Encouraging Words is a collection of short talks and brief essays that Aitken Rashi has offered his students at meditation retreats during the past two decades. They are arranged according to themes central to all spiritual seekers -- attention, emptiness, coming and going, diligence, death and the afterlife, the sacred self, and the moral path. Aitken provides guidance on pursuing religious practice in a lay context, "re-casting the Dharma to include women, jobs, and family." He also charts his own quest to develop a set of moral codes in keeping with Buddhism's basic precepts and honoring...
Encouraging Words is a collection of short talks and brief essays that Aitken Rashi has offered his students at meditation retreats during the past tw...
There is a fine art to presenting complex ideas with simplicity and insight, in a manner that both guides and inspires. In Taking the Path of Zen Robert Aitken presents the practice, lifestyle, rationale, and ideology of Zen Buddhism with remarkable clarity.
The foundation of Zen is the practice of zazen, or mediation, and Aitken Roshi insists that everything flows from the center. He discusses correct breathing, posture, routine, teacher-student relations, and koan study, as well as common problems and milestones encountered in the process. Throughout the book the author...
There is a fine art to presenting complex ideas with simplicity and insight, in a manner that both guides and inspires. In Taking the Path of Ze...
The Gateless Barrier is generally acknowledged to be the fundamental koan collection in the literature of Zen. Gathered together by Wu-men (Mumon), a thirteenth-century master of the Lin-chi (Rinzai) school, it is composed of forty-eight koans, or cases, each accompanied by a brief comment and poem by Wu-men.
Robert Aitken, one of the premier American Zen masters, has translated Wu-men's text, supplementing the original with his own commentary -- the first such commentary by a Western master -- making the profound truths of Zen Buddhism accessible to serious contemporary...
The Gateless Barrier is generally acknowledged to be the fundamental koan collection in the literature of Zen. Gathered together by Wu-men (...
The Roaring, Stream: A New Zen Reader is a groundbreaking, immensely readable anthology drawn From the vast corpus of Ch'an and Zen Buddhist literature. It offers readers a tour through more than a millennium of writing, presenting one masterpiece after another in chronological progression. "You can dip into the waters of this stream, again and again, at any point Finding refreshment and perspective, " notes Robert Aitken in his introduction. "A year From now you can dip in again and find treasures that were not at all evident the First time." From lectures to letters, brief...
The Roaring, Stream: A New Zen Reader is a groundbreaking, immensely readable anthology drawn From the vast corpus of Ch'an and Zen Buddh...
Are Christianity and Buddhism just "two paths leading to the top of the same mountain" - or are they fundamentally irreconcilable? As Buddhism takes root in the West, this question arises with ever greater frequency, sparking intriguing discussions but eluding easy answers. These conversations between Robert Aitken Roshi and Brother David Steindl-Rast offer a fresh approach to the question, one that begins with the intimacy of everyday practice rather than with philosophical and theological concepts - and one that benefits from the respect and good-will the two friends bear for eachother's...
Are Christianity and Buddhism just "two paths leading to the top of the same mountain" - or are they fundamentally irreconcilable? As Buddhism takes r...
Zen Buddhism distinguishes itself by brilliant flashes of insight and its terseness of expression. The haiku verse form is a superb means of studying Zen modes of thought and expression, for its seventeen syllables impose a rigorous limitation that confines the poet to vital experience. Here haiku by Basho are translated by Robert Aitken, with commentary that provides a new and far deeper understanding of Basho's work than ever before. In presenting themes from the haiku and from Zen literature that open the doors both to the poems and to Zen itself, Aitken has produced the first book...
Zen Buddhism distinguishes itself by brilliant flashes of insight and its terseness of expression. The haiku verse form is a superb means of studying ...
