Every once in a while a book comes along that I just wish everyone would read. Judging from the small pile of books in my office that people have given me, hoping I’d read them, this appears to be a fairly common emotion.
To my mind one of the very best books I’ve read in quite a while is Susan Murphy’s Upside Down Zen: Finding the Marvelous in the Ordinary. And it is one I wish people would buy and read. I’ve posted about this book before, but I find I want to say a little more…
The Zen teacher John Tarrant (I should add, my primary Zen teacher), writing the forward for this book observed. “One of the most satisfying things about Zen is that it is based on discovery rather than belief. There is nothing you need to believe before you embark. For this reason, you set off in all sincerity and yet do not quite know how it will turn out. Indeed, where most people seek certainty and confirmation of the world they already know, in Zen you depend on uncertainty, on going beyond what you have learned and are sure of… and into what you have not previously imagined. Strangely enough, this reliance on uncertainty is the source of freedom and happiness.
“At the same time, if you go on the inner journey there are recognizable way stations where you will spend a night or a year, and certain angels and demons from you own mind who will arise. In this, the spiritual journey is similar to the creative journey. You do not know the next line of the poem, or the next moment of your life, yet it will come and cannot be forced. Although this path is open and free there are also useful methods: this is where a guide comes in handy.”
John goes on to suggest Susan Murphy accurately describes the terrain and very much is a reliable guide on this journey of heart and depth, this great journey of discovery.
I agree.
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