Zen is essentially a practice and not a dogma; no amount of theory or discussion will ever take the place of a few minutes of practice. Among the many books about Zen, there are few that explain simply, to the interested beginner, how to do Zen-how to just sit down and begin to work toward fulfillment of the promises offered by Zen. Zen Meditation Plain and Simple answers this need with concise, easily understood instructions on how to incorporate Zen into your daily life. Albert ...

Because words can no more hold the truth than a net can hold water, we use koans. Koans are sayings, or doings, of Zen masters, the patriarchs and Buddha. Take for example the koan: The Sound of One Hand clapping. In its entirety it reads: "You know the sound of two hands clapping. What is the sound of one hand clapping?" The obvious, intellectual answer is, No sound at all! But then what is this No sound? In other words, is it just silence?If one is to work on this koan, indeed on ...

"Restoring Meaning: Evolution Revisited" offers an original and fertile way to integrate spiritual and scientific views of human evolution. It offers a new and refreshing alternative to the way we think about our origins: random mutation (mechanistic neo-Darwinism), Genesis (God did it all personally), and Intelligent Design (God personally does what we can't otherwise account for). The result is an invigorating perspective on how our best qualities – our capacity for love, our appreciatio...

Kensho is the Zen experience of waking up to one’s own true nature—of understanding oneself to be not different from the Buddha-nature that pervades all existence. The Japanese Zen Master Hakuin (1689–1769) considered the experience to be essential. In his autobiography he says: "Anyone who would call himself a member of the Zen family must first achieve kensho-realization of the Buddha’s way. If a person who has not achieved kensho says he is a follower of Zen, he is an outrageous fraud. ...

The basic message of all the Mahayana Buddhist sutras is awakening - what the Zen teacher Bassui called "seeing the wordless sutra." Zen and the Sutras is an accessible study of the major Mahayana sutras as manuals for the practice of Zen. Low's insights and conclusions about spirituality and humanity will both illuminate and inspire, in the way of Zen, in the search for spiritual awakening.

All readers, both novice and longtime practitioners, will encounter in this book new answers, and new questions, to the what, why and how of Zen practice.We've all had moments in our lives when we've thought, "Something is missing. There must be more to life than this." It is this sense that often brings people to the practice of Zen. By turning to Zen, they acknowledge that this "something" lies not in externals, but rather in seeking to transcend desire and attac...

A koan is a saying by a Zen master, the most famous being "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Seemingly incomprehensible, a koan is actually an invitation to think in a new way, a tool to startle the consciousness into enlightenment. Drawing on the views of diverse thinkers from Buddha, to T.S. Eliot to explain the essential concepts of Zen Buddhism, this book is thought provoking reading.

Albert Low, teacher and director at the Montreal Zen Center and dharma heir of Roshi Philip Kapleau, provides an engaging collection of talks, stories and commentaries on Zen. Though the entries range from dharma talks on koans to discussions on Buddhism and Christianity, they all address concrete concerns of our lives and reveal the author's profound insights.

Have you reached a point in your life where the old patterns and habits just don't work anymore?Perhaps it is just a discomfort that you feel, an itch you cannot scratch. Life just doesn't have that same zest it once did. You cannot find satisfaction no matter what you try.Or perhaps life has life presented you with a situation where you are cornered? No matter how you struggle, you cannot go forward and you cannot go backward. Your wife or your husband has just walk out th...

The world faces a crisis. Band-aids and patchwork technical solutions are not enough to get us through. Overpopulation, global warming, the clash of cultures and an unsteady financial climate are just some of the causes. We do not face technical, economic or social problems: We face dilemmas, and dilemmas demand creative solutions. Let us think boldly and creatively about the dilemmas that we face, and a new society can be created: a society in which human beings, and not profit, are the c...

Hakuin Zenji is one of Japan's most celebrated Zen masters. Tradition tells us that he single-handedly revived Rinzai Zen in Japan. He was an artist, calligrapher and writer, as well as being a Zen master. He said that writing is verbal prajna and his writings are vigorous, courageous, and always to the point. The Chant in Praise of Zazen, Zazen Wasan, is justifiably one of his best-known works.

"Creating Consciousness: A Study of Consciousness, Creativity, Evolution, and Violence" is a spiritual & intellectual treasure from Zen Master Albert Low. Creating Consciousness is Low's profound discussion of the philosophical, religious, and scientific problem of consciousness in relation to evolution, creativity, spirituality, and violence. Low weaves together fresh discoveries from contemporary thinkers with perennial wisdom from premodern religious sources while providing a highly ori...