Kirjahaku

Nominated for the Tricycle Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Buddhism in America--a collection of short talks and essays from a renowned meditation teacher. "The inspiration that guided monks and nuns in ancient times is our own deepest incentive as we establish our practice in a world that desperately needs new forms of kinship and love."--Robert Aitken In this inspiring collection, you will find a series of talks and essays that Aitken Rashi has offered his students at meditation retreats during the past two decades. They are arranged according to themes central to all spiritual seekers--attention, emptiness, coming and going, diligence, death and the afterlife, the sacred self, and the moral path. Aitken provides guidance on pursuing religious practice in a lay context, "re-casting the Dharma to include women, jobs, and family." He also charts his own quest to develop a set of moral codes in keeping with Buddhism's basic precepts and honoring the enormous ethical challenges faced in the twentieth century.

Known to many as the study of quiet stillness and introspection, Zen Buddhism distinguishes itself through brilliant flashes of insight and its terseness of expression. In River of Heaven these concepts and pillars lend themselves to an exploration of Haiku, one of the most delicate and interpretive poetic forms in the world. The haiku verse form, with its rigid structure and organic description is a superb means of studying Zen modes of thought because its seventeen syllables impose a limitation that confines the poet to vital experience. In Haiku as in Buddhism, the silences are as expressive as the words.In this volume, American Senior Zen Roshi Robert Aitken gives new insight into Haiku by poetic masters Basho, Issa, Buson, and Shiki. In presenting themes from Haiku and from Zen literature, Aitken illuminates the relationship between the two. Readers are certain to find this an invaluable and enjoyable experience for the remarkable revelation it offers.

Having practiced zazen for more than half a century, Robert Aitken sits today as the senior American Roshi, a teacher of broad reputation and consequence, who numbers as his own teachers and associates some of the legendary figures of Japanese and American Buddhism. His serendipitous beginning as a Buddhist resulted from being a civilian prisoner of the Japanese in the Second World War, where he found R. R. Blythe, the great haiku master, and D.T. Suzuki, the most important and popular chronicler of Zen in English, as fellow detainees. After the war he returned to Japan on several occasions to study in traditional monastic settings. He has been a leader of the contemporary move to establish Zen Buddhism in the West and was a founding member of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.With material never before collected in book form, The Morning Star includes writings from his first book, A Zen Wave, and from eight collections of essays and poems published over the last three decades. The introduction to this volume offers Robert Aitken's latest presentation of Zen practice, addressing the Great Matter from a historical and personal perspective.

Written 400 years ago by a scholar in the Ming Dynasty, one hundred years after Columbus and around the time Shakespeare completed Henry VI, accomplished scholar and philosopher Hong Zicheng retired from public life and settled down to write an informal compilation of his thoughts on the essence of life, human nature, and heaven and earth. Though he wrote other books as well, only this one has survived thanks largely to its continuous popularity, first in China and later in Japan and Korea. Entitled Caigentan (Vegetable Roots Discourse), this book has been studied and cherished for four hundred years.Terse, humorous, witty, and. above all, timely, this book offers a provocative and personal mix of Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian understanding. It contains 360 observations that lead us through paths as complex, absurd, and grotesque as life itself. While it has been translated into many languages, this comprehensive version will immediately become the standard edition for generations of English readers to come.

In this collection of twenty-three essays, Robert Aitken retraces the origins of American Zen Buddhism and provides readings of influential texts. Reflecting on death, on marriage, and on Zen practice, Aitken always points out the path to pleasure in the everyday dewdrop world. There is a fine art to presenting complex ideas with simplicity and insight in a manner that both shepherds and inspires. Robert Aitkens Original Dwelling Place: Zen Buddhist Essays succeeds in doing just this, offering twenty-three essays from Americas senior Zen roshi and author of the best-selling, groundbreaking primer Taking the Path of Zen. Just as Taking the Path of Zen is the definitive handbook for Zen practice, the essays gathered in Original Dwelling Place are essential for the light they shed on Aitken Roshis own journey and the effect he has had on American Zen Buddhism. Gathered here are essays about the Zen texts Aitken has studied with avidity and close attention throughout the years; texts that were early and lasting influences. In an opening section entitled Ancestors, Aitken pays homage to the masters who influenced his own development and Zen Buddhism generally.In other meditations, Robert Aitken writes on political revolution and matters of ethics. He helps illuminate the proper use of money, power, and sexual love in a modern world that is often tainted by materialism and decadence. He offers stately meditations on death, on marriage, and on Zen practice, and on taking pleasure in the everyday dewdrop world.

