Nothing Special Paperback – September 3, 1993
by Charlotte J. Beck (Author), Steve Smith (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 205 ratings
WHEN NOTHING IS SPECIAL, EVERYTHING CAN BE
The best-selling author of 'Everyday Zen' shows how to awaken to daily life and discover the ideal in the everyday, finding riches in our feelings, relationships, and work.
'Nothing Special' offers the rare and delightful experience of learning in the authentic Buddhist tradition with a wonderfully contemporary Western master
Print length
177 pages
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Deep Wisdom; strong, clear, practical advice--wonderful common sense Zen." -- Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart
"Joko Beck speaks from the timeless and the perennial, so her metaphors of ordinary things and everyday incidents illumine my mundane life. Nothing Special is Zen alive and how to live it." -- Robert Aitken, author of Taking the Path of Zen
From the Back Cover
===
About the Author
Charlotte Joko Beck, who passed away in 2011, was the founder and former head teacher at the Zen Center in San Diego.
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Product details
Publisher : HarperOne; 1st edition (September 3, 1993)
Language : English
Paperback : 177 pages
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Customer reviews
4.7 out of 5 stars
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
Daggy
5.0 out of 5 stars Anxiety relief
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2017
Verified Purchase
Great for dealing with anxiety. Anxiety is the gap between what is and what you think should be. Just allow yourself to feel your uncomfortable feelings rather than avoid them. Seek out those things that give you uncomfortable feelings and explore those feelings with curiosity. Staying with the uncomfortable feeling of what we cannot change will eventually dissolve the suffering.
18 people found this helpful
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Richard J. Lovell
5.0 out of 5 stars "Nothing Special" is perfect for you
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2018
Verified Purchase
Charlotte Joko Beck has written a penetrating examination of Zen practice.
About the Author
Charlotte Joko Beck, who passed away in 2011, was the founder and former head teacher at the Zen Center in San Diego.
Read less
Product details
Publisher : HarperOne; 1st edition (September 3, 1993)
Language : English
Paperback : 177 pages
----
Customer reviews
4.7 out of 5 stars
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
Daggy
5.0 out of 5 stars Anxiety relief
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2017
Verified Purchase
Great for dealing with anxiety. Anxiety is the gap between what is and what you think should be. Just allow yourself to feel your uncomfortable feelings rather than avoid them. Seek out those things that give you uncomfortable feelings and explore those feelings with curiosity. Staying with the uncomfortable feeling of what we cannot change will eventually dissolve the suffering.
18 people found this helpful
--
Richard J. Lovell
5.0 out of 5 stars "Nothing Special" is perfect for you
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2018
Verified Purchase
Charlotte Joko Beck has written a penetrating examination of Zen practice.
While "Nothing Special" is not a beginners Zen 101, it offers the reader a thorough exploration of Zen ideas and practices and clearly explains its beliefs.
If you are looking for a beginner's guide for basic definitions,concepts (the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path), and history and sect practices, this is not the book for you.
But if you are searching for a guide for a deeper understanding of the basic practices of Zen, "Nothing Special" is perfect for you.
4 people found this helpful
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Katriana Lake
5.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't live without this book.
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2017
Verified Purchase
I would not want to live without this book. For me, it is essential to read this on a regular basis in order to get through life. It's good.
4 people found this helpful
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Big Chucko
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2020
Verified Purchase
I enjoy this book a lot, I read my paperback version a couple times and just ordered and read the kindle version. It’s the kind of book I can go back to every several years. It’s funny that so many books have been written describing what can’t be described with words but I read them anyways lol
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Leslie J. Wetter
5.0 out of 5 stars You can't hold onto the joy of enlightenment
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2016
Verified Purchase
Joko Beck was a very truthful and very wise teacher. She told it as it is. Seeking enlightenment can be very hard and trying but one must be willing to accept all of life's sorrows. The joys won't last for too long. You can't hold onto the joy of enlightenment. She says it's not for us to own as our own. It must be shared. Her style is tough love but the truth is, like the title, nothing special.
4 people found this helpful
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John R
2.0 out of 5 stars Misses the Wonder and Brevity of Life
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2018
Verified Purchase
Author concentrates to heavily upon suffering with fully realizing the wonder and brevity of life
3 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4 people found this helpful
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Katriana Lake
5.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't live without this book.
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2017
Verified Purchase
I would not want to live without this book. For me, it is essential to read this on a regular basis in order to get through life. It's good.
4 people found this helpful
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Big Chucko
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2020
Verified Purchase
I enjoy this book a lot, I read my paperback version a couple times and just ordered and read the kindle version. It’s the kind of book I can go back to every several years. It’s funny that so many books have been written describing what can’t be described with words but I read them anyways lol
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Leslie J. Wetter
5.0 out of 5 stars You can't hold onto the joy of enlightenment
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2016
Verified Purchase
Joko Beck was a very truthful and very wise teacher. She told it as it is. Seeking enlightenment can be very hard and trying but one must be willing to accept all of life's sorrows. The joys won't last for too long. You can't hold onto the joy of enlightenment. She says it's not for us to own as our own. It must be shared. Her style is tough love but the truth is, like the title, nothing special.
