Reading

The Zen Priestess and the Snake: A Woman’s Path of Transformation and Healing Through Rediscovery of the Great Mother Tradition, by Ilia Shinko Perez

The Zen Priestess and the Snake is the powerful true story of a woman inspired by her visions of the Sacred Feminine. Her experiences of encountering the Mother Goddess gave her the strength to overcome the challenges she faced as a woman in the Zen hierarchy, until finally she overcame patriarchal barriers to find her true home as an American Zen Master.

Roshi Shinko steps outside the conventions of traditional Zen Buddhist books to share her personal journey from her colorful childhood in Puerto Rico through her upbringing in Fascist Spain to her role as co-founder and Abbess of the Maitreya Abbey retreat center in Colorado. She also shares her research and her spiritual insights and practices, inviting the reader to consider an awakened feminine viewpoint on Zen in America. Shinko makes a case for bringing the wisdom of the Sacred Feminine back into Buddhism and leads us through centuries-old practices derived from the Mother Goddess tradition, teaching us how to incorporate these practices into contemporary spiritual life.

The Zen Priestess and the Snake appeals to all genders and faiths, including those who identify as spiritual but not religious. In these turbulent times, it shows how the denial of the Sacred Feminine within religious systems has not only oppressed women and minorities, but also created a disconnected society that exploits Mother Earth, leading to our current climate crisis.

The Great Heart Way: How to heal your life and find self-fulfillment, by Ilia Shinko Perez and Gerry Shishin Wick

Self-compassion. Positive social relations. An enduring sense of freedom and peace. They’re essential parts of our everyday lives, or should be. But each of us struggles with difficult emotions and mental blockages: we might lash out when we should know better, or regress in negatively familiar situations, or struggle with our confidence. These types of problematic reactions occur–and recur–when we’re unkind to and negligent of our inner selves. The Great Heart Way offers us all a way to heal inner wounds and transform our difficult emotions. Anyone can try it, and everyone should. Using clear language and personal anecdotes, The Great Heart Way shows how to follow the Great Heart Method, an efficacious program for healing and self-fulfillment. The Method is easily incorporated into busy schedules (it can take less than 30 minutes per day), and is accessible to all, regardless of spiritual background. The Great Heart Way gives readers the tools to safely work through uncovered emotional pain and establish a healthier, happier and well-balanced way of thinking

My American Zen Life, by Gerry Shishin Wick

“My American Zen Life” describes the intimate spiritual journey of Gerry Shishin Wick from an ordinary alienated kid to one of America’s premier Zen masters. Wick encountered Zen in Berkeley in the 1960s, a few years later became a student of Sochu Suzuki Roshi in London and then spent 23 years as a disciple of Taizan Maezumi Roshi at the Zen Center of Los Angeles where he became an independent Zen teacher. Wick’s Zen memoir is an important history of the coming of Zen to America. His life intertwined with the lives of many seminal figures in American Zen including Bernie Glassman, Joko Beck, John Daido Loori, Robert Aitken, Shunryu Suzuki, Eido Shimano, Genpo Merzel, Chozen Bays and others. Wick’s Zen teachings are interspersed within his historical narrative, making “My American Zen Life” a treasure chest of wisdom for daily living.

The Book of Equanimity: Illuminating classic Zen koans
by Gerry Shishin Wick

The Book of Equanimity contains the first-ever complete English language commentary on one of the most beloved classic collections of Zen teaching stories (koans), making them vividly relevant to spiritual seekers and Zen students in the twenty-first century. Continually emphasizing koans as effective tools to discover and experience the deepest truths of our being, Wick brings the art of the koan to life for those who want to practice wisdom in their daily lives. The koan collection Wick explores here is highly esteemed as both literature and training material in the Zen tradition, in which koan-study is one of two paths a practitioner might take. This collection is used for training in many Zen centers in the Americas and in Europe but has never before been available with commentary from a contemporary Zen master. Wick’s Book of Equanimity includes new translations of the preface, main case and verse for each koan, and modern commentaries on the koans by Wick himself.

