A young Soto Zen monk in America sets out to find the Secret of Zen. In this book what he found is laid out and explained in plain language that is easy to follow and understand. Zen as he explains is about 'intuition'. It alone is the means for realizing the secret of Zen. Knowing this is the enlightenment of the Buddhas. The Secret of Zen is no ordinary Zen book, the author goes directly to the heart of Zen's path, and brings it forth in a way that anyone with an ounce of wisdom can understand. He further goes on to explaining how each of us can also discover Zen's secret, personally. But be forewarned the path becomes more difficult the more a person advances towards Zen's secret.

Chuck Norris has spent a lifetime studying the martial arts, earning several black belts and world championships. Now, through anecdotes about his own personal struggles and triumphs, Norris explains how the ancient system of Zen--the core philosophy behind the martial arts--can help each of us achieve spiritual tranquillity and self-confidence. The Secret Power Within is both a highly accessible lesson in Zen philosophy as well as the compelling story of Chuck Norris's own remarkable success. In this highly entertaining and inspiring account, Norris shows how Zen can be applicable to everyday situations, from the conference room to the living room. Chapters include: * Winning by Losing: If you have nothing to prove, you have no need to fight. * Complete the Wheel: How to balance your life to achieve success. * Your Master, Your Art: To maintain self-respect you must respect the work you do, and do it as well as possible. * My Way of Meditating: Norris's personal technique for achieving tranquillity under pressure. The message is simple: There are no limits for the person who refuses to accept them.

The Blue Cliff Record is a classic text of Zen Buddhism, designed to assist in the activation of dormant human potential. The core of this extraordinary work is a collection of one hundred traditional citations and stories, selected for their ability to bring about insight and enlightenment. These vignettes are known as gongan in Chinese and koan in Japanese. Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record is a fresh translation featuring newly translated commentary from two of the greatest Zen masters of early modern Japan, Hakuin Ekaku (1685–1768) of the Rinzai sect of Zen and Tenkei Denson (1648–1735) of the Soto sect of Zen. This translation and commentary on The Blue Cliff Record sheds new light on the meaning of this central Zen text.

Discover hidden practices, secretly transmitted in authentic Zen lineages, of using body, speech, and mind to remove obstructions to awakening. Though Zen is best known for the practices of koan introspection and "just sitting" or shikantaza, there are in fact many other practices transmitted in Zen lineages. In modern practice settings, students will find that Bodhidharma's words "direct pointing at the human mind" are little mentioned, or else taken to be simply a general descriptor of Zen rather than a crucial activity within Zen practice. Reversing this trend toward homogeneous and superficial understandings of Zen technique, Hidden Zen presents a diverse collection of practice instructions that are transmitted orally from teacher to student, unlocking a comprehensive path of awakening. This book reveals and details, for the first time, a treasury of "direct pointing" and internal energy cultivation practices preserved in the Rinzai Zen tradition. The twenty-eight practices of direct pointing offered here illuminate one's innate clarity and, ultimately, the nature of mind itself. Over a dozen practices of internal energetic cultivation galvanize dramatic effects on the depth of one's meditative attainment. Hidden Zen affords a small taste of the richness of authentic Zen, helping readers grow beyond the bounds of introspection and sitting to find awakening itself.

Inspires us - in wryly gentle prose - to outgrow the impossible pursuit of happiness, and instead make peace with the perfection of the way things are. Including ourselves! Magid invites readers to consider the notion that our certainty that we are broken may be turning our (3z(Bpursuit of happiness(S3(B into a source of yet more suffering. He takes an unusual look at our (S2(Bsecret practices(S3(B (what we?re REALLY doing, when we say (S2(Bpracticing(S3(B) and (S2(Bcurative fantasies,(S3(B wherein we have ideals of what spiritual practices will "do" for us, "cure" us. In doing so, he helps us look squarely at such pitfalls of spiritual practice so that we can avoid them. Along the way, Magid lays out a rich roadmap of a new "psychological-minded Zen," which may be among the most important spiritual developments of the present day.

For the first time, all the secrets of Zen Buddhism are revealed in this book. On the basis of this modern method developed by the author, you can master the Zen path faster than by the traditional methods, and to do this you need absolutely no teacher or master to attain satori, enlightenment and nirvana. In this book, the author combines the Eastern wisdom of Zen with Western psychology. In doing so, he systematically supports the reader along the Zen path to spiritual wholeness.

An important collection of 100 classic Zen Buddhist koans with commentaries. A companion to Thomas Cleary's well-respected translation of THE BLUE CLIFF RECORD, this book is the other, equally revered classic collection of koans--the paradoxical teaching devices that have been closely associated with Zen study and practice since the tenth century.

Zen Sand is a classic collection of verses aimed at aiding practitioners of kôan meditation to negotiate the difficult relationship between insight and language. As such it represents a major contribution to both Western Zen practice and English-language Zen scholarship. In Japan the traditional Rinzai Zen kôan curriculum includes the use of jakugo, or "capping phrases." Once a monk has successfully replied to a kôan, the Zen master orders the search for a classical verse to express the monk’s insight into the kôan. Special collections of these jakugo were compiled as handbooks to aid in that search. Until now, Zen students in the West, lacking this important resource, have been severely limited in carrying out this practice. Zen Sand combines and translates two standard jakugo handbooks and opens the way for incorporating this important tradition fully into Western Zen practice. For the scholar, Zen Sand provides a detailed description of the jakugo practice and its place in the overall kôan curriculum, as well as a brief history of the Zen phrase book. This volume also contributes to the understanding of East Asian culture in a broader sense.

A taste of Zen for the seeker and the curious alike. This small but wise book collects Eastern and Western sayings, haiku, poetry, and inspiring quotations from ancient and modern thinkers. Its aim is not to define Zen or answer its famous koan—What is the sound of one hand clapping?—but rather to point to a fresh way of looking at the world: with mindfulness, clarity, and joy. “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought” —Bashō New material is taken from contemporary spiritual leaders, writers, meditation teachers, and others with an emphasis on the practice of mindfulness—on the heart, rather than the head. Pen and ink illustrations from the author bring an additional layer of feeling and beauty.