Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind: The Life and Letters of an Irish Zen Saint

by Maura O'Halloran and Maura 'Soshin' O'Halloran

Book Overview

One of the most beloved Buddhist books of all time--having inspired popular musicians, artists, a documentary film, and countless readers--is now available in an expanded new edition, loaded with extras. Absolutely absorbing from start to finish, this is a true story you might truly fall in love with.

At only 24, Maura O'Halloran left her Irish-American family stateside and traveled to Japan, where she began studying under a Zen master. She...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0861712838
• ISBN13: 9780861712830
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.6" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

As simple as a....b.....c.............

This book is a lovely tale of a life well lived. It is told in simple, clear prose. These pages describe what it means to be fully alive to reality. Maura shares with us what Zen is all about as a lived experience, rather than some abstraction, which, I suppose, is the only way it can be demonstrated. The book is full of quiet, irreverent, good humor, which is one of the qualities of Zen if I understand it correctly.Maura tells us a lot about Zen in this book. More importantly, she tells us in poetic prose what it means to be fully attentive and absorbed in the present. What I take from this book is that living a good life, after the fog has lifted, is as simple as a...b...c....... I

Zen is eternal life!

A marvelous book from beginning to end. The utter unpretentiousness of Maura O'Halloran's rich spiritual journuey is a miracle to encounter. It's so difficult, at book's end, to take leave of this shining young person, this quiet buddha , but she strengthens us for the inevitable by teaching so pure, so real, so necessary, that the natural world of our own lives is changed forever, charged with her abiding and beholden to her example. Others here have stated well the 'content' one finds in these pages; I wish only to say thank you to Maura's wise and devoted family for making the effort to provide us with these journals and family letters. Her mother's Introduction, with its simple and moving veneration of her daughter's life, sets a loving compass for the journey ahead; her sister Elizabeth's drawings are clearly pulled from her own heart, and her brother's afterword together give us an infinitely deep understanding of the means behind the meaning of this extraordinary young woman's life's journey. This is a book of great hope, abundant humor, and sure grace for anyone who reads it. Abundant recommendation without reserve; read it and walk anew the paths of love.

I couln't keep my mind on the road

I got this as my first book on tape. I had always thought it would take away from the book to listen to it read by someone else. But on my drive from upstate NY to Philly to visit my parents, I decided to get a book on tape. I was so into this book that i could hardly pay attention to my driving. The five hour drive was a breeze while listening to this. I was there before I knew it. Also, as a practicing Zen Buddist, I found this to be a wonderful story and it helped me find a few things I was missing. I bought the book now and I'm re-reading it. I think that anyone, Zen buddist or not would enjoy this tale of a person's growth, and feel the sorrow of her untimely death

A 'must read' for a zen student.

Soshin O'Halloran was a remarkable zen practitioner. The book describes in detail her journeys throughout Northeastern Asia and experiences at two Japanese Soto Zen Monasteries. Her story, told by her diary entries and letters home, remains a personal favorite because her state of consciousness is subtly expressed between her written words. As her monastic experience deepens, so does her writing.For those who have ever fantasized trading the laylife for the monastic, Pure Heart: Enlightened Mind will be a fascinating read.

Maura O'Halloran: a Saint of our times at 27 years old!

In 1979 Maura O'Halloran left a waitressing job in Boston to begin her study of Zen in Japan. One thousand days later she received the dharma transmission of her Roshi. Six months after achieving enlightenment, she was killed in a bus accident in Thailand at the age of 27. In her small Buddhist monastery in northern Japan there stands a statue erected to her memory. As her mother asks in the Introduction, how did this daughter of an American mother and an Irish father, educated at convent schools and Trinity College, Dublin, become not only a Zen monk but a Buddhist saint? This book, excerpted from notebooks and journals kept during her three years' training in Zen at Toshoji Temple in Tokyo and Kannonji Temple in Iwate Prefecture, tells the story. It is a fascinating record of a monastic novitiate and rapid progress toward soshin: a pure heart, and of her practice of both meditation and sacrifice. Her own Roshi comments: "She had achieved what took the Shakjamuni Buddha eighty years in twenty-seven years....Then she left this life immediately to start the salvation of the masses in the next life!" It seems that monks--male or female, Zen or Catholic, Japanese or American--speak heart to heart and discover the same end to their contemplative prayer: oneness with all creation and compassion for all fellow travelers. This journal demonstrates how much spiritual seekers have in common. Sheryl Frances Chen/Santa Rita Abbey,HC 1 Box 929, Sonoita, Arizona 85337