Praise for Zen Questions
“Zen Questions does not have the answers—which is just as it should be because it captures the very process of constructive questioning at its best. Yet in a deeper sense, this book does have answers, as thoughtful readers may discover and match their questions to this brilliant text.” —Steven Heine, author of Did Dōgen Go to China?
“Zen Questions is a series of lucid, held-open investigations into something very simple, but also subtle and complex: the fundamental question of how we inhabit this particular moment of human awareness, in this very body and mind, in this very world. The Zen awareness presented here reaches in many directions—Leighton shows how the understandings of Zen teachers over thirteen hundred years glimmer also in a line by Bob Dylan, a phrase from a poem by Wallace Stevens. Sometimes scholarly and historical, sometimes engaged with the most contemporary of our shared societal dilemmas, Zen Questions equally introduces and expands our American understanding of Buddhist teachings, and of the many possibilities in navigating our own lives.” —Jane Hirshfield
“A brave book, bringing the fierce spirit of Zen into the questions that all of us face today.” —Roshi Joan Halifax
“Taigen Leighton has long been writing about Dōgen with clarity and depth—yet here he also includes his wide-ranging perspectives on Dharma, society, and Bob Dylan to boot. These delightful essays take us another step down the road toward naturalizing Dharma into our own cultural matrix.”
—Zoketsu Norman Fischer, author of Sailing Home
“This clear, accurate, and eminently useful book will save serious practitioners, or even curious novices, years of wasted error, wrong turns, and plain old delusion.” —Peter Coyote, actor and author of Sleeping Where I Fall
“Taigen Leighton is one of the West’s most important Zen scholar-priests and one of our foremost exponents of bringing out into the world the insights we find on the meditation cushion. This book contains some enormously important reflections on the nature of the Zen practice of just sitting, through a close reflection on the great master Dōgen, the Sufi poet Rumi, as well as Bob Dylan, Mary Oliver, and the American Zen original Gary Snyder. Perhaps even more importantly, Leighton offers a number of reflections and pointers for finding our way amid the messiness of life. This is an incredibly valuable book, useful for anyone who wishes to integrate their heart-work with work in the world.” —James Ishmael Ford, author of Zen Master WHO?
“Unique and scintillating. I highly recommend this book to anyone who cherishes the illumination of wisdom both ancient and modern.” —Lewis Richmond, author of Work as a Spiritual Practice
“This book comes as a welcome reminder that my own questioning is my completeness. I become whole simply by asking: What does it mean to be a human being? Giant thanks for this book that brings me the simplicity of zazen and a sense of deep engagement with the struggle for social and environmental justice—all woven together in Taigen Leighton’s big-hearted expression.” —Susan Moon
, “Zen teacher and leading Dōgen translator Taigen Dan Leighton offers his readers an impressive array of insights into Sōtō Zen meditation practice. Those who are fortunate enough to pick up this book will relish Leighton’s explorations of Zen ideas applied to many current issues.” —Christopher Ives, author of Imperial-Way Zen
“Taigen Dan Leighton has done his homework—he digs deep and comes up with treasure.”
—David Chadwick