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Zen
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki
£15.29 £16.99
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few."
So begins this most beloved of all American Zen books. Seldom has such a small handful of words provided a teaching as rich as has this famous opening line. In a single stroke, the simple sentence cuts through the pervasive tendency students have of getting so close to Zen as to completely miss what it's all about. An instant teaching on the first page. And that's just the beginning.
In the fifty years since its original publication, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind has become one of the great modern spiritual classics, much beloved, much reread, and much recommended as the best first book to read on Zen. Suzuki Roshi presents the basics—from the details of posture and breathing in zazen to the perception of nonduality—in a way that is not only remarkably clear, but that also resonates with the joy of insight from the first to the last page.
Featuring a preface by religious historian Huston Smith, an introduction by Suzuki's dharma heir, Richard Baker, and an afterword by Suzuki's biographer, David Chadwick, this fiftieth anniversary edition will preserve Suzuki Roshi's teachings for years to come.
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Zen and the Art of Dealing with Difficult People by Mark Westmoquette
£12.99
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.
Practical Zen Yoga by Julian Daizan Skinner
£24.99
Based in the Buddha’s mindful perception of the universality of change, the embodied spiritual path of Zen yoga aligns us with the seasons – not only the cycles of the year but the seasons or phases of human life, and also the seasons of change within the individual spiritual journey in “Spring is perfectly spring; it is also transforming into summer.” Daizan invites you to join him on the Zen journey of the ‘middle way’, finding balance on the physical, energetic and emotional levels and approaching the dawning and stabilisation of awakened awareness. Interviews with a range of Zen yoga practitioners underline that this is a practice you make your own. Attitudes of curiosity, kindness and adaptability underpin the work making this a book that’s transformative for any age and body type.
Dogen's Formative Years in China by Takashi James Kodera
£40.00
Second hand / Antiquarian.
Published: Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1980 (first edition)
Condition: Fine. Dust jacket unclipped, in protective cellophane wrapper. Pages clean and unmarked.
"Dogen was the founder of the Soto School of Zen and one of the most influential thinkers in the history of Japanese Buddhism. When originally published, this historical and textual study was the first to examine in detail the line of continuity between Dogen and his Chinese predecessors, through his Chinese master, Ju-ching."
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