Zen master Julian Daizan Skinner guides the reader through a sequence of meditation techniques that can safely lead even a complete novice through to advanced levels. Based on his own long experience of the Rinzai Zen tradition, as taught by the great seventeenth-century masters, Hakuin and Bankei, Daizan highlights the key points for success and addresses the pitfalls. Structured around a traditional teaching framework called "The two wings of a bird," Daizan clearly lays-out how these methods build and combine to create a transformative and sustaining practice. The book contains an extremely useful section describing the experiences of western practitioners who have successfully applied this framework within the pressures of modern life. The final section features key source texts in translation, making the book a complete introduction and guide to Zen meditation. The work of a master, the book speaks at a deep level, with utmost simplicity.

Bringing the body-mind insights of Rinzai Zen from the mountains of Japan to the Western world, Zen master Julian Daizan Skinner and Sarah Bladen present simple meditation techniques to help achieve health, wellbeing and success. Taking the reader through the first 100 days of practice, the book then shows how to adapt the new learned techniques to the rest of your life. Including case studies at the end of each chapter to show how people's lives have been transformed through their meditation journeys, this is an accessible and practical guide to adapting Eastern meditation into busy Western lives.

"These two books, bound in one volume, are especialy written for those altogether new to the study of Zen. The first book starts the beginner, the second gives him the next steps. These books are written by the greatest Zen master of our time. In his long life of 95 years (1870-1966) Dr. Suzuki was universally considered the greatest authority in the world on Zen Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy. He was also the pioneer teacher of the subject outside of Japan. Dr. Suzuki first came to America in 1897 and lived here until 1909, writing and translating. During the next forty years in Japan he wrote almost as often in English as in Japanese. He came back to America in 1949 and spent much of his time here until he finally returned to Japan at the age of 94"--Publisher's description, p. [2] of dust jacket.