Preface: Why Write or Read this Book? -- 1. What Really is Zen? Recovering the Beginner's Open Mind -- 2. Previewing the Path of Zen: Know Thyself, Forget Thyself, Open Thyself -- 3. Zen Meditation as a Practice of Clearing the Heart-Mind -- 4. How to Practice Zen Meditation: Attending to Place, Body, Breath, and Mind -- 5. The Buddha's First and Last Lesson: The Middle Way of Knowing What Suffices -- 6. The Buddha's Strong Medicine: Embracing Impermanence -- 7. The True Self is Egoless -- 8. We are One: Loving Others as Yourself -- 9. But We Are Not the Same: Taking Turns as the Center of the Universe -- 10. Who or What is the Buddha? -- 11. Mind is Buddha: So, if You Encounter the Buddha, Kill Him! -- 12. Dying to Live: Zen, Pure Land Buddhism, and Christianity -- 13. Zen as Trans-Mysticism: Everyday Even Mind is the Way -- 14. Engaged Zen: From Inner to Outer Peace -- 15. The Dharma of Karma: We Reap What We Sow -- 16. Zen and Morality: Following Rules to Where There Are No Rules -- 17. Being in the Zone of Zen: The Natural Freedom of No-Mind -- 18. Zen Lessons from Nature: Samu and the Giving Leaves -- 19. Zen and Art: Cultivating Naturalness -- 20. Zen and Language: The Middle Way Between Silence and Speech -- 21. Between Zen and Philosophy: Commuting with the Kyoto School -- 22. Sōtō and Rinzai Zen Practice: Just Sitting and Working with Kōans -- 23. Death and Rebirth--Or, Nirvana Here and Now -- 24. Reviewing the Path of Zen: The Ten Oxherding Pictures -- Endnotes -- Discussion Questions -- Index.

Nineteen college students encountered Zen practice and study in Non-Argumentative Rhetoric in Zen, a course taught by professor Peg Syverson at the University of Texas at Austin. This refreshing collection of chapters written by students describes their experiences with the unique language of Zen: paradox, contradiction, negation, silence, gesture, and story.

The Zen Diet is different from quick-fix fad diets, since the focus is on the small but permanent changes that you will continue for life. Each change is a positive evolution in behaviour, that brings vitality, harmony and well-being. No big dramatic change, just small, positive ones. The Zen Diet is the first diet to offer a long-term solution based on Kaizen and other harmonious spiritual principles from Japan. This is the first diet, also, to work in harmony with how your body burns fat. You make subtle adjustments to how you eat so that the nutrients feed your body while starving your fat stores. All the changes in the Zen Diet work synergistically to transform your physical health, lifestyle and mental outlook, profoundly altering your view of your self and your interaction with food. The Zen Diet will teach you the art of renewal and the secrets of effortless attitude adjustment. Learn the art of making new habits and permanent positive changes.

Zen is not a theology, it is a religion -- and religion without a theology is a unique phenomenon. All other religions exist around the concept of God. They have theologies. They are God-centric not man-centric; man is not the end, God is the end. But not so for Zen. For Zen, man is the goal, man is the end unto himself God is not something above humanity, God is something hidden within humanity. Man is carrying God in himself as a potentiality.

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.

We all strive so hard to be perfect parents, we do whatever it takes to assure our children's happiness and safety and that they will grow up to be their best selves. Unfortunately our striving is making us crazy. How can we raise happy, healthy children while staying happy and healthy ourselves? This book is not intended as another manual, the last thing you need is another expert telling you the 'right' way to do it. Clea Danaan shows how, by using the practices and techniques of mindfulness, you can achieve a calmer and clearer approach to parenting, which will help you to raise more balanced and healthy kids.

Zen is unconditionally value-free – if you make a condition, you miss the point. Zen has no fear and no greed. Zen has no God and no Devil, and Zen has no heaven and no hell. It does not make people greedy by alluring them, promising them rewards in heaven. And it does not make people frightened, scared, by creating nightmarish conceptions of hell. It does not bribe you by rewards, and it does not punish you with tortures. It simply gives you an insight to see into things – and that insight frees you. That insight has no greed as a base to it and no fear as a base to it. All other religions are greedy, all other religions are based deep down somewhere in fear. That’s why we use the word ’god-fearing’ for a religious person – a religi-ous person is god-fearing.