Appreciate Your Life: The essence of Zen Practice, by Taizan Maezumi

Here is the first major collection of the teachings of Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931-1995), one of the first Japanese Zen masters to bring Zen to the West and founding abbot of the Zen Center of Los Angeles and Zen Mountain Center in Idyllwild, California. These short, inspiring readings illuminate Zen practice in simple, eloquent language. Topics include zazen and Zen koans, how to appreciate your life as the life of the Buddha, and the essential matter of life and death. Appreciate Your Life conveys Maezumi Roshi’s unique spirit and teaching style, as well as his timeless insights into the practice of Zen. Never satisfied with merely conveying ideas, his teisho, the Zen talks he gave weekly and during retreats, evoked personal questions from his students. Maezumi Roshi insisted that his students address these questions in their own lives. As he often said, “Be intimate with your life.” The readings are not teachings or instructions in the traditional sense. They are transcriptions of the master’s teisho, living presentations of his direct experience of Zen realization. These teisho are crystalline offerings of Zen insight intended to reach beyond the student’s intellect to her or his deepest essence.

On Zen Practice: Body, breath, and mind, by Taizan Maezumi and Bernie Glassman

This updated landmark volume makes available for the first time in decades the teachings that were formative to a whole generation of American Zen teachers and students. Conceived as an overarching primer on the practice of Zen, chapters in this volume address every aspect of practice: beginning practice, shikantaza, chanting, sesshin, working with Mu, and the nature of koans. In the intervening years since the publication of the earlier edition, countless books have appeared on Zen. Few, if any, have approached the strengths of On Zen Practice as a reference or teaching tool, and the book retains a lively, immediate quality that will appeal to today’s readers.

The Hazy Moon of Enlightenment: Body, breath, and mind, by Bernie Glassman and Taizan Maezumi

The Hazy Moon of Enlightenment takes the reader to the next level of Zen practice, exploring some of the more subtle and sophisticated topics in Zen. The first two parts of the book explore enlightenment and delusion: What is nature of enlightenement? What does it mean to describe enlightenment as sudden or gradual? What is the nature of delusion, and how can watch out for the particular delusion that masquerades as enlightenment? The third part looks at “enlightenment in action”–what it means for someone to living and acting in order with the deep wisdom of enlightenment, and how we can practice learning “learning how to be satisfied” and enjoy serenity and transquility. The final section is a moving and powerful firsthand account of one woman’s solitary realization of the deepest truths–a story that can become an inspiration for all of us. The contributors to this volume include some the pioneering masters who were seminal in helping Zen take firm root in American soil.

AMERICAN ZEN PHILOSOPHY

Everyday Zen: Love and work, by Charlotte Joko Beck

Nothing Special: Living Zen, by Charlotte Joko Beck

Discover Zen: A practical guide to personal serenity, by David Fontana

Wherever You Go There You Are: Minfulness meditation in everyday life, by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Being Zen: Bringing Meditation to Life, by Ezra Bayda and Joko Beck

Beyond Happiness: A Zen way to true contentment, byt Ezra Bayda

Buddhism Plain and Simple, by Steve Hagen

Buddhism Is Not What You Think, by Steve Hagen

JAPANESE/KOREAN ZEN PHILOSOPHY

Opening the Hand of Thought: Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice, by Kosho Uchiyama

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal talks on Zen meditation and practice, by Shunryu Suzuki

Polishing the Diamond Enlightening the Mind, by Jae Woong Kim

Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen adn the way of being time, by Dainin Katagiri

Zen Buddhism: Selected writings of D.T. Suzuki, edited by William Barrett

ZEN TRAINING

Zen Training: Methods and philosophy, by Katsuki Sekida

An Introduction to Zen Training, by Omori Sogen

Introduction to Zen Koans: Learning the language of dragons, by James Ford

The Eight Gates of Zen: A program of Zen Training, by John Daido Loori

The Book of Mu: Essential writings on Zen’s most important koan, by James Ford & Melissa Blacker

