Zen Buddhism

The night Brad Warner learns that his childhood friend Marky has died, Warner is about to speak to a group of Zen students in Hamburg, Germany. It’s the last thing he feels like doing. What he wants to do instead is tell his friend everything he never said, to explain Zen and what he does for a living and why he spends his time “Sitting. Sitting. Sitting. Meditating my life away as it all passes by. Lighting candles and incense. Bowing to nothing.” So, as he continues his teaching tour through Europe, he writes to his friend all the things he wishes he had said.

The Dalai Lama will tell you that happiness is the purpose of life, and that "the very motion of our life is toward happiness." How to get there has always been the question. With the help of a psychiatrist, he now gets the message across in a context we can easily understand.

This collection of 21 short, soul-soothing Zen stories is designed to help you quiet your mind, let go of unnecessary worries, and reconnect with the simplicity of the present moment. Each story is quick and easy to listen to, yet filled with timeless wisdom that gently shifts your perspective—offering clarity where there was confusion, peace where there was tension.

The teachings of Shunryu Suzuki have served for innumerable people as the gateway to Zen practice and meditation. In Zen Is Right Now, devoted student and biographer David Chadwick sheds new light on Suzuki’s presence and teachings through selected quotes from his lectures and a variety of stories told by his students.

In this extraordinary celebration of spirituality, The Energy of Prayer demonstrates the relevance of prayer in our daily lives. Thich Nhat Hanh reveals how the energy of prayer and meditation allow us to reconnect with our higher selves while satisfying our basic need to connect with the world as a whole. With a generous spirit that acknowledges the many different types and functions of prayer, The Energy of Prayer provides a guide for deepening our spiritual practice through the use of prayer.

Old Path White Clouds presents the life and teachings of Gautama Buddha. Drawn directly from 24 Pali, Sanskrit, and Chinese sources, and retold by Thich Nhat Hanh in his inimitably beautiful style, this book traces the Buddha's life slowly and gently over the course of 80 years, partly through the eyes of Svasti, the buffalo boy, and partly through the eyes of the Buddha himself. Old Path White Clouds is destined to become a classic of religious literature.

Are you tired of pushing, controlling, and striving—only to feel stuck and exhausted? Do you long for a life that feels lighter, freer, and more effortless? The Flow of Zen invites you to release the struggle and embrace the beauty of simply being. Through 21 short, immersive Zen stories, this book reveals the power of presence, effortless action (wu-wei), and surrendering to life’s natural rhythm. Each bite-sized tale offers a profound yet simple lesson—helping you shift from resistance to acceptance, from stress to serenity.

Composer John Cage sought the silence of a mind at peace with itself - and found it in Zen Buddhism, a spiritual path that changed both his music and his view of the universe. "Remarkably researched, exquisitely written", Where the Heart Beats weaves together "a great many threads of cultural history" (Maria Popova, Brain Pickings) to illuminate Cage’s struggle to accept himself and his relationship with choreographer Merce Cunningham. Freed to be his own man, Cage originated exciting experiments that set him at the epicenter of a new avant-garde forming in the 1950s.

A Heart Blown Open chronicles the extraordinary journey of Zen master Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi, whose life landed him in prison long before he landed in a monastery. Experience the successes and failures that led him to found an entirely new form of Buddhism called Mondo Zen. Starting from an abusive and alcoholic home in Wisconsin, Kelly becomes a major force in the counterculture of the 1960s and one of its biggest manufacturers of LSD. He ends up on the run for five years before serving time in a federal prison, and then goes on to spend six years in a Zen monastery. In his fiftieth year...

For centuries, Chan Meditation has been taught exclusively on a one-to-one basis in China. We are fortunate to be granted this unique opportunity to share with the public this unique yet effective meditative practice, especially now. As long as you practice these fifteen easy steps of Chan Meditation earnestly, within just a few months, you will for sure experience some transformations to your health, happiness or harmony. That's our witness. Usually within the first month, you will sleep better. Within two months, you will have less stress. Within three months, your allergy will be less ...

