Read Everyday Zen Love and Work Plus Charlotte J Beck Books
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Charlotte Joko Beck offers a warm, engaging, uniquely American approach to using Zen to deal with the problems of daily living—love, relationships, work, fear, ambition, and suffering. Everyday Zen shows us how to live each moment to the fullest. This Plus edition includes an interview with the author.
Read Everyday Zen Love and Work Plus Charlotte J Beck Books
"This book presents Zen Buddhism as a form of personal therapy. Joko actually says, "Our Zen training is designed to enable us to live comfortable lives." She has stripped Zen Buddhism of practically everything except meditation, the no-self doctrine, and closely related matters. She almost ignores other Buddhist concepts, such as emptiness, karma, and so on. Did you have the impression that Buddhism entailed belief in reincarnation? Nothing about that here. Did you believe Buddhism has an ethical code, no killing, no lying, etc.? Nothing about that here, save disapproval of anger. She criticizes religious practices that urge people to be unselfish. Her position is that ethical conduct and unselfishness can await realization (enlightenment). Is she right? There are some spectacular examples of American Zen masters behaving very badly indeed, notwithstanding their enlightenment. Zen (at least American Zen) tends to downplay Buddhism's ethical requirements and metaphysical concepts, but Joko takes it to an extreme. Maybe she is using "skillful means," i.e., dumbing Buddhism down so that ordinary Westerners won't have too much trouble buying into it. The requirement to follow a strict ethical code or an aspiration "to save all beings" might discourage some people from even starting. Or maybe she thinks her everyday Zen is all there is to say that's worthwhile. I can't tell.
Using Zen as personal therapy may actually work. Lots of people think it does, and Joko presents it very well. She seems to have been a wise and compassionate teacher.
Amazon's star system doesn't cope well with a book that the reviewer thinks is well done and yet has problems with. Ergo, four stars and the disparaging subject line."
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Tags : Everyday Zen Love and Work (Plus) (9780061285899) Charlotte J. Beck Books,Charlotte J. Beck,Everyday Zen Love and Work (Plus),HarperOne,0061285897,Zen,Religious life - Zen Buddhism,Asian,Buddhism - Zen,GENERAL,General Adult,HEALTH FITNESS / Healthy Living,Inspirational/Devotional,Non-Fiction,PHILOSOPHY / Zen,Philosophy,Philosophy/Zen,RELIGION / Buddhism / Zen (see also PHILOSOPHY / Zen),RELIGION / Spirituality,Religion - World Religions,SELF-HELP / Personal Growth / General,United States,ZEN BUDDHISM
Everyday Zen Love and Work Plus Charlotte J Beck Books Reviews :
Everyday Zen Love and Work Plus Charlotte J Beck Books Reviews
- This book presents Zen Buddhism as a form of personal therapy. Joko actually says, "Our Zen training is designed to enable us to live comfortable lives." She has stripped Zen Buddhism of practically everything except meditation, the no-self doctrine, and closely related matters. She almost ignores other Buddhist concepts, such as emptiness, karma, and so on. Did you have the impression that Buddhism entailed belief in reincarnation? Nothing about that here. Did you believe Buddhism has an ethical code, no killing, no lying, etc.? Nothing about that here, save disapproval of anger. She criticizes religious practices that urge people to be unselfish. Her position is that ethical conduct and unselfishness can await realization (enlightenment). Is she right? There are some spectacular examples of American Zen masters behaving very badly indeed, notwithstanding their enlightenment. Zen (at least American Zen) tends to downplay Buddhism's ethical requirements and metaphysical concepts, but Joko takes it to an extreme. Maybe she is using "skillful means," i.e., dumbing Buddhism down so that ordinary Westerners won't have too much trouble buying into it. The requirement to follow a strict ethical code or an aspiration "to save all beings" might discourage some people from even starting. Or maybe she thinks her everyday Zen is all there is to say that's worthwhile. I can't tell.
Using Zen as personal therapy may actually work. Lots of people think it does, and Joko presents it very well. She seems to have been a wise and compassionate teacher.
's star system doesn't cope well with a book that the reviewer thinks is well done and yet has problems with. Ergo, four stars and the disparaging subject line. - This book was recommended by a fellow yoga friend and teacher and I just didn't care for it. I like a few chapters. I like when she talks about the mind and the types of thoughts it generates, but I just couldn't get into this book. She talks about her own experience a lot as a meditation practitioner, which even though I have had a sitting practice on and off for years, I just couldn't connect to it. It's all a bit heady, all a bit much for me. Somehow the relaxation of it all gets lost in translation, which is why I feel that I don't ever continue to practice sitting meditation daily. I can fall into relaxation and be with my thoughts, observing them when I am moving better than when I am just sitting. At times it can be great, but at times torturous. This book was very HEAVY for me, and I couldn't finish it.
- Just what I needed to read when the going got tough for me. A great reading and not only for those who are in search of Zen. This book gives a good description of our human nature and our constant search for the elusive happiness. Short chapters and very readable style. Hits home with every example the writer uses to support her stories. I have marked many passages (I apologize to those who abhor marking a book), but it makes it easier for me to get back to the passages that I need to reread when I forget about my faulty human traits. I keep the book close by and reach for it often.
- This book is in the first stage Zen Mountain Monastery student reading list by Daido Roshi, dharma brother to Joko. This is a collection of dharma talks given to the robed sangha, after chanting "Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra" ("emptiness of the skandas"), "The Identity of the Relative and Absolute" ("like two arrows meeting in mid-air"), mystical dharanis and other liturgy. When I first picked up this book, I had a romantic dream of Zen. I was enamoured with the sounds of the clappers and bells, the ritual of three bowls, the smell of incense, my weight on the cushion. I imagined knowing conversation about suchness and shouts of kensho. Joko's book was the sharp strike/release of the stick. What my knotted muscles of ego yearned for and resisted. This book is about the intimacy of living. Of no escape. It is the antidote to butter-won't-melt-in-my-mouth aridness. Dear Reader, please consider these wise teachings to deepen your practice.
- As someone who's only been reading about Zen Buddhism for a year or two, I found this book to be the best one I bought. The concepts are explained simply, and I read it with yellow highlighter in hand, so I can now go back over the highlights at my leisure. I like the small paperback size, and take it with me to waiting rooms.
- This book is great for beginners of zen. This book is good at introducing zen in a way that westerners can easily understand. If you are at all interested in Zen I cannot recommend this book enough. I knew close to nothing about zen when I started reading this book. Now I think I will look more into practicing and meditating. Zen is really different than what I have been taught growing up a Christian. Getting to know different schools of thought and getting into eastern philosophy can be an enlightening experience. I recommend this book to anyone searching for enlightenment. I wouldn't say this book changed my life but it did give me a different perspective on how to live.
- This book had a very profound affect on me during my solo retreat in the mountains of Washington. I certainly broke through my ego on that trip and was absolutely aware of my thoughts and sensations rising and falling. I also certainly became attached to this awareness and lost it (as always), but this book brought me there for sure. Very good stuff.
