Posts by Bodhipaksa

Available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

A respected Zen master in Japan and founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, Shunryu Suzuki has blazed a path in American Buddhism like few others.

Suzuki had a rare dedication to the teaching of meditation, which was apparently due not only to a natural inclination in that direction as a gifted teacher, but also because as a newcomer to the US he found his English to be inadequate to expounding the deep Zen teachings that he has mastered. And so, turning a handicap into a strength in true Zen style, Suzuki taught in a simple, although suitably paradoxical style.

Although his grasp of english was basic and he taught in simple language, his teaching does not in any way lack depth. On the contrary, Suzuki finds ways of surprising us and even of shocking us out of complacency. The central teaching of Beginner’s Mind — a complete openness to our experience — is a profoundly useful one and one that has entered the wider culture.

My favorite teaching from this book is the notion that if you want to control a wild bull, give him lots of space. Try to confine him and he’ll fight. Give him a big field and he’ll just stand and eat grass. The bull of course is the mind, and the field is mindfulness. Have a spacious, expansive, open field of awareness, and the mind will settle down.

I’ve often heard readings from this book dropped in before sits on intensive meditation retreats, and perhaps this is the best way to use this book. Reading it through like a novel would be to miss the point, for Suzuki taught from a state of meditation and his words should be received in meditation. That doesn’t mean you should only read the book on retreat, but that it’s best read in small doses, reflectively, and perhaps just before your daily practice.

“Change Your Mind: A Practical Guide to Buddhist Meditation,” by Paramananda

March 7, 2005

Available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

This warmly compassionate and practical book introduces you to the same meditation practices that are taught on Wildmind’s site, gives advice on how to set up a meditation practice and how to deal with any difficulties that may arise.

As well as introducing the mindfulness of breathing and metta bhavana practices, Paramananda, who is a gifted teacher, outlines the traditional hindrances to meditation and how to deal with them.

However the main thing we can take away from this book is not so much a method — a set of techniques, although that is certainly present — but a feeling for meditation and a sense of the need for sensitivity and openness to one’s experience.

This accessible and thorough guide is ideal both for those beginning a meditation practice and for those seeking to deepen an existing practice.

“The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Buddhism,” by Gary Gach and Michael Wenger

March 7, 2005

This is one of the most complete guides to the Buddhist tradition that I have come across. Not only that, but it’s accessible, practical, and lighthearted. Gary Gach is a talented writer who makes learning about Buddhism not only interesting but a great deal of fun as well. I think you’ll like it.

Like all the “Complete Idiot” guides the writing style is light, humorous, and fast-paced. There are illustrations and numerous sidebars to present quotes, definitions, comments and anecdotes.

You’ll learn about the Buddha’s life story, the various Buddhist traditions, the arrival of Buddhism in the west, and about the key teachings of Buddhism, such as the eightfold path, nonviolence, karma, meditation, etc.

There are special chapters on Vipassana, Zen, Pure Land, and Vajrayana Buddhism. There are also explorations of the intersection between Buddhism and western life: relationships, food, work, popular culture, science, and the arts.

There’s also a handy glossary (neatly titled “A Vocabulary of Silence.”)

All in all, this is a rare overview of Buddhism and a book well-worth having.

“The Wholesome Oven Successful Baking Without Dairy or Eggs: Muffins, Coffee Cakes, & Other Quick Breads,” by Patricia Leslie

March 7, 2005

Surprise, surprise! This book isn’t about meditation. But it is related, in that it helps us to live our lives in such a way that we cause less suffering. Another good reason for me recommending this book it that it’s written by one of my former meditation students, Patricia Leslie, who has a mission to help us reduce our dependence on animal products so that we can have a kinder, less exploitative world.

This isn’t a preachy book at all. It’s purely a book of around 50 dairy and egg (and sometimes wheat) free baking recipes, although it also offers useful advice on baking techniques and a list of suppliers. The recipes in this book are all for various forms of cookies, and other forms of baking will be dealt with in later volumes.

So without further ado, here’s a recipe for light, chocolaty, and tender chocolate drop-cookies!

Chocolate Whispers (wheat free)
Preheat oven to 350F
Prepare two baking sheets
3/4 cup brown rice flour
3/4 cup millet flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
8oz vegan sour cream
3/4 cup unrefined sugar
1/4 cup soymilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Sift together the brown rice and millet flours, cocoa powder and baking soda.

In a food processor, combine the sour cream, soymilk, sugar, and vanilla. Process these together until they are well blended.

Add the flour mixture to the processor. Process the ingredients together one more time until they are completely blended. The dough will be quite soft.

