Warm Smiles from Cold Mountains: Dharma Talks on Zen Meditation

Rating:
Summary: Filled with deep appreciation for daily intentional living.
Review: Book Review: Warm Smiles from Cold Mountains, Dharma Talks on Zen Meditation by Reb Anderson

Have you ever wondered why so many Westerners are getting involved with the many facets of Buddhism? Have you ever wondered what's so different about it? Warm Smiles from Cold Mountains is a book that answers these questions in an easy to understand simplistic way. Through stories and his personal experiences, Reb Anderson gives us an opportunity to look at our journey with fresh eyes and different awarenesses. Warm Smiles is filled with deep appreciation for daily intentional living and being in each moment as it arrives.

Don't try to read this book like a novel; there's just too much there to ponder and you'll miss a great deal if you do. I believe you'll read it through once, perhaps twice then keep it handy for day to day use. One thing I do with inspirational books is to keep them next to my favorite chair and periodically just open to any page and read whatever is there. Often, if there's something troubling my mind or I'm attempting to sort out an issue, I'll just open to a page in a book of this type. As I read that page, I'll usually relax a bit, pay great attention to what I opened to and discover that all is solved and answers are given. This is a look into a mirror, take your time, allow it to resonate deep inside your Being, meditate with the pages of this book.

I want to thank Reb for giving me an opportunity to see that Buddhism creates no conflict with anything in my daily personal life or belief systems. I was particularly drawn to Chapter Eight, "Life Is Not Killed." What a delicious way of viewing life. I recommend you check it out for yourself; it truly creates "warm smiles."

Jyoti Hansa, Vermont

Rating:
Summary: A great help for ordinary people
Review: I want to caution that this book is not exactly easy. It requires a little deep reading and thinking and it's not a beginner's book. It's a real help however to ordinary people like myself who live in the suburbs and try to practice Buddhism. Even though the author seems to have been a monk most of his life. The reason it is a help is that it presents an American background and understanding to the teachings of Suzuki Roshi (Zen Mind Beginner's Mind) which are often sort of alien and incomprehensible in the original. The book is also very warm like the smiles. To get some more insight into the title, you might want to check out Gary Snyder's Cold Mountain Poems, or the Burton Watson translation of Cold Mountain (Chinese Zen Poet Han Shan).

Rating:
Summary: A book to help you live better.
Review: I would like to start off by saying that you must read this book. Anyone who practices meditation will find this book rewarding--both seasoned practitioners and newcomers to the Buddhist path. The author has a special gift for relating the insights of traditional Zen teaching stories in a refreshingly contemporary manner. I felt like I was actually at the retreats as I read the stories. As mentioned elsewhere; Anderson, who teaches in the tradition of the great Zen master Suzuki Roshi, shows himself to be a worthy inheritor of this lineage and a powerful teacher in his own right.