What Is Zen?
Plain Talk for a Beginner's Mind
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Narrated by:
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Norman Fischer
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Susan Moon
About this listen
An accessible and enjoyable introduction to Zen Buddhist practice - in a listener-friendly question-and-answer format - by two highly regarded teacher-writers.
The question-and-answer format makes this introduction to Zen especially easy to understand - and also to use as a reference, as you can easily look up just the question you had in mind. The esteemed Zen teacher Norman Fischer and his old friend and teaching colleague Susan Moon (both of them in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind) give this collaborative effort a playful tone: Susan asks a question on our behalf, Norman answers it, and then Sue challenges him. By the time you get through their conversations, you'll have a good basic education in Zen - not only the history, theory, and practice but also the contemporary issues, such as gender inequality, sexual ethics, and the tension between Asian traditions and the modern American reality.
©2016 Norman Fischer and Susan Moon (P)2016 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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A Religion of One's Own
- A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World
- By: Thomas Moore
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The New York Times best-selling author and trusted spiritual adviser offers a follow up to his classic Care of the Soul. Something essential is missing from modern life. Many who've turned away from religious institutions - and others who have lived wholly without religion - hunger for more than what contemporary secular life has to offer but are reluctant to follow organized religion's strict and often inflexible path to spirituality. In A Religion of One' s Own, best-selling author and former monk Thomas Moore explores the myriad possibilities of creating a personal spiritual style, either inside or outside formal religion.
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Powerful and Inspiring
- By Amazon Customer on 05-25-16
By: Thomas Moore
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50 Spiritual Classics
- By: Tom Butler-Bowdon
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Discover the books that have already changed the lives of millions. This unabridged guide to the literature of the spirit surveys 50 of the all-time classics, giving you their key ideas, insights, and applications - everything you need to know to start benefiting from these legendary works.
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useful as review or starting point
- By connie on 01-03-09
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Good Without God
- What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe
- By: Greg Epstein
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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A provocative and positive response to Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and other New Atheists, Good Without God makes a bold claim for what nonbelievers do share and believe. Epstein's Good Without God provides a constructive, challenging response to these manifestos by getting to the heart of Humanism and its positive belief in tolerance, community, morality, and good without having to rely on the guidance of a higher being.
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Speaker sounds too robotic
- By Lisa S. on 08-27-21
By: Greg Epstein
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Paths to God
- Living the Bhagavad Gita
- By: Ram Dass
- Narrated by: Paul Brion
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Now, in a fascinating series of reflections, anecdotes, stories, and exercises, Ram Dass gives us a unique and accessible road map for experiencing divinity in everyday life. In the engaging, conversational style that has made his teachings so popular for decades, Ram Dass traces our journey of consciousness as it is reflected in one of Hinduism's most sacred texts. The Gita teaches a system of yogas, or "paths for coming to union with God."
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Well, I guess that's this books work taken care of
- By Jeremy Teeter on 11-30-17
By: Ram Dass
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The Dharma of the Princess Bride
- What the Coolest Fairy Tale of Our Time Can Teach Us About Buddhism and Relationships
- By: Ethan Nichtern
- Narrated by: Ethan Nichtern
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Humorous yet spiritually rigorous, drawing from pop culture and from personal experience, The Dharma of "The Princess Bride" teaches us how to understand and navigate our most important personal relationships from a 21st-century Buddhist perspective. Friendship. Romance. Family. These are the three areas Ethan Nichtern delves into, taking as departure points the indelible characters - Westley, Fezzik, Vizzini, Count Rugen, Princess Buttercup, and others from Rob Reiner's perennially popular film.
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A fun and refreshing take on Buddhism
- By Oak Grove on 12-06-17
By: Ethan Nichtern
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Meditations on Intention and Being
- Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga, Mindfulness, and Compassion
- By: Rolf Gates
- Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Presented in the form of 365 inspirational daily reflections, Gates helps listeners - from experienced yogis to novices seeking a little tranquility - to fundamentally reconsider their relationships with their minds, their bodies, and the universe around them through self-reflection.
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Loved This Book
- By Brittney on 11-24-16
By: Rolf Gates
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The Seeker's Guide
- By: Elizabeth Lesser
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Lesser
- Length: 4 hrs and 26 mins
- Original Recording
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America has given birth to a wisdom tradition entirely its own, a spirituality that is as diverse as its people, and that respects the freedom and uniqueness of each individual. Judeo-Christian traditions and the meditation practices of Asia and India...modern science and Native American teachings...Sufism and transpersonal psychology - The New American Spirituality explores what happens when these and other traditions cohabitate our unique cultural landscape.
