Norman Fischer

From beloved Zen teacher Norman Fischer, a collection of essays spanning a life of inquiry into Zen practice, relationship, social engagement, and spiritual creativity. "Looking backwards at a life lived, walking forward into more life to live built on all that, trying not to be too much influenced by what's already been said and done, not to be held to a point of view or an identity previously expressed, trying to be surprised and undone and maybe even dismayed by what lies ahead."--Norman Fischer Norman Fischer is a Zen priest, poet, and translator whose writings, teachings, and commitment to interfaith dialogue have supported and inspired Buddhist, Jewish, and other spiritual practitioners for decades. When You Greet Me I Bow spans the entirety of Norman Fischer's career and is the first collection of his writings on Buddhist philosophy and practice. Broken into four sections--the joy and catastrophe of relationship; thinking, writing, and emptiness; cultural encounters; and social engagement--this book allows us to see the fascinating development of the mind and interests of a gifted writer and profoundly committed practitioner.

Notes and Reflections from a Life in Zen

When You Greet Me I Bow

An imaginative approach to spiritual practice in difficult times, through the Buddhist teaching of the six paramitas or "perfections"--qualities that lead to kindness, wisdom, and an awakened life. In frightening times, we wish the world could be otherwise. With a touch of imagination, it can be. Imagination helps us see what’s hidden, and it shape-shifts reality’s roiling twisting waves. In this inspiring reframe of a classic Buddhist teaching, Zen teacher Norman Fischer writes that the paramitas, or “six perfections”—generosity, ethical conduct, patience, joyful effort, meditation, and understanding—can help us reconfigure the world we live in. Ranging from our everyday concerns about relationships, ethics, and consumption to our artistic inspirations and broadest human yearnings, Fischer depicts imaginative spiritual practice as a necessary resource for our troubled times.

Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path

The World Could Be Otherwise

Susan Moon

An accessible and enjoyable introduction to Zen Buddhist practice--in a reader-friendly question-and-answer format--by two highly regarded teacher-writers. The question-and-answer format makes this introduction to Zen especially easy to understand--and also to use as a reference, as you can easily look up just the question you had in mind. The esteemed Zen teacher Norman Fischer and his old friend and teaching colleague Susan Moon (both of them in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind) give this collaborative effort a playful tone: Susan asks a question on our behalf, Norman answers it, and then Sue challenges him. By the time you get through their conversations, you'll have a good basic education in Zen--not only the history, theory, and practice but also the contemporary issues, such as gender inequality, sexual ethics, and the tension between Asian traditions and the modern American reality.

Plain Talk for a Beginner's Mind

What Is Zen?

The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up

Taking Our Places

Kazuaki Tanahashi

Mitsu Suzuki

Kate McCandless

100 Haiku from 100 Years of Life

White Tea Bowl

Norman Fischer's Experience is the fruit of forty years of thinking on experimental writing and its practice, both as an investigation of reality and as a religious endeavor, by a major figure in contemporary Zen Buddhist practice and theology.

Thinking, Writing, Language, and Religion

Experience

Brenda Miller

Holly J. Hughes

It can be difficult to create space for our spiritual lives in a world crowded with distractions.The Pen and the Bellis about how to achieve mindfulness and creative fulfillment in spite of long to-do lists. It's about gaining access to our deeper selves in the workaday world, and bringing forth this authentic self in our writing. With both meditative and writing exercises in each chapter, it will help you awaken your creative soul and find a more rewarding life.

The Pen and the Bell

Shinshu Roberts

A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji

Being-Time

Lojong is the Tibetan Buddhist practice that involves working with short phrases (called "slogans") as a way of generating bodhichitta, the heart and mind of enlightened compassion. Though the practice is more than a millennium old, it has become popular in the West only in the last twenty years or so—and it has become very popular indeed, because it's a practice that one can fit very well into an ordinary life, and because it works.Through the influence of Pema Chödrön, who was one of the first American Buddhist teachers to teach it extensively, the practice has moved out of its Buddhist context to affect the lives of non-Buddhists too. It's in this spirit that Norman Fischer offers his commentary on the lojong slogans. He applies Zen wisdom to them, showing how well they fit in that related tradition, but he also sets the slogans in the context of resonant practices throughout the spiritual traditions. He shows lojong to be a wonderful method for everyone, including those who aren't otherwise interested in Buddhism, who don't have the time or inclination to meditate, or who'd just like to morph into the kind of person who's focused rather than scattered, generous rather than stingy, and kind rather than thoughtless.

Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong

Training in Compassion

The relationship between words and world: This is what poetry is all about. This is the exact locus in which poetry has something to teach us. This is the exact locus in which On a Train at Night has something active to teach us.

On a Train at Night

Joseph Goldstein

Patrick Henry

Yifa

Judith Simmer-Brown

Important Buddhist scholars share their insights into the rule of Saint Benedict, revealing surprising common ground shared by the monastic traditions of Christianity and Buddhism. Reprint.

Buddhists Reflect on the Rule of Saint Benedict

Benedict's Dharma

Applying his own Jewish roots and his knowledge of Eastern and Western spirituality, a Zen priest and poet presents a collection of stunning and personal translations of the Psalms for every spiritual path or religious background. Reprint.

Zen-Inspired Translations of the Psalms

Opening to You

Uses the lessons of Homer's poem about the struggles of an imperfect man trying to reach home along with anecdotes and spiritual insights from the author's own life to illuminate the search for purpose and greater meaning in life felt by many.

Norman Fischer

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