Zen in The Age of Anxiety: Wisdom for Navigating Our Modern Lives by Tim Burkett edited by Wanda Isle
Shambhala Publications, June 2018.
Wrestling with fear doesn't have to be a negative experience. This book offers an approach to life that unlocks a new way of thinking and being in the world, one that leads directly through the center of the anxieties we seek to avoid.
Written in the style of an owner's manual, a guide to being human, Burkett focuses on areas of pain and anxiety as they tend to manifest for modern people: feelings of unworthiness and issues surrounding sex, money, failure, and even death. Providing wisdom from Zen (channeled through his many experiences as a psychologist) and using language and metaphors from popular culture, he takes anxiety and teaches us to turn those fears into the building blocks of a fulfilling life.
Comments about the book:
"I gained so much from reading Tim's book, especially about how to hold and handle my own anxieties. Here is an encouraging handbook on how Buddhist values and practices can increase our sense of connectedness and foster inner—and outer—peace. I especially liked Tim's "Nine Keys" that can open any of us to healing powers in life events and in ourselves, too." — David Richo, author of The Five Things We Cannot Change and How to Be an Adult in Relationships
"This is a book imbued with love and wisdom, full of passages of fluid prose, woven in with carefully chosen Zen stories, poetry, and relevant research findings. It includes clear explanations of the power of diligent meditation practice to transform our various human difficulties into clear seeing, equanimity, and ease, followed by practical exercises about how to go about this work. This is a book about the substance and beauty of Zen practice, a book I will happily read and recommend to my own students." —Jan Chozen Bays, author of Mindful Eating and How to Train a Wild Elephant
Nothing Holy About It: The Zen of Being Just Who You Are
Nothing Holy About It: The Zen of Being Just Who You Are
Shambhala Publications, April 2015, edited by Wanda Isle
Tim reveals how and why the wisdom of non-holiness is the key to a joyful heart. You don't need to go looking for something sacred — the happiness you seek is right where you are. In this book, a concise summary of Zen teachings unfold within the ordinary comedies and tragedies of everyday life — beginning with the delightful non-holiness he experienced in the presence of his original teacher, Shunyru Suzuki.
Listen to a talk on the book at San Francisco Zen Center.
Shambhala Publications, April 2015, edited by Wanda Isle
Tim reveals how and why the wisdom of non-holiness is the key to a joyful heart. You don't need to go looking for something sacred — the happiness you seek is right where you are. In this book, a concise summary of Zen teachings unfold within the ordinary comedies and tragedies of everyday life — beginning with the delightful non-holiness he experienced in the presence of his original teacher, Shunyru Suzuki.
Listen to a talk on the book at San Francisco Zen Center.
