The Lyric Self offers a precise and thorough examination of Zen, based on classical and contemporary scholarly works as well as the author's personal experience. Eight themes that are common to the practice of Zen Buddhism and the poetry of E.E. Cummings are compared and explored, with an emphasis on their respective value to contemporary psychology and education. It is the premise of The Lyric Self that both Zen and Cummings' poetry are profoundly concerned with individual awareness, and that they both employ an unorthodox use of words to break through the static structures of conventional...