Use a measuring cup to drop the dough onto the baking sheets.

Bake 15-17 minutes. The tops will spring back when lightly pressed. The bottom edges will be lightly browned. Cool them on racks.

Enjoy!

“Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life,” by Jon Kabat-Zinn

March 7, 2005

Wherever You Go, There You Are- Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

“Wherever You Go, There You Are,” by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Available from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Kabat-Zinn, son-in-law of historian Howard Zinn, is a true pioneer in the field of applying mindfulness to the problem of relieving psychological and physical distress. Thirty years ago at UMass Medical Center he started the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program — a program that has since spawned Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression, Mindfulness-based Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Mindfulness-based Anxiety Reduction, Mindfulness-based approaches to eating disorders, and so on.

The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction title is arguably a misnomer, tending as it does to conjure up images of executives with ulcers. Kabat-Zinn’s field was working with people who experienced chronic pain, and whom conventional treatments had failed. In other words he took on the most difficult cases. And he was successful. Clinical trials showed long-term reduction in the amount of pain that his patients experienced, even years after they had taken a course.

To Kabat-Zinn, meditation is important because it brings about a state of “mindfulness,” a condition of “being” rather than “doing” during which you pay attention to the moment rather than the past, the future, or the multitudinous distractions of modern life.

In brief, rather poetic chapters, he describes different meditative practices and what they can do for the practitioner. The idea that meditation is “spiritual” is often confusing to people, Kabat-Zinn writes; he prefers to think of it as what you might call a workout for your consciousness. This book makes learning meditation remarkably easy (although practicing it is not). But it also makes it seem infinitely appealing.

“The Life and Letters of Tofu Roshi,” by Susan Moon

March 7, 2005

This book is hilarious. It’s a very gentle parody of the Zen tradition, mostly following a “problem page” (advice column) format, but also including Susan Moon’s encounters with her alter ego, the eccentric Zen Teacher, Tofu Roshi.

Tofu Roshi is Abbot of the No Way Zen Center in Berkeley, California. For his day job he manages the Next to Godliness Laundromat across the street. Susan Moon has worked as his assistant for many years.

Here’s an extract:

Dear Tofu Roshi:
I am easily distracted by noises while I am sitting meditation. The other morning, somebody was trying to start a car just outside the meditation hall window.
Sixty-three times they tried! The few times the engine actually turned over, it seemed as though the whole hall held its collective breath, until the engine would die again. I came out of there a nervous wreck, and arrived at work grinding my teeth and cracking my knuckles. My boss said “You seem a little tense. Why don’t you take up meditation?” How can I achieve inner peace?
– Distractible
Dear Distractible:
It has been said that the birdsong outside the meditation hall window will not disturb us when we understand that we are the bird and the bird is us. We face, admittedly, a greater challenge in becoming one with the car that will not start.
Think of your arms and legs and wheel, your eyes as headlamps, your belly as a carburettor. The cushion on which you sit should extend two inches beyond the rim of the rear tires. Rest the left front hubcap gently on the right front hubcap.

Tofu Roshi is the only master who has attained true ignorance and offers profound and funny wisdom on topics that range from how to get a cat to sit on a zafu to what to do when your mind suddenly goes quiet and you can’t plan your shopping trips during meditation.

Anyone in danger of taking their meditation practice too seriously must read this book.

“The Seven Stages of Money Maturity : Understanding the Spirit and Value of Money in Your Life,” by George Kinder

March 7, 2005

This isn’t exactly a book review since I’m just in the early stages of reading this title. Kinder’s book came highly recommended to me by a Buddhist friend, and then another Buddhist friend told me she’d been been on one of Kinder’s workshops. Sometimes you can’t ignore the messages!

George D. Kinder is a nationally known financial planner and Buddhist teacher. His investment strategies have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, and Newsweek. As both a committed Buddhist and a high-powered figure in the world of financial planning I just had to read this book. So far it’s been fascinating, although I’m only a couple of chapters in.

So far I’ve been reading about the stage of Childhood, in which Kinder details our finanncial Innocence (the assumptions and habits we have in relation to money that we cling to no matter how much the universe keep reminding us that they’re not true), and Pain, which Kinder describes as “the bell of awakening”. I really like that metaphor, which struck a chord with me. I’ve often found myself saying that pain is life’s way of telling you to have a closer look at how you’re living.

If you’re interested in meditation or Buddhism and want to explore your attitudes to money with a view to learning some better habits, this book is well worth looking into.

“Sitting Inside: Buddhist Practice in America’s Prisons,” by Kobai Scott Whitney

March 7, 2005