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Very thorough and enlightening
- By Pony on 08-30-14
By: Elizabeth Lesser
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Mindfulness in Action
- Making Friends with Yourself through Meditation and Everyday Awareness
- By: Chögyam Trungpa
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The rewards of mindfulness practice are well proven: reduced stress, improved concentration, and an overall sense of well-being. But those benefits are just the beginning. Mindfulness in action - mindfulness applied throughout life - can help us work more effectively with life's challenges, expanding our appreciation and potential for creative engagement.
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Brilliant Narration, Sound Advice
- By Susie on 09-29-15
By: Chögyam Trungpa
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Mindfulness for Beginners
- By: Jon Kabat-Zinn
- Narrated by: Jon Kabat-Zinn
- Length: 2 hrs and 24 mins
- Original Recording
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What if you could profoundly change your life just by becoming more mindful of your breathing? According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, you can. What if "paying attention on purpose and non-judgmentally" could improve your health? Again, according to Dr. Kabat-Zinn, it can.
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Profound
- By ArtC on 03-05-10
By: Jon Kabat-Zinn
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Essential Spirituality
- By: Roger Walsh MD PhD, His Holiness the Dalai Lama - foreword
- Narrated by: Roger Walsh M.D.#Ph.D.
- Length: 2 hrs and 45 mins
- Abridged
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Based on more than 20 years of research and spiritual practice, written by a man who is both a spiritual practitioner and award-winning scientist, Essential Spirituality shows how you can apply the seven practices central to all the world's major religions in your daily life. Filled with stories, myths, case histories, prayers, and practical advice, this extraordinary work has the power to change your life.
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Highly recommended
- By Mark on 05-13-04
By: Roger Walsh MD PhD, and others
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This treasury of essential Buddhist writings draws from the most popular Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese sources. Among the selections are some of the earliest recorded sayings of the Buddha on the practice of freedom, passages from later Indian scriptures on the perfection of wisdom, verses from Tibetan masters on the enlightened mind, and songs in praise of meditation by Zen teachers.
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Poor choice of narrator
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The book The Way of Zen Buddhism & Zen Mind for Beginners goes beyond teachings of spirituality. The main focus of the book is to empower you to reach your full potential as an individual. Here, you’ll be introduced to Zen minimalist aesthetics, which will help you go from zero to abundance in no time.
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Lojong is the Tibetan Buddhist practice that involves working with short phrases (called "slogans") as a way of generating bodhichitta, the heart and mind of enlightened compassion. Though the practice is more than a millennium old, it has become popular in the West in only the last 20 years or so - and it has become very popular indeed because it's a practice that one can fit very well into an ordinary life, and because it works.
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In frightening times, we wish the world could be otherwise. With a touch of imagination, it can be. Imagination helps us see what’s hidden, and it shape-shifts reality’s roiling twisting waves. In this inspiring reframe of a classic Buddhist teaching, Zen teacher Norman Fischer writes that the paramitas, or “six perfections” - generosity, ethical conduct, patience, joyful effort, meditation, and understanding - can help us reconfigure the world we live in.
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A book that necess focus
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What listeners say about What Is Zen?
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Michael
- 08-15-16
Zen; An Introduction
Great questions are asked and answered. Now one can possibly decide if Zen is a Buddhist path worth taking. There are many branches of Buddhism and in my opinion this audiobook gives one the motivation to consider one of them as a worthwhile pursuit.
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4 people found this helpful
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- AprielJS
- 11-18-21
Exception all Insight
Exceptional Insight into Zen practice. Teacher and author is knowledgeable. The dialog was very useful and I was able to connect it to my own practice.
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- Juniba
- 02-06-18
Highly recommend
A great introduction to both Zen and Buddhism. The content does not betray the title. Straight forward, common sense yet profound questions thoughtfully and thoroughly answered with unabashed candor. Clear seeing at work here.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Ken Beller
- 02-13-18
A Basic Overview of Zen Buddhism
If you are new to Zen Buddhism, this is a good basic and refreshing overview from an American perspective.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 08-31-19
exceptional
a must read to to anyone who want to understand zen and how it works
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- Reid Hicks
- 10-30-18
Better Spiritual books out there
In short, this title has good concepts, nothing revealing that I came to terms with. The book is laid out as a Q&A with most commonly asked questions of Zen - what it is - and the misconceptions. Decent answers for some deep Zen questions. Sort of just covers the surface although some answers do go deep but nothing mind blowing.
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1 person found this helpful