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Title: Zen for Christians: A Beginner's Guide by Kim Boykin, Gerald G. May ISBN: 0-7879-6376-3 Publisher: Jossey-Bass Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Motivational Dharma
Comment: I have read ABOUT Zen for the past 10 or 15 years. This is the first book that has motivated me to actually practice! What an outstanding tool to help Christians like myself fearlessly begin to delve into zazen.
The writer aproaches the subject from a very human point of view. She is "one of us," battling with fickleness and human nature. And yet, with simple language, practical examples and personal experiences, she helps us to smell the aroma of the spiritual feast that awaits us in zen practice.
While this book probably won't add much to the knowledge or practice of those who are Buddhists or are already practicing Zen regularly, it will be very helpful for Christians who may have an interest in meditation. This book is Hands-On and How-To for those who want to do more than jusy know ABOUT Zen.
Rating: 5
Summary: Living Life Fully, Moment by Moment
Comment: Zen for Christians contains practical meditation instructions, interspersed with personal stories as well as more theological chapters. Boykin does a great job addressing theological questions about doing Zen practice without compromising one's Christian faith. Her explanation of the Buddha's Four Noble Truths is one of the clearest I've ever read. She takes complex philosophical concepts and makes them very easy to understand, but without "watering them down." Zen for Christians is a welcome addition to the growing number of books on interfaith dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism.
Rating: 5
Summary: Really Zen, Really for Christians
Comment: ~
This is a simple, direct, and trustworthy introduction to Zen thought and practice. It's really Zen -- not watered-down relaxation exercises -- and it's really for Christians, for serious, fully committed Christians. There is nothing vague or wishy-washy about Boykin, either as a Zen practitioner or as a Christian.
Her meditation instructions are wonderful, and she spends plenty of time talking about the physical enterprise of meditation -- the mechanics of how to sit, where to sit, how long to sit, and so forth -- something I think many teachers neglect, forgetting maybe just how large that looms to a beginner. She corrects the most damaging misconceptions about meditation -- that it's a matter of trying not to have thoughts, for example, or that it's always a peaceful and calming occupation -- but she never lets the reader forget that meditation is a practice, not an idea: the only way to find out what meditation has offer is to meditate.
She presents the theory of Zen -- if it can be said to have such a thing -- just as clearly. "In Zen," writes Boykin, "the Buddha's teachings are not understood to be divine revelations or doctrines to be believed. Rather, they are understood to be observations about human experience -- observations made by a human being, the Buddha, that can be made by any human being." She goes on to summarize the fundamental teachings of Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths, as clearly as I've ever seen them summarized. This part of the book alone would be worth the price of admission
When she considers parallels and analogs between Zen and Christianity, she does so without simplifying or compromising either. There's no nonsense about Zen "really" being Christianity or Christianity "really" being Zen. But there's a fascinating discussion of the Zen paradox that we are both already, and not yet, enlightened, in the light of the Christian question of justification by faith or by works; and a very sensitive exploration of what Zen and Christianity mean by "selflessness."
I came to this book with a great deal of skepticism. Mix-and-match approaches to religious traditions sometimes amount to keeping whatever is agreeable and discarding whatever is challenging -- reincarnation without karma, Christ without the crucifixion, Buddha-Nature without emptiness -- and it's all too possible, by carefully picking out every piece that reinforces your ego and leaving out every piece that subverts it, to construct an exact replica of your original confusion.
So I was delighted to find nothing of the kind in "Zen for Christians." Boykin is a serious Christian and a serious Zen practitioner, and she's written a serious -- though also wonderfully readable -- book about both. You couldn't find a better introduction to Buddhism; and really, though it was no part of her project, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better introduction to Christianity, either.
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Title: Zen Contemplation for Christians: A Bridge of Living Water by Elaine MacInnes, Elaine Maclnnes ISBN: 1580511333 Publisher: Sheed and Ward Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Christian Zen by William Johnston ISBN: 0823218015 Publisher: Fordham University Press Pub. Date: October, 1997 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: The Zen Teachings of Jesus by Kenneth S. Leong ISBN: 0824518837 Publisher: Crossroad 8th Avenue Pub. Date: 01 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit: The Place of Zen in Christian Life by Robert E. Kennedy ISBN: 0826409199 Publisher: Continuum Pub Group Pub. Date: March, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Christ the Eternal Tao by Lou Shibai, You Shan Tang, Hieromonk Damascene, Paul Deichman ISBN: 0938635859 Publisher: Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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