My favorite books, by my favorite teachers, are

"Zen Mind, Beginner Mind", Shunryu Suzuki

In "Zen Mind, Beginner Mind" many of Suzuki's talks have been collected and edited as guidelines for Zen practice. Suzuki's "Not Always So" and "Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness" further develop mindfulness and meditation themes. These and his other books represents Suzuki's understanding of Zen, Zazen, Buddhism, and living; clearly expressing the inexpressable.

"Meditations", Krishnamurti

In over one hundred of his books and anthologies, Krishnamurti rejects authority and beliefs and instead advocates finding for oneself "what is Truth?" In "Meditations" he describes experiences of the sacred in meditation that subsume heart, mind, and consciousness, but cannot be attained, or even invited, by effort.

Taken out of context from a variety of Krishnamurti's books, Meditation is:

"Peace at Every Step", Thich Nhat Hahn

Hahn describes his very kind approach to meditation through mindful attention to the present moment, and to our relationships and attitudes. In "Peace at Every Step" his practice of Zen is to help others through helping oneself become more loving, happy and peaceful. His focus is to express appreciation in mindfulness, on breathing in, "present moment", on breathing out, "wonderful moment" or, more simply for French children, "oui, merci" (yes, thanks).

Most books by Hahn are good starting points; his books (more than one hundred) are very practical, and useful.


Back to Mind and Meditation