and format of a meditation book with 2,500 years of wisdom-from Lao-tzu and Groucho Marx, William Carlos Williams and The Little Prince, D. T. Suzuki and Walker Percy, the Buddha and the Bible, Einstein and Gertrude Stein. It's a celebration of intuition: "If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark"-St. John the Cross. Individuality: "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought."-Basho. Uncomplicated nature: "Among twenty snowy mountains/The only moving thing/Was the eye of the blackbird."-Wallace Stevens. Childlike spontaneity: "Goodnight stars. Goodnight air."-Margaret Wise Brown. Irreverent paradox: "Wakuan complained when he saw a picture of bearded Bodhidharma: 'Why hasn't that fellow a beard?'" And above all, the simple pleasure of life lived in the moment. "Chop wood, carry water."

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.

Best known as the man who brought Zen classics to the West, Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki sheds light on all phases of a monk's experience, from being initially refused admittance at the Zendo's door to the definitive understanding the meaning of one's koan as the final act of ordinance into Zen priesthood. The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk invites us inside the mysterious world of the Zendo, where monks live their lives in monastic simplicity. Suzuki reveals the subtle intricacies of the initiation ceremony, a monk's duty to beg among the laity, and he explains the spiritual remuneration of prayer & meditation as well as a life of service to others.Initially published in 1934, this exceptional hardcover edition contains handsome illustrations of diverse scenes from the life training of a Zen monk.DAISETZ TEITARO SUZUKI (1870-1966) was Japanese author who wrote essays and books on topics such as Buddhism, Zen, and Shin. His books played a role in making the west more knowledgeable with Far Eastern philosophy. He taught at western schools as well as Japanese schools. He was also a translator of Chinese, Japanese, and Sanskrit.

There is a famous Zen story about a disciple, Riko, who once asked his master Nansen to explain to him the old Zen koan of the goose in the bottle. Namely, if a man puts a gosling into a bottle, and feeds the gosling through the bottle’s neck until it grows and becomes a goose – and then there is simply no more room inside the bottle — how can the man get it out without killing the goose or breaking the bottle? In response, Nansen shouts "RIKO!" and gives a great clap with his hands. Startled, Riko replies, "Yes master!" And Nansen says, "See! The goose is out!" In this Zen-flavored series of responses to questions, the contemporary mystic Osho cuts through the mad complexity of the contemporary human mind and its self-created "problems" with humor, compassion, and even an occasional shout and clap of his hands. The goose in the questioner's bottle may be a philosophical problem or an existential dilemma, a relationship drama or an emotional crisis — in each case, Osho's unique and transformational response sets the goose free, allowing us to rediscover the simple and innocent clarity each of us brings with us when we