A Glimpse of Nothingness : Experiences in an American Zen Community

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Work
Review: I picked this book up in a college town's bookstore while visiting my sister. Sometimes I will just pick up a handful of books in the Eastern Philosophy section, and see what I get when I take off my blindfold. On the car ride home I was unsure while glancing over it if I was going to like this one or not. The back speaks of "...Zen sages who were alcoholics, the two natured personality of Zen Masters who enjoy sex and cowboy movies..."-I personally found this description of the contents after having read it, frankly completely off base.

This book is about a Zen student's adventures from Japan, back to Amsterdam, to the United States-where this book takes place for the most part. It could be any Zen community really, it shows what it is like working with others in a very accurate manner. He writes with a direct simplicity-he is not wordy, just says it how it was. Now did I agree with everything he had to say about Zen? Not at all, but the important thing is I was asked a lot of questions while reading this book. And that's what any good book can do above all else, is ask questions-rather than saying, "here, agree with me."

A passage of his book that provided myself with a lot of insight goes as follows,

"A Chinese allegory tells how a monk sets off on a long pilgrimage to find the Buddha. He spends years and years on his quest and finally he comes to the country where the Buddha lives.

He crosses a river, it is a wide river, and he looks about him while the boatman rows him across. There is a corpse floating on the water and it is coming closer.

The monk looks. The corpse is so close he can touch it. He recognizes the corpse, it is his own.

The monk loses all self control and wails.

There he floats, dead.

Nothing remains.

Anything he has ever been, ever learned, ever owned, floats past him, still and without life, moved by the slow current of the wide river.

It is the first moment of his liberation."

This book is brilliant in all places, it shows some struggle with inner questioning. A wrestling with the author's own cleverness. It almost feels like a diary. One that just so happened to have been written while having a stay with a Zen community. I believe you will come to appreciate this book a lot.

Rating:
Summary: The training is everywhere
Review: Once again Jan Willem van de Wetering in his humourous style exposes his experiences to the world without embarrassment or shyness. Ten years after his experience as a young man in the Zen monastery in Japan under the old master, even though he had separated from "Peter", the old masters heir to be, on bad terms, he meets him again in Holland and Peter visits him at his home. He decides to continue where he left off with his koan still smoldering inside. He spends some time at Peter's Zen community or commarde as others called it and solved his koan as well as others. We learn more of Peter and especially of the fascinating set of characters who are also seeking, such as Edgar or Rupert the erstwhile psychologist. As before he struggles with the required discipline but this time its not as hard, he has gained from his stay in Japan, as the old master said at the end of the first book "you are now a little awake, so awake you will never be able to fall asleep again".

The training is everywhere.

Rating:
Summary: Part 2: Zen in America
Review: The author resumes his search for the meaning of life in an American Zen commune. Less fumbling compared to his experience in "The Empty Mirror". One could almost sese the author has gained some insight. What this insight is, is not quite clear ~ as it should be. The master will pour you tea, but where is your cup?!

Rating:
Summary: taught me that zen is a dirty word
Review: this book shows that the most sacred is found in wherever you are, and it is never necessary to point it out. Its just there smiling from the shadows, waiting for you to share in the joke. The character of Peter is very interesting and represents an 'ideal' which I try to live up to, not in the sense of mirroring his personality or surroundings, but merely reflecting the core that is all our nature. It is not so much the narrator's specific journey is important, as none of ours are except to us individually, but of the feeling generated from knowing though flawed we are all just sleepy children not yet aware of the extend of our shared majesty.

Rating:
Summary: taught me that zen is a dirty word
Review: this book shows that the most sacred is found in wherever you are, and it is never necessary to point it out. Its just there smiling from the shadows, waiting for you to share in the joke. The character of Peter is very interesting and represents an 'ideal' which I try to live up to, not in the sense of mirroring his personality or surroundings, but merely reflecting the core that is all our nature. It is not so much the narrator's specific journey is important, as none of ours are except to us individually, but of the feeling generated from knowing though flawed we are all just sleepy children not yet aware of the extend of our shared majesty.