While advances in modem medicine largely parallel our understanding of morphology, discoveries in morphology are propelled by developments of new tools and means to visualize and measure tissue elements. The invention of dissecting, light, fluorescence and electron microscopes together with advances in labeling and staining techniques are among the stepping stones of morphological progress. Today, we are in an exciting new era when classical morphology is being combined with developments from other disciplines. The combination of morphology and immunology resulted in immunocytochemistry; morphology and molecular biology led to in situ hybridization and in situ PCR. Adding computer science to morphology gave birth to image analysis. Combining laser technology and the microsope evolved into confocal microscope. For more than a decade, modem morphology has continued to develop by merging with other disciplines at a rate that is still gathering momentum, providing exciting and dynamic new frontiers for other biological fields. "Modem Methods in Analytical Morphology," based largely on the "First International Workshop on Modem Methods in Analytical Histochemistry, "is an updated review of the current trends in the field. It covers an extensive array of new technical developments in major disciplines of modem morphology. The authors are not only leaders in their fields but also have extensive "hands on" experience with "bench work. " Their chapters are written in a comprehensive manner including discussion of both theoretical considerations and practical applications to give the readers a broad view of the topics covered.

A sequel to the popular Zen and the Brain further explores pivotal points of intersection in Zen Buddhism, neuroscience, and consciousness, arriving at a new synthesis of information from both neuroscience research and Zen studies. This sequel to the widely read Zen and the Brain continues James Austin's explorations into the key interrelationships between Zen Buddhism and brain research. In Zen-Brain Reflections, Austin, a clinical neurologist, researcher, and Zen practitioner, examines the evolving psychological processes and brain changes associated with the path of long-range meditative training. Austin draws not only on the latest neuroscience research and new neuroimaging studies but also on Zen literature and his personal experience with alternate states of consciousness. Zen-Brain Reflections takes up where the earlier book left off. It addresses such questions as: how do placebos and acupuncture change the brain? Can neuroimaging studies localize the sites where our notions of self arise? How can the latest brain imaging methods monitor meditators more effectively? How do long years of meditative training plus brief enlightened states produce pivotal transformations in the physiology of the brain? In many chapters testable hypotheses suggest ways to correlate normal brain functions and meditative training with the phenomena of extraordinary states of consciousness. After briefly introducing the topic of Zen and describing recent research into meditation, Austin reviews the latest studies on the amygdala, frontotemporal interactions, and paralimbic extensions of the limbic system. He then explores different states of consciousness, both the early superficial absorptions and the later, major "peak experiences." This discussion begins with the states called kensho and satori and includes a fresh analysis of their several different expressions of "oneness." He points beyond the still more advanced states toward that rare ongoing stage of enlightenment that is manifest as "sage wisdom." Finally, with reference to a delayed "moonlight" phase of kensho, Austin envisions novel links between migraines and metaphors, moonlight and mysticism. The Zen perspective on the self and consciousness is an ancient one. Readers will discover how relevant Zen is to the neurosciences, and how each field can illuminate the other.

This book presents the first collection of essays on the philosophy of Ueda Shizuteru in a Western language. Ueda, the last living member of the Kyoto school, has fostered the East-West dialogue in all his works and has helped to open up the Western image of philosophy by engaging the Zen tradition. The book reflects this particular trait of Ueda’s philosophy, but it also covers all thematic fields of his writings. Contributions from both young and established scholars and experts from Japan, Europe and the U.S. make this a unique introduction to and reception of Ueda’s philosophy. Readers will discover discussions of mysticism in the East and West, and consideration of modern philosophy topics including self-awareness, nature and poetic language. The book also presents a focussed look at language and nothingness, considering silence and nihilism. Chapters allow the reader to understand the timeliness of a thinking that mediates and transcends the dichotomy of East and West. This volume will appeal not only to scholars of Nishida, Japanese philosophy, mysticism and religious experience in Japan, but also to scholars of Western philosophy, especially those interested in Meister Eckhart, Martin Heidegger and Martin Buber. It makes an ideal introduction to Zen philosophy and presents important contributions to scholarship on language and experience.