The Intimate Way of Zen
Effort, Surrender, and Awakening on the Spiritual Journey
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
An intimate mystery encompasses you and tugs upon your heart—what does it mean to follow that tug across the arc of a spiritual life?
Reflecting out of more than fifty years of practice in Zen Buddhism, Unitarian Universalism, and other contemplative traditions, James Ishmael Ford invites us into a journey through life's mysteries and the stages of spiritual development.
Lightly structured by the archetypal Buddhist oxherding images, Ford’s exploration is rooted in the Zen way while being deeply enriched by various strains of world mysticism. The book, sprinkled with insights and quotes from Buddhist, Daoist, and Christian traditions, serves as a map and a companion to spiritual seekers or pilgrims—whether within one religious tradition or cobbling together a way of one’s own. “Here is the most natural of all natural experiences,” writes Ford. “In the midst of our suffering, our longing, our desperation, we capture a glimpse. Something touches us. And with that, if we are lucky and really notice some movement of some spirit within us, we turn our attention to the intimate way.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this pensive outing, Ford (Introduction to Koans), a Zen teacher and Unitarian Universalist minister, traces an "arc of the spiritual life" that loosely mirrors the Zen path to enlightenment. He begins by describing the feelings of unease that lead some people into a lifelong search for enlightenment that involves wading through life's "messiness" in hopes of better understanding themselves and the cosmos ("I could see the hole in my heart," Ford writes, describing how he felt before he began studying Buddhism in the 1960s). Drawing on his "pluralistic physiology of faith" ("My brain is Buddhist... but my heart is Christian"), Ford enriches traditional Zen teachings with philosophy, mythology, and Christian scripture, noting, for example, that Psalm 90, which meditates on the brevity of life, functions as both "an invitation into a holy place" and a reminder "of one's own insignificance." While the book's mix of memoir and instruction is sometimes haphazard, patient readers will find plenty of food for thought. It's a boon for the spiritually curious.
