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“An essential resource for students and teachers alike."—Dosho Port, author of Keep Me in Your Heart a While
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A Practical Introduction to Eight Essential Zen Chants and Texts
Shohaku Okumura,
This immensely useful book explores Zen’s rich tradition of chanted liturgy and the powerful ways that such chants support meditation, expressing and helping us truly uphold our heartfelt vows to live a life of freedom and compassion. Exploring eight of Zen’s most essential and universal liturgical texts, Living by Vow is a handbook to walking the Zen path, and Shohaku Okumura guides us like an old friend, speaking clearly and directly of the personal meaning and implications of these chants, generously using his experiences to illustrate their practical significance. A scholar of Buddhist literature, he masterfully uncovers the subtle, intricate web of culture and history that permeate these great texts. Esoteric or challenging terms take on vivid, personal meaning, and old familiar phrases gain new poetic resonance.
"Okumura offers his own perpective on different interpretations of these texts, giving detailed analysis of key Japanese words in order to illuminate unseen meanings. In doing so, he shares his personal experiences of these practices, lifting these texts out of their familiar ceremonial settings and bringing them into conversation with the Zen practitioner. The book goes beyond an explication of specific chants and rituals to reveal that the unifying practice of Zen is living by the bodhisattva’s vow."—Buddhadharma
"Living By Vow unpacks much of the Zen liturgy with striking clarity, depth, and detail. A refreshing read! This is an essential resource for students and teachers alike." —Dosho Port, author of Keep Me in Your Heart a While
"An important and much-needed book."—Steve Hagen, author of Buddhism Plain and Simple
"Lovely and informative."—Melissa Myozen Blacker, coeditor of The Book of Mu
"Shohaku Okamura offers us new ways to approach these sometimes too familiar passages. His writing is always infused by his great love of practice and his love for the living practice of Zen."—David Rynick, author of This Truth Never Fails: A Zen Memoir in Four Seasons
"I am inspired and delighted by this book and will be using it for a long time to come." —Zoketsu Norman Fischer, author of Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong
"This book will be very useful to all beginning Zen students, and also illuminating for many long-time practitioners." —Taigen Dan Leighton, author of Zen Questions: Zazen, Dogen, and the Spirit of Creative Inquiry
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Shohaku Okumura is a Soto Zen priest and Dharma successor of Kosho Uchiyama Roshi. He is a graduate of Komazawa University and has practiced in Japan at Antaiji, Zuioji, and the Kyoto Soto Zen Center, and in in Massachusetts at the Pioneer Valley Zendo. He is the former director of the Soto Zen Buddhism International Center in San Francisco. His previously published books of translation include Shobogenzo Zuimonki; Dogen Zen; Zen Teachings of Homeless Kodo; and Opening the Hand of Thought. Okumura is also editor of Dogen Zen and Its Relevance for Our Time; and SotoZen. He is the founding teacher of the Sanshin Zen Community, based in Bloomington, Indiana, where he lives with his family.
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Living by Vow
A Practical Introduction to Eight Essential Zen Chants and Texts
Shohaku Okumura,
List Price:$ 18.95
Our Price: $15.16 (20%off)
Pages: 320 pages
Size: 6” x 9” inches
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 1-61429-010-5
Status: Available
 or call 800-272-4050
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