Zen meditation releases us from habitual patterns of thought and feeling, aligns our minds with things as they are, and awakens our innate compassionate wisdom. In these fifty elegant essays, whose subjects range from building a bird feeder to the birth of a grandchild to the healing presence of “immovable awareness,” Ben Howard explores the capacity of Zen practice to deepen, stabilize, and ennoble our daily lives.
Ben Howard is Emeritus Professor of English at Alfred University and a longtime lay practitioner of Zen meditation. Visit his blog, One Time, One Meeting, at www.practiceofzen.com and his website at www.howardbw.com.
"These finely wrought essays cut straight to the living heart of Zen. Ben Howard's graceful, transparent prose illustrates the ways in which everyday experiences-an offhand remark, a child's laugh, a bird at a feeder-can, on reflection, reveal the deepest human truths. His message is both simple and profound: our mindful attention allows the world to present itself in all its rich and subtle intricacy, and illuminates our intimate connection to all that is." -Seth Zuiho Koji Segall, Zen priest, clinical psychologist, and author of Encountering Buddhism