Peter Coyote’s first collection of poetry takes us on a whirlwind tour of an eclectic and exciting life as an actor and Zen Buddhist priest, meandering from love affairs to marriage to divorce to the Sixties to psychedelic spirituality and beyond. Written over several decades, these poems read as a collage, each piece distinct and contributing to a cohesive lyric narrative.

In his energetic, funny, and intelligent memoir, Peter Coyote relives his fifteen–year ride through the heart of the counterculture—a journey that took him from the quiet rooms of privilege as the son of an East Coast stockbroker to the riotous life of political street theater and the self–imposed poverty of the West Coast communal movement known as The Diggers. With this innovative collective of artist–anarchists who had assumed as their task nothing less than the re–creation of the natio...

Peter Coyote’s first collection of poetry takes us on a whirlwind tour of an eclectic and exciting life as an actor and Zen Buddhist priest, meandering from love affairs to marriage to divorce to the Sixties to psychedelic spirituality and beyond. Written over several decades, these poems read as a collage, each piece distinct and contributing to a cohesive lyric narrative.

Coyote explores the practice of meditation to catch a glimpse of who we truly are. His mask workshops provide for the possibility of “the disappearance of your everyday self [along with] self-criticism, self-consciousness, and a sense of shame…[allowing for] absolute freedom.” It allows us to experience Buddha's idea of no fixed self.

"The rainman gave me two curesAnd he said, 'Just jump right in.'The one was Texas MedicineAnd the other was railroad gin.And like a fool I mixed themAnd they strangled up my mindNow people just get uglierAnd I have no sense of time."—Bob Dylan, "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again"The guiding metaphor in Peter Coyote's new spiritual autobiography is drawn from a line in an early Bob Dylan song. For Coyote, the ...

• Shares a series of mindfulness techniques and improv exercises with masks to suppress the ego, calm the mind, and allow spontaneous playfulness and spaciousness to arise from your deepest nature• Draws on Buddhist philosophy to describe how and why the exercises work• Woven throughout with a lighthearted parable of an overweight and out-of-work Lone Ranger and Tonto who meet Buddha and experience spiritual awakeningSharing a series of mindfulness techniques and ac...

“A quietly uplifting, practical view of Buddhism.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review• Shows how Zen offers a creative problem-solving mechanism and moral guide ideal for the stresses and problems of daily life• Shares the author’s secular, vernacular interpretations of the Four Noble Truths, the Three Treasures, the Eightfold Path, and other fundamental Buddhist ideasDuring the nearly 3,000 years since the Buddha lived, his teachings have spre...

• Shares a series of mindfulness techniques and improv exercises with masks to suppress the ego, calm the mind, and allow spontaneous playfulness and spaciousness to arise from your deepest nature• Draws on Buddhist philosophy to describe how and why the exercises work• Woven throughout with a lighthearted parable of an overweight and out-of-work Lone Ranger and Tonto who meet Buddha and experience spiritual awakeningSharing a series of mindfulness techniques and ac...

“A quietly uplifting, practical view of Buddhism.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review• Shows how Zen offers a creative problem-solving mechanism and moral guide ideal for the stresses and problems of daily life• Shares the author’s secular, vernacular interpretations of the Four Noble Truths, the Three Treasures, the Eightfold Path, and other fundamental Buddhist ideasDuring the nearly 3,000 years since the Buddha lived, his teachings have spre...

In this 2024 conversation with Justine Willis Toms, actor and Zen priest Peter Coyote tells us that Buddha was a revolutionary who left us with a map of how to effectively live our lives with skillful means. He gave us wise words for effective living through the Four Noble Truths, The Eightfold Path, and the Thirteen Precepts. Coyote expands on the concept of "life is suffering" to mean life's afflictions cannot be avoided. Stuff happens. However, we can contain our response to those affli...

If Emmy Award-winner Peter Coyote’s debut collection represents the culmination of a half-century’s devotion to writing poetry, his second functions as a true encore: triumphant and raw. Thumb to Thumb… and Yet presents eighty-plus years of living — the countercultural adventures, the journey from Zen Buddhist discipleship to priesthood, marriage and divorce, a public career in entertainment, and the private work and rewards of parenthood — not as a retrospective but as a perpetua...

13-year-old Brian Robeson learns to survive alone in the Canadian wilderness, armed with his hatchet and resourcefulness.