Robert Aitken Roshi presenta en este libro las bases fundamentales para el entrenamiento Zen, una pr ctica que nos armoniza y ayuda a aportar compasi n y sabidur a a todos los aspectos de la vida.Aitken explica, cap tulo por cap tulo, la postura adecuada, la respiraci n correcta, la pr ctica con los koan, la relaci n entre maestro y disc pulo, as como los problemas corrientes e hitos en el Camino. Siendo un Maestro Zen americano comprende especialmente los problemas y preguntas a los que se enfrentan los practicantes occidentales del Zen."Un libro muy completo, escrito con mucha claridad, que orienta a cualquier persona que se interese por el Zen"

ENSAYOS SOBRE TICA DEL BUDISMO ZENEn veinti n fascinantes cap tulos, Robert Aitken explica de forma clara y profunda en este libro, La mente de tr bol, los diecis is Preceptos del budismo Zen. Una lectura muy inspiradora para los practicantes del Zen. Aitken nos muestra aqu c mo nuestra mente puede ser tan nutritiva para nuestra vida espiritual y tica como el tr bol, que enriquece la tierra al crecer.El autor se centra mayormente en los Diez Preceptos, que suponen el n cleo de la tica del budismo Zen. Los interpreta desde diferentes perspectivas, ofreciendo toda una serie de posibilidades para su comprensi n. Pero no se detiene aqu ; pasa a hablar tambi n de la madre naturaleza, de la ecolog a, de la guerra nuclear, del papel de la mujer en el Zen y en la sociedad, del aborto, etc.La mente de tr bol es una gu a que nos invita a tomar conciencia de nuestro propio potencial y a asumir cada vez m s responsabilidad en el mundo complejo y convulsivo de hoy d a."Una tica universal aplicable a todas las disciplinas"

Una colecci n de relatos y poemas (koan). Los koan cl sicos han demostrado su eficacia a lo largo de los siglos y milenios para registrar -y evocar- experiencias especialmente esclarecedoras de tales fundamentos. Los koan no son acertijos o rompecabezas, cuyo truco est en su redacci n inteligente y oscura. Son la expresi n m s clara posible de hechos perennes que los estudiantes captan mediante una meditaci n enfocada y de una gu a. Tales temas se persiguen con un esp ritu agudo e inquisitivo, y el proceso de resolverlos puede llevar mucho tiempo, muchos a os en algunos casos. A trav s de este proceso descubrimos que la vida y la muerte son lo mismo que la no-vida y la no-muerte; el otro no es otro que yo mismo; que cada ser es infinitamente valioso como expresi n nica de la naturaleza que es esencial para todos nosotros. El estudiante inspirado intenta vivir esta realidad dentro del hogar y fuera de l, aprovechando cada giro como una ocasi n para una mayor realizaci n y pr ctica de estos hechos fundamentales, tal vez uni ndose a personas con ideas afines para abordar preocupaciones generales de tipo social y medioambiental. Esta pr ctica de vida puede haber comenzado antes del inicio del estudio formal del Zen y puede continuar a lo largo de cada una de sus fases, y no tiene fin.

Draken som aldrig sover är en samling med gathas, löften för det dagliga livet i versform. Robert Aitken har skrivit dessa dikter på fyra rader för vår tid, och för de svårigheter och situationer som vi möter. Dikterna tar upp tillfällen som när vi kör vår kundvagn, när barnet inte sover, allting faller samman på jobbet, människor talar om krig, världshaven är i fara, eller då vi offrar blommor till Buddha. Gathas finns inom alla buddhistiska traditioner, och har länge använts som inspiration, utövning, och påminnelse om att acceptera oss själva och att skänka andra glädje. Robert Aitken roshi (1917-2010) råkade zenbuddhismen under sin tid som amerikansk civil krigsfånge i Kobe i Japan under andra världs­kriget. Efter kriget återvände han ofta till Japan för att delta i reträtter och studera Zen för flera japanska zenmästare. Tillsammans med sin fru, Anne, grundade han Diamond Sangha 1959, en zenbuddhistisk grupp med centrum på Hawaii. Robert Aitken fick tillåtelse att undervisa, 1974, för att elva år senare få en fullständig utnämning till zenmästare av sin lärare Koun Yamada roshi. Robert Aitkens ursprungliga grupp har utvidgats till ett nätverk med grupper av lekfolk i Argentina, Australien, Nya Zeeland, Schweiz, USA, Wolken und Mond Sangha i Tyskland, och Molnens och Månens Sangha i Sverige. På svenska finns Robert Aitkens introduktion och handledning, Zenbuddhismen väg.

Zenbuddhismens väg är en ingående introduktion och handbok för nybörjaren, men även inspirerande för den erfarne utövaren. Steg för steg vägleder här den erfarne amerikanske zenmästaren Robert Aitken läsaren hur man utövar zazen, zenbuddhistisk meditation. Han beskriver olika sittställningar, hur man andas, frågor och problem man kan möta på vägen och studiet av koaner, dialoger och klassiska fall. Sedan Aitkens Taking the Path of Zen kom ut 1982, har den varit en av de främsta och mest lättillgängliga introduktionerna till zenbuddhism som skrivits.