If you have to pick one zen book, what is it?

[Amelia]

The books I recommended are based on my own personal re-reading. I seem to go back to them the most. Glassman's book applies the practice of Zen to his practical work on greyston bakery and aitkens book has some passages in it that really strike me, even though it is not Soto.

Gassho
Sat today, lah

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[Jundo]

I wouldn't recommend any. Everyone is different and has different ways that they engage best with a subject. If your friend is fair dinkum about exploring Zen they'll find a book/video series/YouTube channel that speaks to them.
Gassho
Anna
st

Yes, but, one must recommend something when requested.

As I am a football coach, I will hesitate to recommend books on swimming although it may suit someone. However, even so, I will steer folks away from a few things, such as books that recommend diving into an empty pool without a helmet to see the effect on one's head (Daniel Ingram ) .

If you just tell someone to wander around the trash heap of youtube until they find something that strikes them ... it is spiritual anarchy!! (Oh, sorry, I forgot you are cool with that, Anna! )

Gassho, J

STLah

[Onka]

*blows raspberry*

[Jundo]

[Horin]

Another book I really like is
The essence of zen: the teachings of Sekkei Harada (Rumme/Harada).
I feel it's also for (eternal) beginners.

Gassho
Ben

Stlah

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[Kokuu]

Hi Sam

One Zen book is a hard ask. Since no one else has mentioned it, I will go with Returning to Silence by Dainin Katagiri. Or, more poetically, Ryōkan's One Robe One Bowl.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Jishin]

Not Soto but “Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn” is a fun one.

Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__

[shikantazen]

Great recommendations everyone. Thank you. Looks like Opening the hand of thought is a safe one to recommend if we have to pick just one.

I'll try reading the other recommendations myself starting with the cook book

Gassho,
Sam
st

[Naiko]

I don’t often feel qualified to comment on many threads, but I do here as I am very much a beginner to Zen practice. I second Jundo’s recommendation of What Is Zen? by Norman Fischer and Susan Moon. It is a series of questions and answers about Zen and really covers so much. And the authors are old friends, so the warm, conversational tone is delightful. I found it most helpful.
Gassho,
Krista
st/lah

[Kyōsen]

It's been a while since I read it and, IIRC, it had a somewhat larger emphasis on Rinzai practice, but I thought The Three Pillars of Zen was a decent book. It contained excerpts from different texts, letters between students and teachers, exposition on Zen, and detailed zazen instructions including photos of how to sit. I thought it was very practical for that reason.

... due out from Wisdom Publications this coming summer!

How exciting!

Gassho
Kyōsen
Sat|LAH

[Tai Shi]

As always Living Buddha, Living Christ by Tich Nhat Hanh the book that brought me aid when no other could cross culturally show me my simple practice! Let rain fall.
Taishi
sat
Gassho


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[Shokai]

.. due out from Wisdom Publications this coming summer!

Do you think Jundo will remember to tell us when ??

I'm surprised no one has mentioned 'Realizing Genjo Koan' by Shohaku Okumura , Although it may not be considered a real beginner's book. I go along with Tairin and Doyu in recommending Jundo's Beginner's Videos before you get into a whole pile of words in books.

Btw, thanks for the link back to the intro to my book, I read quickly through the thread and had a few laughs at the banter between Kotei and Daiyo of the illegal pre-staging of the internet. They must have bumped into Al Gore there somewhere .

Seriously, I can't remember my first Zen book. I just remember Kapleau and D.T. didn't do it for me.

gassho, Shokai
stlah

[Jundo]

... I thought The Three Pillars of Zen was a decent book. It contained excerpts from different texts, letters between students and teachers, exposition on Zen, and detailed zazen instructions including photos of how to sit. I thought it was very practical for that reason.

It was a popular book, but the popularity has declined among most Zen teachers in recent decades. The emphasis of that particular Buddhist group (Sambokyodan and the Yasutani-Harada lineage) at that time (I think they have softened themselves in recent years) on intense Koan Centered Zazen leading to a big, BOOMING Kensho experience caused a lot of misunderstandings in the Zen world I think. Our understanding of history and tradition has also come far during the about 60 years since that book was written. So, I would hesitate to recommend it.

If you are interested in reading more on this topic, I have some essays and such which discuss it. Here is a review of that book, called "Zen Teaching, Zen Practice: Philip Kapleau and The Three Pillars of Zen" edited by Kenneth Kraft, a long time student of Kapleau Roshi ...

Kraft points out that Kapleau’s book is “in large measure a book about kensho” (p.14) which in itself is problematic as for many, including some of the authors of the essays, this led to “inflated expectations… [and] [t]he discrepancy between anticipatory visions of enlightenment and actual experiences of insight”. (p.15) This disjuncture between what Kapleau wrote and the actual experiences of Zen students has led to some criticisms of The Three Pillars of Zen as a book that gives an unrealistic picture of what to expect from zazen. ...

While this emphasis on and almost inevitability of kensho is, I think, a fair criticism of The Three Pillars of Zen, there is little doubt that Kapleau’s book brought many people to the study and practice of Zen Buddhism and for that we should be grateful. It is also necessary that we understand where and how Kapleau learned his Zen practice to better understand why he wrote and taught the way he did.
http://www.thezensite.com/ZenBookRev...enpractice.htm

You can also read a bit more on Kapleau and Yasutani Roshis' approach at the two "One Born, Twice Born Zen" links:

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?6514-Special-reading-once-born-twice-born-zen-%28part-not-1%29

and

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?6539-Special-reading-once-born-twice-born-zen-%28part-not-2%29

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

I don’t often feel qualified to comment on many threads, but I do here as I am very much a beginner to Zen practice. I second Jundo’s recommendation of What Is Zen? by Norman Fischer and Susan Moon. It is a series of questions and answers about Zen and really covers so much. And the authors are old friends, so the warm, conversational tone is delightful. I found it most helpful.
Gassho,
Krista
st/lah

That really is the best choice for a "first Zen book."

Gassho, J

STLah

[Kyōsen]

Thank you for letting me that about Kapleau's book, Jundo! It's been a long time since I read it (2006 I think) and I can certainly see why it would have fallen out of popularity given what you bring up. An over-emphasis on kensho doesn't sound like a very sustainable way to introduce Zen to others, seems that it would set them up with some expectations that would steer them in the wrong direction. Thank you for those links, I'm going to give those threads a look.

Gassho
Kyōsen
Sat|LAH