Browse my religion/spirituality online bookstore containing my favorite books on spirituality, enlightenment, and religion.
http://astore.amazon.com/religion-spirituality-20
My religion/spirituality online bookstore
Meet Loads of Foreign Women in Person! Join Our Happier Abroad ROMANCE TOURS to Many Overseas Countries!
Meet Foreign Women Now! Post your FREE profile on Happier Abroad Personals and start receiving messages from gorgeous Foreign Women today!
The Three Pillars of Zen
Hi Winston,
The only book I've read on your list is "The Tao of Physics". I read it a long time ago and remember that it was somewhat interesting. The problem with such books that try to integrate science and religion is that the content often gets so diluted that the book is no longer a deep religious book or a deep scientific book, but simply turns into New Age mush--however, I admit that the effort to integrate the worldview of modern science with Eastern religions is a valuable one.
I notice that your list is lacking any really hardcore books about any eastern religions so I thought I'd add one: "The Three Pillars of Zen" by Philip Kapleau.
I picked up this book by chance when I was 16 and I have been reading it ever since. It completely transformed my thinking and helped me unplug from many western assumptions concerning life, language, and the universe.
This book is an excellent introduction to authentic Zen because it contains so many different texts within it. It contains a Japanese Zen master's introductory lectures to his students, excerpts of classic Zen texts with commentaries, personal journals of modern students of Zen describing their training and enlightenment experiences, and answers to common problems encountered during Zen meditation.
So many books these days are titled "Zen-this" and "Zen-that" which contain only fortune cookie-like excerpts of questionable origin and have nothing to do with real Zen. Hippies and Beatniks don't have much to do with real Zen. Just "chilling out" or "following your heart" is not Zen. Doing nothing while concentrating intensely is Zen.
The only book I've read on your list is "The Tao of Physics". I read it a long time ago and remember that it was somewhat interesting. The problem with such books that try to integrate science and religion is that the content often gets so diluted that the book is no longer a deep religious book or a deep scientific book, but simply turns into New Age mush--however, I admit that the effort to integrate the worldview of modern science with Eastern religions is a valuable one.
I notice that your list is lacking any really hardcore books about any eastern religions so I thought I'd add one: "The Three Pillars of Zen" by Philip Kapleau.
I picked up this book by chance when I was 16 and I have been reading it ever since. It completely transformed my thinking and helped me unplug from many western assumptions concerning life, language, and the universe.
This book is an excellent introduction to authentic Zen because it contains so many different texts within it. It contains a Japanese Zen master's introductory lectures to his students, excerpts of classic Zen texts with commentaries, personal journals of modern students of Zen describing their training and enlightenment experiences, and answers to common problems encountered during Zen meditation.
So many books these days are titled "Zen-this" and "Zen-that" which contain only fortune cookie-like excerpts of questionable origin and have nothing to do with real Zen. Hippies and Beatniks don't have much to do with real Zen. Just "chilling out" or "following your heart" is not Zen. Doing nothing while concentrating intensely is Zen.
-
- Similar Topics
- Replies
- Views
- Last post