Waking Up to What You Do: A Zen Practice for Meeting Every Situation with Intelligence and Compassion

by Diane Eshin Rizzetto

Book Overview

This Zen Buddhist guide to mindful living is "a thoughtful, sensitive examination of how to be a genuinely good person in this world" (Sharon Salzlberg, author of Lovingkindness)

Life is rising up to meet us at every moment. The question is: Are we there to meet it or not? Diane Rizzetto presents a simple but supremely effective practice for meeting every moment of our lives with mindfulness, using the Zen precepts as tools to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590303423
• ISBN13: 9781590303429
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Shambhala
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Lovely, practical book

This book is a gem. It is easily readable and easily applied to life. I finally bought it for myself as I feel it is one of those books that you just keep reading and re-reading to remind yourself and train yourself.

Wise and Insightful

A wonderful book. Full of very down-to-earth wisdom on living compassionately, honestly, and courageously. Many real-life stories from Rizzetto's work as a Zen teacher as well as practical advice and exercises for applying the book's teaching to your own life. Highly recommended.

Insightful and helpful

This is a wonderful and insightful book. It really brought the precepts alive for me in a thoughtful and practical way. I have read through it twice and am amazed at how much more I picked up from second reading. It has been absolutely helpful, a real gem, and a very good read to boot!

Great introduction

I picked this book up at the library and I had no idea why I chose it, the title was interesting and I was intrigued. I had no idea what the Buddhist precepts were. Yet reading the book I was fascianted by the insight. I found it went along with Stephen Covey's 7 Habits and the 8th Habit, as a way to change your life by working between the stimulus and the response. I liked the book so much I will buy it so I can re-read it when I need to. When the student is ready a teacher will be found applied here. I did not know I was looking for this insight but I am glad I was lead to find this book.

The Precepts Come to Life

What I like most about Diane Rizzetto's book is not just that the words are clear, which they certainly are, but that they are immediate and alive. There is none of the moral judgment that usually accompanies writing on the Buddhist precepts; rather, the precepts actually come to life, as guideposts on how to live in the midst of the moral confusion that marks our everyday living. Diane uses many real life examples, both from her own life and the lives of others: some help clarify the meaning of the precept; some illustrate how the precept can be lived in real lfe situations; and some are deeply inspirational - pointing us in the direction that we all wish to go. I recommend this book to anyone, Buddhist or not, meditator or not, who would like to live in a more genuine and open hearted way.