Zen Life

We live in turbulent and uncertain times. Anger and hatred are dividing us instead of bringing us closer together. What's needed is not more of the same, but a deliberate shift to consciousness and love. Join Alex Mill, a former monk who trained in a Zen monastery for 14 years, as he guides you along his personal, true-life journey. He'll recount how he found Zen awareness practice and pursued it to discover freedom, and reveal the principles he learned so that you, too, can access the wisdom and tools necessary to bring the monastery's refuge into your own life, right where you are.

In this series, Om Swami shares the essence of the Zen Living, combing the various branches of Zen and its associated techniques, to help the listener master the Zen way of life. There are 8 core episodes and 4 Bonus ones covering the following: Zazen, Wall-gazing, Osoji and many more to calm and center the mind while living in the world.

For Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, intimacy is what Zen practice is all about: the realization of the essential lack of distinction between self and other that inevitably leads to wisdom and compassionate action. She approaches the practice of intimacy beginning at its most basic level - the intimacy with ourselves that is the essential first step. She then shows how to bring intimacy into our relationships with others, starting with those dearest to us and moving on to those who don't seem dear at all.

Ryokan (1758–1831) is, along with Dogen and Hakuin, one of the three giants of Zen in Japan. But unlike his two renowned colleagues, Ryokan was a societal dropout, living mostly as a hermit and a beggar. He was never head of a monastery or temple. He liked playing with children. He had no dharma heir. Even so, people recognized the depth of his realization, and he was sought out by people of all walks of life for the teaching to be experienced in just being around him.

The Zen Habits Handbook for Life is a compilation of Leo Babauta's best articles on living from a Zen Habits perspective. What will this book teach you to do? Basically the same things that Zen Habits aims for overall: how to simplify your life, how to live a happier life, how to be more productive with less stress, how to achieve your dreams. The book includes chapters on decluttering, single-tasking, eliminating nonessentials, planning your day, clearing your inbox, getting motivated, cultivating compassion, boosting self-confidence, living consciously, and much more!

Shunryu Suzuki, author of the beloved classic Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, is lovingly remembered as one of the greatest spiritual teachers of the 20th century - whose legacy is felt in every facet of American Zen. This monumental biography of Suzuki, written and read by his student David Chadwick, weaves together a rich tapestry of stories and memories of Suzuki’s students, family, and friends. In this updated and revised audiobook edition, Chadwick also offers rare excerpts from archived recordings of Suzuki’s teachings in the great Zen master's own voice.

Jan Chozen Bays, MD - physician and Zen teacher - has developed a series of simple practices to help us cultivate mindfulness as we go about our ordinary, daily lives. Exercises include: taking three deep breaths before answering the phone, noticing and adjusting your posture throughout the day, eating mindfully, and leaving no trace of yourself after using the kitchen or bathroom. Each exercise is presented with tips on how to remind yourself and a short life lesson connected with it.

For many of us, the subject of money is unavoidably stressful. Managing our personal finances is complicated, time-consuming and often, particularly in the slow countdown to payday, dispiriting. The good news is that in Japan - where a Zen approach to life is more widely practised - a pathway to a better relationship is being carved by the 'Zen Millionaire', Ken Honda. Based on the phenomenally popular Japanese bestseller, this beautifully written book will reinvent the way you see your personal finances. You will come to understand that money flows like water and arrives like a guest.

In this collection of never-before-published teachings by Charlotte Joko Beck, one of the most influential Western-born Zen teachers, she explores our “core beliefs” - the hidden, negative convictions we hold about ourselves that direct our thoughts and behavior and prevent us from experiencing life as it is. Wryly humorous and relatable, Beck uses powerfully clear language to show how our lives present us with daily opportunities to move from thinking to experiencing, from compulsivity to confidence, and from anguish to peace.

In these delightful and playful talks, Osho introduces the mystery, the wonder and the emptiness that is Zen, not comparable to anything else and a completely different approach to life. The chapters alternate between elaborating original excerpts by the 14th Zen master, Ikkyu, taking us into the world of Zen – and responding to personal questions, which brings the world of Zen into our lives, connects with our issues and questions.

The Zen of Art starts with the premise that making art is akin to what happens when wind engages with a set of chimes. The chance encounter of source and instrument generates a song that enriches and elevates the moment. Author and artist Carolyn Schlam draws a parallel with what she calls the "Zen of Art"—the process of allowing creative expression to manifest in a natural and unencumbered fashion. Schlam tells her personal story of making art while applying the knowledge she has gained to live an "artful life" in chapters on courage, joy, beauty, love, and more.

Lucidly and beautifully written, Peace Is Every Step contains commentaries, meditations, personal anecdotes, and stories from Nhat Hanh's experiences as a peace activist, teacher, and community leader. It begins where the listener already is - in the kitchen, office, driving a car, walking - and shows how deep meditative presence is available now.

Zen Master Tales collects never-before-translated stories of four prominent Zen masters from the Edo period of Japanese history (1603–1868). Drawn from an era that saw the “democratization” of Japanese Zen, these stories paint a picture of robust, funny, and poignant engagement between Zen luminaries and the emergent chonin or “townsperson” culture of early modern Japan. These masters affirmed that the essentials of Zen practice could be conveyed to all members of Japanese society in ordinary speech, including even comic verse and work songs.

On the 50th anniversary of Robert Pirsig’s classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, John Zdanowski, a six-time $100 million business builder, applies the Metaphysics of Quality to inspire and empower the entrepreneur in each of us to create something from nothing. Blending personal anecdotes, business case studies, simple diagrams, and philosophical poetry to convey the deep meaning of complicated subjects …so you get it.

Bring Me the Rhinoceros is an unusual guide to happiness and a can opener for your thinking. For fifteen hundred years, Zen koans have been passed down through generations of masters, usually in private encounters between teacher and student. This book deftly retells more than a dozen traditional koans, which are partly paradoxical questions dangerous to your beliefs and partly treasure boxes of ancient wisdom. John Tarrant brings the heart of the koan tradition out into the open, reminding us that the old wisdom remains as vital as ever.

The Abhidharma, one of the three major text collections of the original Buddhist canon, frames the psychological system of Buddhism, explaining the workings of reality and the nature of the human mind. Because of its complexity, the Abhidharma has traditionally been reserved only for academic or monastic study; now, for the first time, clinical psychologist Beth Jacobs brings this dynamic body of work to general listeners, using practical explanation, personal stories, and vivid examples to gently untangle the technical aspects of the Abhidharma.

What does it take to have a long writing life? Drawing on her years of writing, teaching, and practicing Zen, Natalie Goldberg shares the experiences that have opened her to new ways of being alive - experiences that point the way forward in our lives and our writing. The "great spring" of this book title refers to the great rush of energy that arrives when you think no life will ever come again - the early yellow flowering forsythia, for example.

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.

The book The Way of Zen Buddhism & Zen Mind for Beginners goes beyond teachings of spirituality. The main focus of the book is to empower you to reach your full potential as an individual. Here, you’ll be introduced to Zen minimalist aesthetics, which will help you go from zero to abundance in no time.

The Buddhist Psychology book is not just another book to share some information about Buddha and Buddhism. This book is actually an opportunity for every listener to reach a deeper aspect of life, through this tunnel of Buddhism teachings. It will be an interesting ride that will make you wonder about different dimensions of life. The central aim of the book is to help the listener understand the larger aspects of three universal truths, four noble truths, eightfold path, and 12 links to origination.