Both a fascinating glimpse of the interaction between spiritual master and disciple and a lucid analysis of the Zen path of awareness, this book describes techniques for breathing, standing, walking, concentrating, moving the mind, overcoming ego, healing the body, and finally, opening a “window of opportunity” between stillness and motion that allows the expansion of time and consciousness.

A fifth-century Indian Buddhist monk, Bodhidharma is credited with bringing Zen to China. Although the tradition that traces its ancestry back to him did not flourish until nearly two hundred years after his death, today millions of Zen Buddhists and students of kung fu claim him as their spiritual father. While others viewed Zen practice as a purification of the mind or a stage on the way to perfect enlightenment, Bodhidharma equated Zen with buddhahood and believed that it had a place in everyday life. Instead of telling his disciples to purify their minds, he pointed them to rock walls, to the movements of tigers and cranes, to a hollow reed floating across the Yangtze. This bilingual edition, the only volume of the great teacher's work currently available in English, presents four teachings in their entirety. "Outline of Practice" describes the four all-inclusive habits that lead to enlightenment, the "Bloodstream Sermon" exhorts students to seek the Buddha by seeing their own nature, the "Wake-up Sermon" defends his premise that the most essential method for reaching enlightenment is beholding the mind. The original Chinese text, presented on facing pages, is taken from a Ch'ing dynasty woodblock edition.

Insightful and entertaining essays spanning 40 years of lectures by Alan Watts on Zen, Taoism, psychedelics, and comparative philosophy. Alan Watts's essays and talks range widely through psychology, art, religion, and politics, but always come home to the Zen core. For those familiar with Alan Watts’s style of presentation, the wonderful, memorable, and prophetic style of his voice is captured in this volume. Talking Zen puts on display Watts’s ability to explore the very subtle philosophies, those common across traditions and those unique to Zen, in ordinary and accessible language. These lectures paved the way for the rise of Zen in the West.

The greatest marvel of the universe is the human brain, but it comes without an instruction manual. The Zen Brain tells the compelling story of the human brain, from its astonishing appearance in evolution to its perplexing present form, with all its extraordinary abilities as well as its sorry penchant for aberration. If left uncultivated, the human mind grows like a weed garden. But when disciplined in the natural way, the human mind is the finest prize of nature. Such a mind also tends to be more effective, resilient, and happy. Part I, Foundations, begins with the origins of life that have moved relentlessly in one biological direction, a better brain. But the human brain appeared with abilities that far outstripped the environments that spawned it. It mediates between stimulus and response in a new way. It thinks. Oddly, we can all drive cars, yet there were no cars present when we emerged. Just as oddly, we can go insane without any apparent organic reason. Part II, Applications identifies and explains in depth the conditioning methods of self-betterment. With cultivation, the human brain becomes the natural mind that performs better, feels better, and simply works better in adapting us to the many strange, new environments we have created for ourselves. The potential for a finer mental life, a finer quality in experience, exists in all humans. But without discipline, you have to live in the weed garden all your life.

This book demonstrates that Zen thought and art provide both a generative and a formative context for understanding the spirituality of the English poet William Wordsworth (1770—1850). Combining methods of modern literary scholarship with the philosophical initiatives of the Kyoto School, the text crosses disciplines as well as cultures, offering a nonmonotheistic, nonpantheistic philosophical ground upon which to study what Wordsworth calls the "tranquil soul" and "the one Presence" that underlies "the great whole of life." Anticipating a variety of audiences, the discourse progresses from general, introductory level discussions of Zen philosophy and literature to the more technical philosophical idiom of the Kyoto School, employing intertextual readings of a variety of Wordsworthian and Zen documents to broaden and deepen the East-West dialogue as it has been unfolding since the pioneering work of D. T. Suzuki and Kitaro Nishida. An important aspect of this study is its twofold purpose: to situate Wordsworth more centrally in the evolving global community of intercultural and interreligious communication and to demonstrate the unique flexibility and universality of Zen as a medium of spiritual growth and aesthetic understanding.

Coloring has been around for ages. Not just for children anymore, adults are now re-learning the benefits of sitting down with crayons or markers and spending quiet time coloring. As relaxing as it can be physically, it doesn't always relax the mind, because as adults we have learned to replay our thoughts on a continuous loop. This coloring book journal was made to help you get out of your own head when you sit down to color. Included with the pages to color are suggestions that can help re-channel your thoughts to maximize the mental benefits of coloring.

Discover a life of ease and joy through Body in Mind Training, a groundbreaking program focused on movement-based mindfulness Written by neuroscientist and mindfulness expert Dr. Tamara Russell, Mindfulness in Motion presents a new approach to mindfulness that is practiced not by sitting still but by engaging with the moving body. It is the only book to explain why moving meditation is the best way of ‘rewiring’ the brain, teaching it to focus on the present moment. Russell's simple exercises are designed to be accessible to everyone, including those who can’t seem to find time for practice, and those who have struggled with traditional Zen-inspired mindfulness. This book will guide you step by step through Dr. Tamara Russell’s Body in Mind Training (BMT) program, a unique approach to secular mindfulness that uses the moving body as the main meditation tool. The message is simple: getting out of your head and into your body is the key to a happier, healthier life. Chapter by chapter, the book explores the five principles of movement-based mindfulness: • Pause: In order to hear your body, you have to slow down and listen to its voice—this is the starting point for BMT mindfulness practice. • Intention: Setting your intention before you act can dramatically increase your ability to achieve what you want in life. • Attention: You can detect the mind-wandering habits that hold you back and use your attention to create more space for the things that really matter. • Understanding Me: It’s possible to tame your unruly ‘mental monkeys’ and create new neural pathways in your brain to help you to realize your full potential. • Compassion: Facing and accepting your own difficult experiences can profoundly transform your relationship with life. With easy-to-follow exercises, step-by-step photographs, clear brain diagrams, and a host of practical tips, this book offers all the tools you need to start living in your body. With a little focus, determination, and practice, you too can experience the amazing benefits of mindfulness.

A screenwriter and stand-up comic’s hilarious and profound account of his journey into Zen monkhood—featuring a foreword by Leonard Cohen Shozan Jack Haubner is the David Sedaris of Zen Buddhism: a brilliant humorist and analyst of human foibles, whose hilarity is informed by the profound insights that have dawned on him—as he's stumbled and fallen into spirituall practice. Raised in a truly strange family of Mel-Gibson-esque Catholic extremists, he went on to study philosophy (becoming very un-Catholic in the process) and to pursue a career as a screenwriter and stand-up comic in the clubs of L.A. How he went from life in the fast lane to life on the stationary meditation cushion is the subject of this laugh-out-loud funny account of his experiences. Whether he’s dealing with the pranks of a juvenile delinquent assistant in the monastery kitchen or experiencing profound compassion in the presence of his spiritual teacher, Haubner’s voice is one you'll be compelled to listen to. Not only because it’s highly entertaining, but because of its remarkable insight into the human condition.

In this second volume of his classic history, one of the world's foremost Zen scholars turns his attention to the development of Zen in Japan.

Zen Buddhism emerged in China some fifteen centuries ago and remained the most dynamic and influential spiritual movement in Asia for more than a millennium. Though the teachings of the first Zen masters are sometimes considered innovation, they were actually a return to the core of Buddhist teaching and to an understanding of the importance of the personal experience of enlightenment. This anthology presents talks, sayings, and records of heart-to-heart encounters to show the essence of Zen teaching through the words of the Zen masters themselves. The selections have been made from the voluminous Zen canon for their accessibility, their clarity, and above all their practical effectiveness in fostering insight.