Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Don't hesitate to read J. Van de Wetering's latest Zen book. It has been a "long time coming" and is good on it's own but far better if you've read his two earlier novels about his experiences with Zen training.My only complaint is that this new book is too short! I was left wanting more. I haven't read J.v. De. W's fictiious works (a.k.a. the 'amsterdam cop series') but for anyone interested in the big "Z" I can say that it should go down in history. R.G. genaro27@hotmail.com
Rating: 
Summary: Well....
Review: Earlier, when I was really into Zen, I did not like this book. But Buddhism says, that the world is disliiusionment, and disillusionment also applys to Buddhism, especially Western Buddhism. AfterZen descrtibes such an disillusioning, and unfortunately he has a point.
Th book should get 4 stars, but I could not reedit that...
Rating:
Summary: honest and critical
Review: Great book. Although the writer is sometimes very cynical about his teachers, this book did motivate me a lot to continue to learn about zen. Please more.
Rating:
Summary: For Zen eyes only...
Review: I found this book self-indulgent, with Van de Wetering butting his head against the same wall (koans?) here as he was in his book of forty years ago (The Empty Mirror) and I had this enlightening thought, "Perhaps this concept of Zen is a dead end and, in the end, we are left only with ourselves."
Rating:
Summary: For Zen eyes only...
Review: I found this book self-indulgent, with Van de Wetering butting his head against the same wall (koans?) here as he was in his book of forty years ago (The Empty Mirror) and I had this enlightening thought, "Perhaps this concept of Zen is a dead end and, in the end, we are left only with ourselves."
Rating:
Summary: If you¹ve ever had an interest in Zen, read this book.
Review: the liners would have you believe that janwillem tells us the answers to koans. what he does do as always, is show his true self. i asked my 13 year old daughter for the answers to the first 2 koans - she immediately gave the 'correct' answers. this book does not answer koans. this book shows where buddha nature leads. the answers are the true questions... john boland
Rating:
Summary: Part 3: Insight / Non-Insight
Review: The third and last book of the author's zen experience. This one takes us down his meditations and struggles with the zen koans posed by his sensei and by other fellow seekers. Glimpses of insight / non-insight ... which is which ..does it matter?
Rating:
Summary: Well....
Review: This book left me unsatisfied. The author seems very disillusioned by Zen in this book. It is necessary to point out that the real world is not always nice, but it seems wrong to me to blame Zen itself for his negative experiences. Reading this book and remembering his earlier ones I wonder if he had a too naive acceptance of things, just because they claimed to be Zen. Books like Matthiessens "9-headed dragon river" seem much more realistic too me. That's at least the feeling I had after reading the book.
Rating:
Summary: Just practice; nothing chic about it.
Review: This direct and simple statement of a life in Buddhist practice, indeed of a life fully lived, is a precious jewel. There is no stink of Zen here. Hurrah for that! Not surprisingly, van de Wetering once again offers an engaging narrative of inquiry and freedom, vividly expressed. Take a look.
Rating: 
Summary: A Dissenting Voice In A Chorus Of Praise
Review: Van de Wetering is a humorous and prolific author, admired by many, and easy to read; and his subject -- a westerner wrestling with Zen and its koans -- is intriguing. Even his eventual disillusionment can be instructive. Some would say his rejection of Zen and of meaning is the highest attainment of Zen; he would probably call this foolishness. Van de Wetering began with a nihilism arising out of World War II trauma and came to Zen looking to have it confirmed. He doesn't acknowledge much his own contributions to his bad experience with Zen, but comes to us with stories of other disillusioned students and of the failings and foibles, scandals and tragedies of Zen masters and other religious leaders, wanting perhaps us to confirm his disenchantment. But for me at least the self-justifying telling of these sad tales eventually undermines the humor, and the book becomes more distasteful than enjoyable or enlightening.
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