Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, Zen Lectures From Shunryu Suzuki

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Shambhala Library)

by: Shunryu Suzuki

Amazon Price: $12.89 (as of 07/05/2009)

A respected Zen master in Japan and founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, Shunryu Suzuki has blazed a path in American Buddhism like few others. He is the master who climbs down from the pages of the koan books and answers your questions face to face. If not face to face, you can at least find the answers as recorded in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, a transcription of juicy excerpts from his lectures. From diverse topics such as transience of the world, sudden enlightenment, and the nuts and bolts of meditation, Suzuki always returns to the idea of beginner's mind, a recognition that our original nature is our true nature.

Zen Flesh Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings

Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 07/05/2009)

The essence of Zen--as a way of life, a religion, an aesthetic--can be found in the works of the Zen canon. Reps draws short stories and vignettes from such classic works as The Gateless Gate and 101 Zen Stories to help listeners come closer to answering the question: What is Zen? Peter Coyote, a student of Zen for more than 20 years, is well suited as a narrator of these tales.

Sit Down and Shut Up: Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, and Dogen's Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye

by: Brad Warner

Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 07/05/2009)

Warner, a Zen priest, author (Hardcore Zen) and former punk rock bassist, has a very distinctive voice. It may be off-putting to some to think about Buddha and a bunch of Zen masters, including esteemed 13th-century Japanese Zen master Dogen, as dudes riffing on "whiz-bang-with-cheese-on-top-enlightenment." But for the patient, curious and those for whom Warner's slash-the-crap style is their cup of green tea, this Zen punk book offers provocation and reward. Warner ambitiously presents something close to textual commentary on a key text by Dogen while teaching on anger, sex, loving-kindness, dependent arising and other familiar Buddhist themes.