How To Raise An Ox

Download or read book How to Raise an Ox written by Eihei Dogen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-08-23 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The writings of Zen master Dogen are among the highest achievements not only of Japanese literature but of world literature. Dogen's writings are a near-perfect expression of truth, beautifully expressing the best of which the human race is capable. In this volume, Francis Cook presents ten selections from Dogen's masterwork, the Shobogenzo, as well as six of his own essays brilliantly illuminating the mind of this peerless master.

Download or read book Sounds of Valley Streams written by Francis H. Cook and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1989-01-01 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sounds of Valley Streams is a study of Zen Buddhist enlightenment in nine chapters of Shōbōgenzō Dōgen. Francis H. Cook has translated the nine chapters and has preceded them with four chapters of discussion. These essays show Dōgen bringing his religious intensity, philosophical depth, and poetic power to bear on a number of different facets of enlightenment. Using striking images and poetical expressions such as "one bright pearl," "dragon song," "beyond Buddha," and "a painting of a rice cake,"Dōgen explores such fundamental matters as the relationship between enlightenment and compassion, the dynamic nature of the enlightened life, the need to go beyond enlightenment, the nature of illusion and enlighten-ment, and what it is like to live the awakened life. The centerpiece of the translation is Genjōkōan ("Manifesting Absolute Reality"). It is a manifesto of the Zen life in which Dōgen proclaims the religious insight that stands at the core of everything he wrote subsequently. Cook's translation of Genjōkōan is as accurate as possible, faithful to the original, and readable.

Download or read book Oxen written by Drew Conroy and published by Storey Publishing. This book was released on 2008-01-16 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stalwart and powerful, oxen are employed as working cattle all over the world. Stronger, steadier, less expensive, and easier to keep than draft horses, oxen can plow fields, haul stones, assist in logging, improve roads, and showcase traditional farming techniques. Oxen can help smallscale farmers keep costs down and productivity up without expensive machinery. Oxen is the definitive resource for selecting, training, feeding, and caring for the mighty ox. It shows you how to choose an ideal team, properly feed and house your oxen, train calves and mature cattle, fit a yoke and bows, address common challenges, and maintain a team's overall health. You'll also learn how to use oxen safely for a variety of farming and logging tasks and how to train a team for demonstrations and competitions.

Download or read book Visions of Awakening Space and Time written by Taigen Dan Leighton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-05-11 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a religion concerned with universal liberation, Zen grew out of a Buddhist worldview very different from the currently prevalent scientific materialism. Indeed, says Taigen Dan Leighton, Zen cannot be fully understood outside of a worldview that sees reality itself as a vital, dynamic agent of awareness and healing. In this book, Leighton explicates that worldview through the writings of the Zen master Eihei Dōgen (1200-1253), considered the founder of the Japanese Sōtō Zen tradition, which currently enjoys increasing popularity in the West. The Lotus Sutra, arguably the most important Buddhist scripture in East Asia, contains a famous story about bodhisattvas (enlightening beings) who emerge from under the earth to preserve and expound the Lotus teaching in the distant future. The story reveals that the Buddha only appears to pass away, but actually has been practicing, and will continue to do so, over an inconceivably long life span. Leighton traces commentaries on the Lotus Sutra from a range of key East Asian Buddhist thinkers, including Daosheng, Zhiyi, Zhanran, Saigyo, Myōe, Nichiren, Hakuin, and Ryōkan. But his main focus is Eihei Dōgen, the 13th century Japanese Sōtō Zen founder who imported Zen from China, and whose profuse, provocative, and poetic writings are important to the modern expansion of Buddhism to the West. Dōgen's use of this sutra expresses the critical role of Mahayana vision and imagination as the context of Zen teaching, and his interpretations of this story furthermore reveal his dynamic worldview of the earth, space, and time themselves as vital agents of spiritual awakening. Leighton argues that Dōgen uses the images and metaphors in this story to express his own religious worldview, in which earth, space, and time are lively agents in the bodhisattva project. Broader awareness of Dōgen's worldview and its implications, says Leighton, can illuminate the possibilities for contemporary approaches to primary Mahayana concepts and practices.

Download or read book The Great Heart Way written by Ilia Shinko Perez and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-02-08 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Self-compassion. Positive social relations. An enduring sense of freedom and peace. They're essential parts of our everyday lives, or should be. But each of us struggles with difficult emotions and mental blockages: we might lash out when we should know better, or regress in negatively familiar situations, or struggle with our confidence. These types of problematic reactions occur--and recur--when we're unkind to and negligent of our inner selves. The Great Heart Way offers us all a way to heal inner wounds and transform our difficult emotions. Anyone can try it, and everyone should. Using clear language and personal anecdotes, The Great Heart Way shows how to follow the Great Heart Method, an efficacious program for healing and self-fulfillment. The Method is easily incorporated into busy schedules (it can take less than 30 minutes per day), and is accessible to all, regardless of spiritual background. The Great Heart Way gives readers the tools to safely work through uncovered emotional pain and establish a healthier, happier and well-balanced way of thinking.

Download or read book Contemplative Practices in Action written by Thomas G. Plante Ph.D. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-07-15 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking primer illuminates contemplative methods that can improve mental and physical health. Contemplative practices, from meditation to Zen, are growing in popularity as methods to inspire physical and mental health. Contemplative Practices in Action: Spirituality, Meditation, and Health offers readers an introduction to these practices and the ways they can be used in the service of well being, wisdom, healing, and stress reduction. Bringing together various traditions from the East and West, this thought-provoking work summarizes the history of each practice, highlights classic and emerging research proving its power, and details how each practice is performed. Expert authors offer step-by-step approaches to practice methods including the 8-Point Program of Passage Meditation, Centering Prayer, mindful stress management, mantram meditation, energizing meditation, yoga, and Zen. Beneficial practices from Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, and Islamic religions are also featured. Vignettes illustrate each of the practices, while the contributors explain how and why they are effective in facing challenges as varied as the loss of a partner or child, job loss, chronic pain or disease, or psychological disorders.

Download or read book Five Voices Five Faiths written by Amanda Milly Hughes and published by Cowley Publications. This book was released on 2005-02-25 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this unique book about the major religious traditions of the world, a practitioner from each tradition—Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam—introduces the basics of his or her faith and participates in a conversation about the challenges of being faithful in the modern world. Each essay and conversation is followed by a list of suggestions for further reading. Written for the non–specialist, Five Voices Five Faiths is an accessible book in which neighbors honor both our differences and our common bonds. Some may say that my only obligation to other non-Christian believers is to preach the good news of God in Christ Jesus. They may also believe that participating in interfaith dialogue and relationship, by the very nature of the task, causes me to disobey the gospel mandate to go into the world and make disciples of all people. I understand the position, and for much of my life subscribed to it. But today, as a middle-aged woman, with grown children and aging parents, another line from the Christian gospels compels me. Today, I reflect more deeply on the new commandment Jesus gave, to love one another as he has loved us. In order to be obedient to that commandment, I understand myself to be required to participate in conversations in which I am not afforded the last word or the luxury of full agreement, compliance, or conversion. This love requires that I involve myself in the lives of others, even when my most basic human instinct is to run, to hide, and to avoid the unfamiliar. The love that Jesus commands of me requires that I, as he has done before me, kindle and engender deep relationships with those others: the outcast, the unfamiliar, the different, and the very ones that we presume constitute the greatest threat to our institutional and cultural norms. —from the Introduction, by Amanda Millay Hughes