This moment is the gateway to enlightenment. It is the only moment we have to be joyful, mindful, and awake. The key is to be there for yourself - to learn to be fully present in your life. This, Thich Nhat Hanh explains, is the heart of Buddhist practice. In this introduction to the practice of presence, the beloved Buddhist teacher provides indispensable insight on the essentials of Buddhist thought and offers a range of simple, everyday practices for cultivating mindfulness.

Turning our conventional understanding of power on its head, world-renowned Zen master, spiritual leader, and national bestselling author Thich Nhat Hanh reveals the secret to attaining true power—finding it from within. The Art of Power shows that by chasing fame, fortune, and the future without focusing on the present, we ultimately sacrifice what actually leads a life full of joy and satisfaction.

Love might not be what we think it is. We all seek the happiness that comes from loving and being loved, yet we often find ourselves dissatisfied in our relationships and unable to grasp the cause. Thich Nhat Hanh here shows the way to overcome our recurrent obstacles to love - by learning to be mindful, open, and present with ourselves and others. As he explains, "training is needed in order to love properly; and to be able to give happiness and joy, you must practice deep looking directed toward the person you love."

Zen Made Easy is an accessible introduction to the paradoxical wisdom of the Zen Masters. Challenged by their down-to-earth craziness, we can embrace our ignorance before the great enigma of existence. Learning from their mysterious ordinariness, we can penetrate the magic of the present moment. Inspired by their unsentimental compassion we can understand that enlightenment is not just for holy sages or the fanatically disciplined. Anyone can experience enlightenment – it is our birthright. Zen is often portrayed as esoteric, but Zen is essentially about answering one simple question: '...

The Zen master and one of the world's most beloved teachers returns with a concise, practical guide to understanding and developing our most powerful inner resource - silence - to help us find happiness, purpose, and peace.

Leave the pressures and demands of your daily life behind as you focus on the Zen within your soul. Zen and the Love of Nature takes you on a captivating journey from a single lotus flower to a rippling brook to the grandeur of Mount Fuji, giving a Zen perspective on the joy and beauty of our natural world.

Over the course of twenty-five centuries, Buddhism spread from its place of origin in northern India to become a global tradition of remarkable breadth, depth, and richness. Donald S. Lopez Jr. draws on the latest scholarship to construct a detailed and innovative history of Buddhism—not just as a chronology through the centuries or as geographic movement, but as a dense matrix of interconnections.

✨ The journey continues—rawer, and more intimate. 📚 Following the themes explored in the Standard Edition, this Special Edition expands the original reflections with new chapters and a deeper emotional current. For readers who resonated with the original reflections on fear, pain, consumerism, addiction, confidence, purpose, and happiness, this special version offers new meditations on distractions, stress, nonconformism, early rising, the art of letting go and the sacred nature of sex—all presented in the same poetic, minimalist style that touched so many. 🕯 Blending ancient ...

This may be one of the most disturbing photography books you will ever read. It will challenge your notions about photography as it artfully points to a unity between subject, photographer, equipment and technique. Professor Michael Eldridge, former Head of Post Graduate Studies in Photography at 'The Arts University' states in the Foreword: "Stephen Bray writes here a travelogue about his voyage and search for meaning and inspiration. He also explores the relationship between photography and awareness within the context for formal Buddhist philosophy, for the benefit of those wishing to ...

Japan 1933 – The echoes of the distant war in Manchuria hardly disturb 13-year-old Ichiro’s relaxed life in Kyoto, but following an under-age love affair, he is sent to a Zen Buddhist monastery. With the outbreak of war with China, he is seized from the monastery and conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army. The saga of his war experiences in the subjugated countries of Asia changes him completely and culminates in his repatriation to his devastated homeland. Set against the historical events of the Asia-Pacific war, the drama unfolds from the perspective of a young man caught up in ...