Finding Zen in the Ordinary: Stories and Reflections

by Christopher Keevil

Overview

Finding Zen in the Ordinary offers honest and thought-provoking spiritual insights drawn from daily-life experiences. The book includes forty-eight brief stories, prose poems, dialogues between Zen student and teacher, and reflections on moments of spiritual awakening. Written by Zen priest and teacher Christopher Keevil, this book presents readers with the chance to reflect on their own moments of spiritual insight and engenders in the reader an experience of clarity and presence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789044492
Publisher:	Mantra Books
Publication date:	03/01/2021
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	5.59(w) x 8.56(h) x 0.26(d)

About the Author

Christopher Keevil is an ordained Zen priest and senior dharma teacher in the Single Flower Sangha. He has been practicing Zen since 1991 and teaching since 1998 in the lineage of his teacher, Zen Master Bo Mun (George Bowman), who is a dharma heir of the Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Foreword Zen Master Bo Mun x

Introduction xiii

1 4:30 a.m. 1

2 In the Subway 2

3 When the Engine Stops 2

4 I Choose This 4

5 Red Geranium 5

6 When the Door Opened 6

7 Why Do You Meditate? 8

8 Today 9

9 Distant Temple Bell 10

10 Going to the Still Center 11

11 The Winner and the Loser 12

12 Is It Possible? 13

13 Buddha, the Window Washer 14

14 Who Is This Someone? 15

15 Jock Strap 16

16 When Will It Come? 17

17 Hotel Room 19

18 Stages or No Stages? 20

19 Why Not? Because He Didn't 23

20 The Question 25

21 A Place to Stay 26

22 On Retreat 29

23 I Didn't Think It Would Be Like This 30

24 Ordinary Mind 31

25 Stop! 33

26 Kindness 34

27 Before and After 35

28 When Off the Cushion 37

29 Who Saved Who? 38

30 Did I Meet Buddha? 39

31 Who Acts? 42

32 It's Like Light 43

33 Walking through the Chapel Square Mall 44

34 Ripples of War 45

35 Three Foundations 47

36 Upright in the Experience 48

37 Wilderness Solo 50

38 She Was Just Here 52

39 Fraction Over Infinity-Zero 54

40 Mowing Lawns 55

41 Pushing the Pendulum 56

42 An Apology 57

43 Anybody In? 58

44 Actually, Not a Problem 59

45 Either Or 60

46 Compassion 62

47 Leader of the Choir 64

48 Coming Home 65

Additional Resources 67

Bo Mun's Ten Principles of Zen 68

Endnotes 79

Acknowledgments 88

About the Author 90

Selected Bibliography 91

Note to Reader 93