WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF ZEN
BOOKS AND WORKSHOPS BY
BRENDA SHOSHANNA
ZEN MIRACLES (FINDING PEACE IN AN INSANE WORLD)
ZEN PLAY (INSTRUCTIONS ON BEING FULLY ALIVE
ZEN AND THE ART OF FALLING IN LOVE
JUST GRAB THE DUST RAG
ZEN MIRACLES (FINDING PEACE IN AN INSANE WORLD
Zen Miracles makes the mysteries of Zen accessible to all. This gentle, enjoyable and practical guide introduces you to the Zen approach, allowing you to experience your fundamental strength and beauty.
In the book you learn how to calm " the monkey mind" that keeps you restless and craving and to open yourself to the great gifts and miracles you receive daily. Zen Miracles explores the essence of letting go, and how the false ego dominates us, causing emotional pain and confusion.
You will be surprised to find out how smoothly Zen practice can coexist with, and even strengthen, your ow spirituality or religious faith. The book focuses on practical ways to integrate Zen practice with family, work, relationships, and everyday life, as we see that life itself is a miracle which we can enjoy day by day. As we put this book into practice, we see stress, confusion, loneliness, and anger dissolve right before our eyes.
Review:
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
When we run to things and people that taste and feel good we get stuck in honey like bees. The addiction to this sweetness in life can trap us in craving that we often can't get out. In that case the sweetness turns into a different kind of poison," writes Brenda Shoshanna, a psychologist and therapist who has been a Zen practitioner for many years.
In this well-written work, the author applies the timeless wisdom of monks and Zen masters to the rigors and strains of our hurried and harried contemporary lives. The book starts out with an overview of Zen, koans, ordinary mind, and doing nothing, and then turns cartwheels and somersaults in chapters on cravings and compulsions, letting go, and dissolving the false self.
She finishes off with "Zen, God, and Enlightenment."
Shoshanna does a marvelous job pointing out how zazen enables practitioners to come to terms with the repetitiveness of everyday life. Over and over again, the meditator returns to the cushion and starts afresh.
Suzuki Roshi says: "If you lose the spirit of repetition, your practice will become quite difficult." And he's right. Worrying about feeling special or achieving results doesn't matter. The process is all important. And perseverance is the key.
Shoshanna quotes Dogen Zenji: "Life Is One Continuous Mistake" as a prelude to her wonderful anecdote about her propensity for stepping in potholes:
"During my life and Zen practice if there has been a pothole in the street, like clockwork, I fall into it. If there was a mistake to be made, I made it. Not only once, but again and again. Instead of fearing to walk out of the house, I have learned to enjoy being in the potholes when I land there and spend time looking around. Rather than hating myself or the potholes, I just simply say, 'Oh blind again.' After fully experiencing a pothole, as many times as I fall in, getting out becomes easier."
We quote this brief vignette as a shining example of the author's ability to bring Zen to life on these pages in ways that are fresh and poignant at the same time. Life is filled with troubles, and we will err again and again. Zen miracles arise from being able to stay with our experience and learn from it, to accept our flaws, and to emerge from the whole thing with a lightness of being. The last page of the book contains a series of spiritual aphorisms that sum up the teachings in this capacious volume. Contemplate the following:
"We cannot stop the noise, but we can stop ourselves. We can accept the noise."
(Zen Miracles is available on amazon.com both as a paperback and hardcover).
MAKING YOUR LIFE INTO A ZEN KOAN
"Life Is Not A Problem To Solve, But A Wonderful Adventure To Enjoy"
MAKING YOUR LIFE INTO A ZEN KOAN
"Life Is Not A Problem To Solve, But A Wonderful Adventure To Enjoy"
MAKING YOUR LIFE INTO A ZEN KOAN
Koans are such powerful medicine, they must not be ignored. These ancient dilemmas, questions and stories coming from the world of Zen hold a key to transforming suffering and seeing life with new eyes.
Life presents inscrutable challenges daily that are impossible to figure out. In the world of Zen, these ancient dilemmas and questions are called koans. They cannot be answered in the usual way. And yet a response must be made!
ZEN PLAY connects these ancient koans with our everyday life. The book shows how our problems are none other than koans that life is presenting to us now. When we learn how to engage with difficulties as though they were Zen koans, everything changes. We stop trying to figure everything out, twist ourselves into knots and control our every action. Then wonderful insights come all by themselves and we connect with our inner aliveness and joy.
RECOMMENDATIONS
"Brenda's Zen work is a good place to begin, to begin again and to never finish. Those searching for the "Way will find there is no such thing. But much more, Brenda's book is delightful. Those suffering from "frozen attention" will laugh at ourselves."
Fr. Robert Kennedy Roshi, Founder Morningstar Zen
"Brenda Shoshanna's book, Zen Play, is a brilliant gem, the grace and precision of turning problems into koans keeps us spellbound. Koans like, "Find Your Precious Jewel," remind us to stop looking outside for what can only be found within. And, "Drink A Cup of Green Tea," restores us to beautiful simplicity and clarity, which ignites our spirit of aliveness. I've read it from the first page to the last, love it, and highly recommend it."
Michiko J. Rolek, Author, Life coach, Great granddaughter of Sokei-an Shigestsu Sassaki, First Zen Patriarch of the West.
"Brenda Shoshanna is one of the most innovative and provacative Buddhist thinkers in the United States today. In Zen Play she provides a compelling new approach to traditional koan study - one that offers the reader the opportunity to turn his or her whole life into a koan. Written in a simple yet evocative style and filled with timeless wisdom, Zen Play is a work that will appeal to both newcomes to Zen as well as those seeking to deepen their understanding of koan practice."
Michael S. Russo, Ph.d., Professor of Philosophy, Molloy College
New Blog Post: Read Article
Join Us For The Workshop
MAKING YOUR LIFE INTO A ZEN KOAN
Eshin Brenda Shoshanna
You are invited to join us for a lively, fun filled, interactive workshop in which we will explore the process of turning our life problems into Zen Koans.
During the workshop each one has a chance to take a part in acting out a Zen Koan. As we repeat it again and again, we take a different role in it, until we have experienced and embodied all aspects of the koan.
As we then explore the roles we played we see what happened to our dilemma as we let go of one viewpoint and took on the next.
We then take a problem from our everyday life, and turn it into a Zen Koan. Rather than struggle with it or try to figure it out, we accept it fully. Then we take turns acting all roles and aspects of it.
When we view our problems as koans, with infinite points of view and possibilities, everything changes and new doors open all by themselves.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT [email protected]
OR
MAKING YOUR LIFE INTO A ZEN KOAN
Eshin Brenda Shoshanna
You are invited to join us for a lively, fun filled, interactive workshop in which we will explore the process of turning our life problems into Zen Koans.
During the workshop each one has a chance to take a part in acting out a Zen Koan. As we repeat it again and again, we take a different role in it, until we have experienced and embodied all aspects of the koan.
As we then explore the roles we played we see what happened to our dilemma as we let go of one viewpoint and took on the next.
We then take a problem from our everyday life, and turn it into a Zen Koan. Rather than struggle with it or try to figure it out, we accept it fully. Then we take turns acting all roles and aspects of it.
When we view our problems as koans, with infinite points of view and possibilities, everything changes and new doors open all by themselves.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT [email protected]
OR
LET'S MAKE THE KOANS INTO OUR FLESH AN BONES,
LISTEN HERE TO ZEN TALKS
To Listen to Brenda's Podcast, Zen Wisdom For Your Everyday Life, Go To: https://www.zenwisdomtoday.com.