Nothing Holy about It
Author: Burkett, Tim
ISBN: 9781611801941
Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE US
Year first published: 01 May 2015
Pages: 312
Format: Paperback / softback
Zen teachings--charmingly infused with elements of memoir--by a popular modern teacher who "grew up" at the feet of two of the great figures who brought Zen to America, Shunryu Suzuki and Dainin Katagiri. He employs his reminiscences of those two great masters as teaching anecdotes.
When Bodhidharma, the legendary first ancestor of Zen, was asked about the main principle of his holy teaching, he's said to have replied- "A vast emptiness-with nothing holy about it!" A millennium-and-a-half later, Tim Burkett finds that the answer still applies- you don't need to go looking for something holy-buddha nature is right here in front of you. The concise summary of Zen teaching he presents in this book is expressed precisely in terms of what he found right in front of him- beginning with the delightful non-holiness he experienced in the presence of his original teacher, Shunyru Suzuki, and continuing through a lifetime of further teaching experiences.
ISBN: 9781611801941
Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE US
Year first published: 01 May 2015
Pages: 312
Format: Paperback / softback
Zen teachings--charmingly infused with elements of memoir--by a popular modern teacher who "grew up" at the feet of two of the great figures who brought Zen to America, Shunryu Suzuki and Dainin Katagiri. He employs his reminiscences of those two great masters as teaching anecdotes.
When Bodhidharma, the legendary first ancestor of Zen, was asked about the main principle of his holy teaching, he's said to have replied- "A vast emptiness-with nothing holy about it!" A millennium-and-a-half later, Tim Burkett finds that the answer still applies- you don't need to go looking for something holy-buddha nature is right here in front of you. The concise summary of Zen teaching he presents in this book is expressed precisely in terms of what he found right in front of him- beginning with the delightful non-holiness he experienced in the presence of his original teacher, Shunyru Suzuki, and continuing through a lifetime of further teaching experiences.
