Practical Zen PDF Download

Author: Julian Daizan Skinner
Publisher: Singing Dragon
ISBN: 0857013211
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
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.

Author: David Fontana
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 9780811831963
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
This illustrated and inspiring guide to Asian philosophy has straightforward text and 30 step-by-step exercises through classic Zen practices such as meditation, koans and rock gardens. Illustrations.

Author: Jules Shuzen Harris
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 1611806623
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
An effective new approach to Buddhist practice that combines the rigor of traditional meditation and study with the psychological support necessary for practice in modern life. Zen teacher Jules Shuzen Harris argues that contemporary American Buddhists face two primary challenges: (1) “spiritual bypassing,” which means avoiding or repressing psychological problems in favor of “pretend Enlightenment,” and (2) settling for secularized forms of Buddhism or mindfulness that have lost touch with the deeper philosophical and ethical underpinnings of the religion. Drawing on his decades of experience as a Zen practitioner, teacher, and psychotherapist, Harris writes that both of these challenges can be met through the combination of a committed meditation practice, a deep study of Buddhist psychological models, and tools from a psychotherapeutic method known as “Mind-Body Bridging.” Using this unique approach, students can do the real work of awakening without either denying their embodied emotional life or missing out on the rich array of insights offered by Buddhist psychology and the Zen practice tradition.

Author: Shunryu Suzuki
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 1611808413
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
Named one of the 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Twentieth Century (Spirituality & Practice) A 50th Anniversary edition of the bestselling Zen classic on meditation, maintaining a curious and open mind, and living with simplicity. "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. It is 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.

Author: John Daishin Buksbazen
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1458784177
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
An excellent, practical introduction to Zen meditation. Written in a warm and easily accessible style, the book appeals to anyone with an interest in meditation, Zen, or, as is often the case today, a combination of the two. The book emphasizes the importance of receiving good instruction and of finding groups to practice with, yet it lays out the necessary steps to practice Zen meditation on your own. The book includes easily followed exercises to help the reader along. For anyone looking to uncover a clear and insightful path into the philosophy and practice of Zen meditation, this book represents the culmination of that search

Author: Ji Hyang Padma
Publisher: Quest Books
ISBN: 0835609197
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
As the Rig Vedas and Buddhist sutras foretell, as well as the Hopi and Mayan calendars, we are in the midst of complete transformation—ecologically, economically, politically, culturally. This graceful introduction offers creative safe passage through the sometimes overwhelming transition, drawing on ancient and contemporary spiritual practices particularly useful for these times. The endings we experience are always the beginning of something else. Hence author Ji Hyang Padma organizes teachings around the four seasons. In living connected to natural rhythms—the stillness of winter, the renewal of spring, the ripening of summer, the harvest of autumn—we touch a wholeness that is the source of healing and happiness. Practical exercises at the end of each chapter promote this state of being and bring the mind home to its innate clarity. Ideally suited to anyone experiencing personal change—through career, relationships, or world events—the book provides a way into Zen for beginners as well as a refresher for the more advanced.

Author: Shohaku Okumura
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1614290105
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
A Sot Zen priest and Dharma successor of Kosho Uchiyama Roshi explores eight of Zen's most essential and universal liturgical texts and explains how the chants in these works support meditation and promote a life of freedom and compassion.

Author: Julian Daizan Skinner
Publisher: Singing Dragon
ISBN: 0857013475
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
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.

Author: Katsuki Sekida
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 083482583X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
This pioneering guide to zazen—Zen-style seated meditation—provides practical instructions on how to begin or elevate your practice and progress along the Zen path Zen Training is a comprehensive handbook for zazen, seated meditation practice, and an authoritative presentation of the Zen path. The book marked a turning point in Zen literature in its critical reevaluation of the enlightenment experience, which the author believes has often been emphasized at the expense of other important aspects of Zen training. In addition, Zen Training goes beyond the first flashes of enlightenment to explore how one lives as well as trains in Zen. The author also draws many significant parallels between Zen and Western philosophy and psychology, comparing traditional Zen concepts with the theories of being and cognition of such thinkers as Heidegger and Husserl.

Author: Meido Moore
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834843137
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
Discover hidden practices, secretly transmitted in authentic Zen lineages, of using body, speech, and mind to remove obstructions to awakening. Though Zen is best known for the practices of koan introspection and "just sitting" or shikantaza, there are in fact many other practices transmitted in Zen lineages. In modern practice settings, students will find that Bodhidharma's words "direct pointing at the human mind" are little mentioned, or else taken to be simply a general descriptor of Zen rather than a crucial activity within Zen practice. Reversing this trend toward homogeneous and superficial understandings of Zen technique, Hidden Zen presents a diverse collection of practice instructions that are transmitted orally from teacher to student, unlocking a comprehensive path of awakening. This book reveals and details, for the first time, a treasury of "direct pointing" and internal energy cultivation practices preserved in the Rinzai Zen tradition. The twenty-eight practices of direct pointing offered here illuminate one's innate clarity and, ultimately, the nature of mind itself. Over a dozen practices of internal energetic cultivation galvanize dramatic effects on the depth of one's meditative attainment. Hidden Zen affords a small taste of the richness of authentic Zen, helping readers grow beyond the bounds of introspection and sitting to find awakening itself.