Guided by a strange epiphany, Richard Phipps traveled to Japan with $600 and a pair of skis. The result, Skiing Zen, is much more than a ski adventure. It is a tapestry of thought about sports and awareness, about differences between Eastern and Western thinking, and about individualism amidst group pressure.

Woven into the travel anecdotes, cultural insights, and skiing action are intriguing concepts such as the spectrum of attention and distraction, the evolving spiral of learning, the power of guided imagery, and the correlation between Zen and love. Stunning in scope and yet...