Seeing One Thing Through
The Zen Life and Teachings of Sojun Mel Weitsman
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A young painter, coming of age in San Francisco’s bohemian 1950s, meets his teacher—Shunryu Suzuki, a pivotal figure in Buddhist America—and dedicates his life to continuing Suzuki Roshi’s teachings
Seeing One Thing Through begins with a series of autobiographical memories and reflections going back to Sojun Mel Weitsman’s boyhood in Southern California, his coming of age as an artist and a seeker in the vibrant San Francisco of the 1950s, and his encounter with Zen in one remarkable teacher, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. From that moment, and for nearly sixty years after, Weitsman’s life took the direct path of Zen—as a student, as a teacher, and as one of the first generations of American Zen masters. The larger portion of the book is a collection of Weitsman’s edited talks, his articulation of “ordinary mind,” and his strong belief that Zen as a way of life is available to all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Berkeley Zen Center abbot Senauke (Turning Words) gathers an illuminating mix of personal writing and lectures from the influential American zen teacher Sojun Mel Weitsman (1929–2021). Autobiographical sections traverse Weitsman's Jewish roots; Great Depression upbringing in southern California; blue-collar stints as a taxi driver and a house painter; transformative relationship with Zen monk Shunryu Suzuki starting in 1964; and involvement in the political and ideological conflicts that dominated the San Francisco Zen Center, where Weitsman served as a co-abbot from 1988 to 1997. Featured elsewhere are Weitsman's teachings on the Buddhist practice of zazen, a sitting meditation in which practitioners can "just... be" and break free "from the domination of the variables of circumstance" (according to Weitsman, "it's like riding the waves of the great ocean without being inundated by them"). While readers with some background in Buddhism will gain the most, Weitsman has a knack for bringing abstract concepts down to earth, as when he characterizes zen as not a source of pure tranquility, but a force that "sits us down right in the middle of reality between pleasure and pain, between good and bad, so that we accept everything equally." This treasure trove of wisdom is a welcome addition to the American zen canon.
