r t la ttò ffib a e r u e r
Focus
The Still Point A Beginner’s Guide
April 14, 1999
G m .« P i ami C íx i h tío s • Vot i mi i
To Zen M editation
THE
By John Daido Loori (Dharma Communications; 1996)
An Excerpt: There are many schools of Buddhism and a vast array of teachings on how to realize our true nature. Some
schools focus on the rules of conduct. O thers concentrate on academic study and debate. Still others use visualizations and
chanting of sacred sounds and words. In Zen, the emphasis is on zazen, or sitting Zen. Zazen is the heart of the Zen path
Most of us spend our time preoccupied. We are constantly carrying on an internal dialogue. While we are involved in
talking to ourselves, we miss the moment-to-moment awareness of our life. We look, but we don’t see. We listen, but we don t
hear We eat, but we don’t taste. We love, but we don’t feel. T he senses are receiving all the inform ation, b ut because of our
preoccupations, cognition is not taking place. Zazen brings us back to each moment. T he moment is where our life takes
STILL
P O IN T
A B eg in n er’s G u id e
to Z e n M e d ita tio n
place. If we miss the moment we miss our life.
u .
v v
In zazen, as you practice letting go of your thoughts and internal dialogue, and bringing your mind back to the breath, the
breath will slowly get easier and deeper, and the mind will naturally rest. The mind is like the surface of a pond. When the wind
blows, the surface is disturbed. T hen there are waves and ripples, and the image of the sun or the moon is broken up.
A still mind is unobstructed - always open and receptive. It doesn’t hold on or attach to anything. At any moment in time, it is tree.
Fall To Grace
By Eric Karlson (Mariposa Press; 1999)
Eighteen years old, hooked on drugs, his buddy recently dead
from an overdose, Eric Karlson joins the Army hoping to kick his
habit. Two months later, he finds himself stationed in Vietnam,
smugging heroin and opium from villagers to GIs on his base.
After witnessing incredible brutalities by
some American forces towards innocent
peasants, something snaps inside Eric. He
throws down his M-16 rifle and goes
AWOL. Villagers hide and protect his as
he leams their simple ways of compassion.
A prostitute in Hue falls in love with him,
and a Vietnamese nurse befriends him.
g
piesents
Eric discovers an inner voice telling his
to resist the strident U.S. military presence.
He convinces some GIs to go AWOL and
join him, but others try to murder him.
The resisters are hunted by the Military
Police, but are mysteriously protected. At
Eric’s greatest time of need, an angelic Be­
ing of Light reveals itself to him.
Guided by a higher presence, Eric’s
efforts to persuade other GIs to join the
resistance effort lead us to a stunning con­
clusion, one which offers a remarkable
vision and hope for the future.
Copies of the book can be obtained
directly via our web site at
www.MariposaPress.com, by fax at
(303) 939-8720, by telephone at 888-
384-8916 or from your local bookstore.
A Book Of Five
Rings
tary operation.
JO H N
DAI D O
LOORI
the
Pa rsons
■ Dance
M iyamoto M usashi (Overlook Press; 1974)
The Japanese entrepreneur, is not nurtured at an
Asian equivalent of our Harvard Business School. In­
stead, he studies, lives and works according to an al-
most-mythic tome written in 1645 by the great Samu­
rai, Miyamoto Musashi. Musashi was Japan’s most
renowned warrior. By age 30 he had fought and won
over 60 duels by killing his opponents. The invincible
Musashi eventually retired to a cave to record for fu­
ture generations the lessons of his intense life. 1 here
he completed, a few weeks before his own death, the
classic A Book of Five Rings. He wrote it not only as a
thesis on battle strategy, but “for any situation where
plans and tactics are used ” Not surprisingly, business
executives of 2011' Century Japan revere Musashi’s phi­
losophy as a guide for their daily decisions. And they
therefore view the running of a business like a mili­
Page 5
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