The Three Pillars of Zen, by Philip Kapleau

The Zen Koan, by Isshu Miura & Ruth Fuller Sasaki

The Method of Zen, by Eugen Herrigel

BIOGRAPHIES OF ZEN MASTERS

Wild Ivy: The spiritual autobiogrpahy of Zen master Hakuin, by Hakuin Ekaku

Zen Master Who? A guide to the people and stories of Zen, by James Ford

Zen Radicals, Rebels, and Reformers, by Perle Besserman & Manfred Steger

The Wild, White Goose: A diary of a female Zen priest, by Jiyu-Kennett

The Unborn: The life and teaching of Zen Master Bankei, translated by Norman Waddell

DOGEN

How to Raise an Ox: Zen practice as taught in Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo, by Francis Dojun Cook

Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen master Dogen, by Kazuaki Tanahashi

The Essential Dogen: Writings of the great Zen master, by Kaz Tanahashi & Peter Levitt

Realizing Genjokoan: The key to Dogen’s Shobogenzo, by Shohaku Okumura

MONASTICISM

The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk, by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki

The Zen Monastic Experience, by Robert Buswell, Jr.

Stepping Into Freedom: An introduction to Buddhist Monastic Training, by Thich Nhat Hanh

Joyfully Together: The art of building a harmonious community, by Thich Nhat Hanh

Freedom Wherever You Go: A Buddhist monastic code for the twenty-first century, by Thich Nhat Hanh

Choosing Simplicity: Commentary on the Bhiksuni Pratimoksha, by Venerable Bhiksuni Wu Yin

THE BODHISATTVA PRECEPTS

The Heart of Being: Moral and ethical teachings of Zen Buddhism, by John Daido Loori

Being Upright: Zen meditation and the bodhisattva precepts, by Reb Anderson

BUDDHISM & PSYCHOLOGY

Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart: A Buddhist perspective on wholeness, by Mark Epstein

Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective, by Mark Epstein

The Trauma of Everyday Life, by Mark Epstein

Going on Being: Buddhism and the way of change, by Mark Epstein

ENGAGED BUDDHISM

A New Buddhist Path: Enlightenment, evolution, and ethics in the modern world, by David Loy

Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist revolution, by David Loy

Ecodharma: Buddhist teachings for the ecological crisis, by David Loy

Green Buddhism: Practice and compassionate action in uncertain times, by Stephanie Kaza

World as Lover, World as Self: Courage for global justice and ecological renewal, by Joanna Macy

FUN ZEN READS

One Bird, One Stone: 108 American Zen Stories, by Sean Murphy

Bones of the Master: A Buddhist monk’s search for the lost heart of China, by George Crane

Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits, by Bill Porter

Zen Confidential: Confessions of a wayward monk, by Shozan Jack Haubner

Single White Monk: Tales of death, failure, and bad sex, by Shozan Jack Haubner

Touching Ground: Devotion and demons along the path to enlightenment, by Tim Testu

Novice to Master: An ongoing lesson in the extent of my own stupidity, by Soko Morinaga

VIDEOS/MEDIA

Zen (The story of Eihei Dogen)

Amongst White Clouds: Buddhist hermit masters of China’s Zhongnan mountains, by Edward Burger

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…an Spring (story of Korean Zen Master)

Living in a Zen Monaster: A Documentary (Video of Japanese monastery for Westerners)

Zen Buddhism: In Search of Self (Documentary of Korean women’s moastery)

Walk With Me (Documentary about Thich Nhat Hanh and Plum Village)

The Departure (Documentary about a Zen Priest in Japan and his work with depression and suicide)

The Zen Mind (Documentary about Japanese Zen)

Instructions to the Cook: Instructions from a Zen Master on how to live a life that matters (Documentary about Bernie Glassman)

Maezumi Roshi (Documentary)

GENERAL BUDDHISM

Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the footsteps of the Buddha, by Thich Nhat Hanh

The Dhammapada, edited by Eknath Easwaran

Touching Enlightenment: Finding realization in the body, by Reggie Ray