Zen Reflections

by Robert Allen

Book Overview

Are you caught up in frenetic pace of your life? Chaotically bouncing from work to home to work, competing for success but feeling completely disconnected from your own life? Stop struggling against... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586637118
• ISBN13: 9781586637118
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Friedman/Fairfax Publishing
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Simple teachings, reflective of Buddha himself....

So much stuff from thousands of Buddhist teachers has muddied the practice itself. This delightful little book gets back to basics...and is a joy to read. Shake off all the ritualistic traditions, and just be. This book trims it down....

Serious things lightly, light things seriously

"It is bad when one thing becomes two." Technical books about Zen abound. Robert Allen does not mistake his purpose: "For the writer it is very hard indeed not to say misleading things. Everything you say is provisional and imperfect. At the very least you are constantly aware of complications that have not been explained. But if you try to explain them all, the whole subject will become so utterly complicated that you would end up explaining nothing." This goes doubly for an explanation of Zen (either big-Z or little-Z zen). By means of these "Zen snapshots" Allen sketches the three-hots-and-a-cot experience of living Zen. No pyrotechnics: The writing is terse and to the point. This is not rocket science; but, then, few things are. I own the technical books, but this one invariably is the volume I pluck from the shelf in the morning rush. One of his pithy chapters is a fortifying creamer for the starter cup of coffee at the beginning of an ordinary day. And the buzz lasts longer than caffeine. The lighthearted sumi-e illustrations by Andre Sollier are masterly. Lavishly printed on good stock and stoutly bound, the book will sustain years of hard use. This carryaround book exceeds its modest but important purpose.