One Hundred Days of Solitude: Losing Myself and Finding Grace on a Zen Retreat

by Jane Dobisz

Overview

In One Hundred Days of Solitude: Losing My Self and Finding Grace on a Zen Retreat, American teacher of Korean Zen Jane Dobisz (Zen Master Bon Yeon), recalls her first solitary meditation stint in the woods. Luckily, this is not just a recounting of a winter's worth of cabin fever. Instead, Dobisz takes us into her cabin, and into her mind, as she tries—at least temporarily—to live a Walden-like existence.

All the bowing and meditating and wood-chopping that is part and parcel of her retreat is hardly first nature, but the good-humored and tenacious Dobisz is able to adapt, and to relate her hundred days with moving insight and humanity. Her Solitude in fact offers us all a chance to commune with her and to look inside and rediscover our own grace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780861715381
Publisher:	Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date:	12/26/2007
Edition description:	First Trade Paper Edition
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Jane Dobisz (Zen Master Bon Yeon) is a Guiding Teacher of the Cambridge Zen Center, where she was Abbot for four years and where she lived for ten years. A student of Zen Master Seung Sahn since 1982, she has practiced extensively in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. An advisor in the financial services industry, she lives in the Boston area with her husband and daughter.

Table of Contents

Introduction     xi
Arriving
Where Are You Going?     3
The Alarm     7
Up and Down     11
Three Pounds of Flax     15
The Great Way Has No Gate     19
Wooden Fish     21
Go Wash Your Bowls     25
Grace     27
Evening Practice     31
A Diamond Sword     33
Rolling Up Sleeves
A Seamless Monument     37
A Finger Pointing to the Moon     39
Venturing into the Unknown     43
Splitting Logs     45
The Chickadee Sermon     49
Great Question, Great Faith, Great Courage     53
Go Ask a Tree     57
Ten Dumb Years     61
Cognition Is Not the Path     65
Bath Day     67
Hard Training
Sun-Face Buddha, Moon-Face Buddha     73
Waiting for a Sweet One     77
You Decide     79
Un Mun's "Cake"     81
Who's There?     85
A Water Buffalo Passing Through a Window     89
Fake Dream Craziness     91
Un Mun's Utmost Master     93
The Willow Is Green, the Flowers Are Red     97
ALotus Grows in the Mud     99
Spring Comes
For You     105
Sangha     107
Nature's Genius     109
Peace Isn't Luck     111
Wild Fox Spirit     113
Rapture     115
Sink into This World     117
Very Soft Is True Strength     119
Everything Just Like This Is Buddha     121
Returning Home     123
Epilogue     125
The Great Dharani     127
Acknowledgments     131
Recommended Reading     133
About the Author     135

Editorial Reviews

"Splendidly candid and beautifully written... There have been plenty of other books about solitude and the refreshments emerging out of silence and communion with the natural world but this one is special because of its radiant glints of wisdom about Zen."

Spirituality & Practice

"Down-to-earth, humorous, and easy to follow. This is the story of real practice, as far from a scholarly treatise on Buddhism as possible, and is filled with wonderful teachings and quotes from the great Zen practitioners of all time."

Primary Point

"A fine job of capturing an experience that is so extraordinary in our too-busy, too noisy lives."

Albuquerque Journal

"Dobisz's book describes how loneliness and discomfort evolved into joy as, forced by the absence of distraction and the repetition of simple activities, she learned to focus on each moment—the essence of Zen teaching—and came to treasure life in a way many people don't."

Boston Globe

"Rich with humility and humor—Dobisz finds lessons in Zen and life in everything from the frozen rock-solid contents of her chamber pot to the temptations in a package of Lorna Doones."

Vermont Quarterly

"For 100 days of a snowy New England winter, Dobisz lived alone in a tiny cabin in the woods, adhering to a highly regimented schedule of sitting, walking, chanting, bowing, and chopping wood. She had no contact with the outside world. The experience gave her opportunity to see in a new light things most of us take for granted: keeping warm, taking a bath, getting a drink of water. Everything there was elemental. More than once, she asked herself what utter madness brought her there. Yet she writes luminously about the spectacle of nature, the sensual pleasure of a hot bath, the simple joy of silence. She isn't all wide-eyed wonder, though. She can be quite funny recounting such happenstances as, while out walking, coming upon a parked car, picnic basket in the backseat, full of goodies, including several Lorna Doones...(She scarfed them down.) After her time in the woods, Dobisz went home the same person and yet, in the way of Zen, not quite the same person."

Booklist

"A deep bow of appreciation to Jane Dobisz for this lovely reminder—especially welcome in our contemporary culture of seemingly endless stimulus seductions—that the peaceful mind rejoices at the sound of melting snow."

Sylvia Boorstein

"Good, level-headed stuff. Dobisz is a teacher and writer of strength and experience. With wit, seriousness, and freshness, she gives a powerful account of facing life and reality head-on."

Steve Hagen

"Lovely brushstrokes of Zen heart/mind emerging out of intrepid Zen practice. Having trained under the same teacher, it was particularly delightful to feel the vitality of Seung Sahn's teachings brought to life in such a down-to-earth and poetic way."

Jon Kabat-Zinn

"Jane Dobisz, as so many students of Buddhism have done, decided to live a solitary life with nature for a time, 100 days to be exact, during the winter and spring months so that she could experience the harshness of winter and then the jubilation of spring. As I allowed myself to enter her world and release my cynical ponderings, the book began to calm me... This is not really a book to be read in one or two sittings. It is one of those books that you leave by your bedside. You pick it up, and randomly choose a chapter. The quote, the lesson of each small chapter will embrace you, and provide you with a small Zen moment to relax with after a long hard day."

PopMatters.com

"For 100 days of a snowy New England winter, Dobisz lived alone in a tiny cabin in the woods, adhering to a highly regimented schedule of sitting, walking, chanting, bowing, and chopping wood. She had no contact with the outside world. The experience gave her opportunity to see in a new light things most of us take for granted: keeping warm, taking a bath, getting a drink of water. Everything there was elemental. More than once, she asked herself what utter madness brought her there. Yet she writes luminously about the spectacle of nature, the sensual pleasure of a hot bath, the simple joy of silence. She isn't all wide-eyed wonder, though. She can be quite funny recounting such happenstances as, while out walking, coming upon a parked car, picnic basket in the backseat, full of goodies, including several Lorna Doones...(She scarfed them down.) After her time in the woods, Dobisz went home the same person and yet, in the way of Zen, not quite the same person."

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