Zen for the Rest of Us
Eightfold: Zen Poetry for Blindly Clasping Beings is a collection of sixty poems shaped by the author's ongoing dialogue with secular Buddhist thought. These verses reflect on human nature, the suffering woven into daily life, and the modern challenges we create for ourselves.
Flowing through the overarching themes of wisdom, action, and focus, and rooted in a layperson's struggle to find presence in the world, Eightfold retells the story of Siddhartha's transformation into the Buddha, explores the raw, human experiences of craving, desire, and suffering that underlie the Four Noble Truths, and expands on how the Three Marks of Existence shape our lives, our societies, and the planet itself. These poems offer empathy for the very real struggle of quieting the mind, illuminates the tension between spiritual aspiration and lived reality, and reflect on Buddhist teachings, practices, and precepts-all from the grounded, imperfect perspective of a lay practitioner striving to live these principles, (but, perhaps, at times, fumbling along the way.)
What this means for the reader is that, despite it's philosophical grounding, this isn't a collection written from atop a mountain or behind monastery walls. More an inquiry into the encounter with truths elevated by Buddhist thought than a picture-perfect guide to enlightenment, these poems engage with the Eightfold Path not as a destination, but as a process. They don't promise to teach you how to achieve perfection, nor claim the author has reached an unceasing state of nirvana, but they will meet you where you are-muddy, submerged, gasping-and remind you: this is where lotus flowers grow.
Eightfold: Zen Poetry for Blindly Clasping Beingsis, thus, Zen for the rest of us. For the blind, the clasping, the still-reaching-however imperfectly-toward liberation, bring this book to your meditation cushion!
Zen for the Rest of Us
Eightfold: Zen Poetry for Blindly Clasping Beings is a collection of sixty poems shaped by the author's ongoing dialogue with secular Buddhist thought. These verses reflect on human nature, the suffering woven into daily life, and the modern challenges we create for ourselves.
Flowing through the overarching themes of wisdom, action, and focus, and rooted in a layperson's struggle to find presence in the world, Eightfold retells the story of Siddhartha's transformation into the Buddha, explores the raw, human experiences of craving, desire, and suffering that underlie the Four Noble Truths, and expands on how the Three Marks of Existence shape our lives, our societies, and the planet itself. These poems offer empathy for the very real struggle of quieting the mind, illuminates the tension between spiritual aspiration and lived reality, and reflect on Buddhist teachings, practices, and precepts-all from the grounded, imperfect perspective of a lay practitioner striving to live these principles, (but, perhaps, at times, fumbling along the way.)
What this means for the reader is that, despite it's philosophical grounding, this isn't a collection written from atop a mountain or behind monastery walls. More an inquiry into the encounter with truths elevated by Buddhist thought than a picture-perfect guide to enlightenment, these poems engage with the Eightfold Path not as a destination, but as a process. They don't promise to teach you how to achieve perfection, nor claim the author has reached an unceasing state of nirvana, but they will meet you where you are-muddy, submerged, gasping-and remind you: this is where lotus flowers grow.
Eightfold: Zen Poetry for Blindly Clasping Beingsis, thus, Zen for the rest of us. For the blind, the clasping, the still-reaching-however imperfectly-toward liberation, bring this book to your meditation cushion!
Eightfold: Zen Poetry for Blindly Clasping Beings
158
Eightfold: Zen Poetry for Blindly Clasping Beings
158
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9798305106770 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | A.H. Spadafora |
| Publication date: | 12/28/2024 |
| Pages: | 158 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d) |