Shunryu Suzuki was a Soto Zen priest who came to America in 1959 and founded the San Francisco Zen Center and the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, both of which are still thriving today. He was also the author of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, one of the most influential books on Buddhism of the twenty-first century. Most of the audio recordings of Suzuki Roshi teaching have never been edited or published. Now, from those recordings, comes the new, carefully edited book Becoming Yourself: Teachings on the Zen Way of Life (Tarcher). Its message is that by just sitting, we become who we are. “Moment after moment you will find your own way when you just sit,” Suzuki Roshi says. With humor and levity, he teaches us how to live with authenticity, moral clarity, and true intimacy in a busy and complicated world. As he puts it, if we are like a rock, no good nor evil can grow on us. We are simply ourselves.
After a life-threatening medical emergency at age twenty-two, Gabriel Kaigen Wilson found himself asking deep questions about the meaning of existence. He moved to San Francisco and began meditating. However, he found it hard to reconcile the quietness of meditation retreats with his active, engaged life in the outside world. In his words: “If spiritual training did not empower me to be in the world with skillful means, then it was not for me. I wanted a spirituality with teeth. I wanted clarity and wisdom to be joined with capabilities that made me effective in the world.” He found exactly this when he met Diane Musho Hamilton, a trained Soto Zen teacher and conflict mediator. Twelve years later, teacher and student have written a book together: Waking Up & Growing Up: Spiritual Cross-Training for an Evolving World (Shambala). Their book addresses the pertinence of Zen practice today and introduces the idea of spiritual cross-training, where ancient Buddhist wisdom is married with modern psychological understanding, in order to support us in leading fulfilling, active lives.
Some of the potential pitfalls of Zen practice have gone unaddressed for too long, due in part to a culture of silence and taboo. Author Julie Seido Nelson has taken her own personal experience with corruption in her Zen community, combined with a deep understanding of contemporary research, to bring us Practicing Safe Zen: Navigating the Pitfalls on the Road to Liberation (Monkfish). She addresses difficult issues such as financial, emotional, and sexual abuse in sanghas, and provides ideas about how to deal with these problems on both an individual and a structural level. She also talks about the potential contraindications of meditation, as contemporary research has shown that a traditional meditation practice can be harmful for people suffering from certain physical and psychological conditions. Zen practice is invaluable, but it must be engaged with carefully. This book serves as the perfect guide.
In Buddhism, adversaries are treated as powerful teachers. The Chinese presence in Tibet is certainly an adversarial one, but the Dalai Lama approaches this conflict with grace and wisdom. Written by His Holiness as he approaches his ninetieth birthday, Voice for the Voiceless: Over Seven Decades of Struggle with China for My Land and My People (William Morrow) recounts his lifelong endeavor to secure the rights and well-being of Tibetans. He tells how China invaded Tibet when he was only sixteen years old, how at nineteen he had his first meeting with Chairman Mao in Beijing, and how at twenty-five he was forced to leave his country and has not been able to go home since. He describes his interactions with various Chinese leaders, the role of the Indian government, and how Buddhist philosophy affected his approach to the crisis. He concludes with heartfelt appeals to Tibetans, Chinese, and the international community, and expresses gratitude toward supporters worldwide.
The Buddha often meditated outside and would invite students to come out of their “dusty and crowded houses” to join him. Hiking Zen: Train Your Mind in Nature (Parallax) is a renewed invitation to come out of your house and discover inner peace and the truth of interbeing in the natural world. Written by two Zen monks from the Plum Village Engaged Buddhist tradition, both avid hikers, this slim volume is easy to pop into a backpack and accompany you on your next outdoor adventure. It’s an invitation to transform time in nature—be it a short walk after work, a daylong adventure, or a weeks-long thru-hike—into something spiritually meaningful. The book is organized into themes, such as mindful walking, mindful breathing, and solitude. Personal journal entries by both monks as well as guided meditations exploring each theme are included. At the end of the book, there’s a short how-to guide for readers who are interested in creating their own meditation-based hiking communities.
The Dharma of Healing: The Path of Liberation from Stress, Pain, and Trauma (Shambala) is a handbook for healing that combines ancient Buddhist meditation practices with the modern technique of self-compassion. Meditation alone cannot heal trauma, and it cannot move us beyond racism, poverty, or other significant contemporary problems. Author Justin Michelson demonstrates how, on the other hand, when combined with self-compassion, meditation can lead to profound personal, interpersonal, and community healing. The book is divided into three main sections: theory, core practices, and realization (how the practices become real in the world). At the end of each chapter, there are journal prompts and guided meditations to help the reader integrate the concepts into their own lives.
In Zen at the End of Religion: An Introduction for the Curious, the Skeptical, and the Spiritual but not Religious (Monkfish), author James Ishmael Ford, a Zen practitioner and retired Unitarian Universalist minister, discusses “naturalistic perennialism,” that is, heart wisdom that’s common to all of humankind, but that no organized religion has gotten exactly right. Seekers who are looking for universal spiritual truth generally choose a specific path, and Ford recommends Zen. In Zen there is a directness, an intimacy, and a panoply of modern adaptations to choose from. His book explores the teachings, techniques, and koans that are at the heart of a Zen practice, all from the perspective of a seeker of naturalistic perennialism in a post-religious world. “Our Zen at its best manifests not as any kind of certainty, but as curiosity,” says Ford. “It shows hesitance in all things. It doesn’t claim to have all the answers. It is open—wildly open.”
The Daily Buddhist: 366 Days of Wisdom for Happiness, Inner Freedom, and Mindful Living (Harvest) is a compilation of profound teachings from prominent Buddhist teachers along with original commentaries by wife-and-husband team Pema Sherpa and Brendan Barca. The 366 quotes are organized by monthly themes including embracing impermanence, reflecting on the nature of the mind, dealing with negative emotions, and much more. Quotes are taken from the Buddha himself, his contemporaries and disciples, as well as the important Indian philosophers Nagarjuna and Shantideva, and the Tibetan masters Milarepa, Patrul Rinpoche, and Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. This book will take you through a full year of short, daily contemplations—and it will help you see the world differently.