4 people found this helpful
--
John R
2.0 out of 5 stars Misses the Wonder and Brevity of Life
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2018
Verified Purchase
Author concentrates to heavily upon suffering with fully realizing the wonder and brevity of life
3 people found this helpful
=====
Amazon Customer
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5.0 out of 5 stars CHARLOTTE JOKO BECK IS SOMETHING SPECIAL!
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2002
Verified Purchase
"Nothing Special" is paradoxically something very special. It is a simple and enjoyable read and yet gives much insight into the essence of Zen. I have read many Zen related books and this one stands out as one of the best. It would be valuable to those familiar with Zen and Buddhism, as a reminder that the very root of Zen is "nothing special" and is most often best kept uncomplicated. Even more, this is an excellent book for readers who are unfamiliar but curious about Zen practice and ideas, as the author has a gift for relating the concepts simply and without unnecessary dogma. The question and answer portion at the end of each chapter is also helpful, as her students ask many questions which the reader may have as well. Based upon my reading of her books, it is my opinion that Ms. Beck is one of the true Western Zen Masters. She is one of the few here in America who has managed to keep the Zen in Zen and still make it pallatable, practical, and practicable.
Parenthetically, her other books, "Everyday Zen", and "Now Zen" are equally worthwhile. "Now Zen" is a little compilation book and an absolute gem. It is the first book I would give to anyone who was interested in Zen or what is so special about Nothing.
31 people found this helpful
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A Halaw
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't let the title fool you; this book is very sepcial
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2010
Verified Purchase
This is the first book of Beck's that I read; it was excellent, perhaps the best I have read about Zen. Beck is one tough old lady with a no nonsense approach to Zen practice. I highly recommend this book to anyone--veteran or beginner. What I especially like about Beck's approach is how she demystifies Zen. Zen isn't about some lofty bliss state; it's about being right here right now. Her practice forces us to confront and then accept the hardest koans of all--life koans from our everyday experiences. Anger, frustration, grief, these are materials of Beck's Ordinary Mind Zen. I loved it!
--Andre Doshim Halaw
10 people found this helpful
--
Top reviews from other countries
Woolco
3.0 out of 5 stars Fairly Special
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 16, 2016
Verified Purchase
"Thousands of words myriad interpretations/ Are only to free you from obstructions..." - so says Shitou Xiqian's 'Song of The Grass Hut' - well worth a read, alongside Ben Connelly's useful commentary 'Inside The Grass Hut', if you can find it.
There's plenty of words in Beck's 'Nothing Special' and it does get a bit repetitive. Still, attritionally, it rams home the message I guess. Perhaps it's only a stylistic preference but compared with, Ezra Bayda, say, I do feel Beck's prose lacks warmth, plus, she rather lectures. She's very convinced by her own assessments, including the notion that no truly realised person exists, which strikes me as needlessly presumptuous. Then there's the clunky metaphors she employs: whirlpools, plug sockets, Victorian houses. All of them indulgent misjudgements that actually only serve to confuse the points she's trying to make, in my opinion.
Beck has a strong grip on the Zen essentials though and conveys them in an everyday language using everyday situations as examples. It's a commendable achievement and certainly worth the reading effort.
Read less
9 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Illuminating
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 19, 2018
Verified Purchase
Wonderful to be able to access these teachings. The wisdom and compassion are evident throughout.
The practical advice is invaluable. I would recommend it to anyone thinking of taking up meditation. What is particularly useful is the willingness of the author to tell the story without trying to varnish the truth. Sitting and being as we are, here and now, is incredibly simple, yet the hardest thing to do. It's not something we accomplish overnight. It's not pretty and it's not blissful. Will be dull as hell too at times, we're told. Persistence is key. Of course, we won't "arrive " anywhere as we never left in the first place. These comprehensive teachings, clearly based on years of practice, guide us to realise that,by demystifying and encouraging at the same time.
One person found this helpful
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L. Mateus
5.0 out of 5 stars What's in this book actually WORKS!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2007
Verified Purchase
What sets Charlotte's work apart from other Zen books is that what she has to say is relevant to modern times: the reader can relate. I confess to being a self help junkie: I have read MANY books on self improvement and most are inspirational at best, but when put into practice the contents and methods fail to bring about practical results. This book is different: I tested out a few of her concepts and I saw a brief change in my life that left me gobsmacked. Of course sustaining the change is not easy, because it requires constant awareness and Charlotte is the first to say, it isn't easy.It doesn't happen overnight: after all bringing awareness to one's previously unchallenged mind is going to be challenging because one needs to question and be aware of oneself. This is something we're not familiar with, so the process requires a relearning of sorts.
What I like about her two books, is that she doesn't promise that what she has to say will be the solution to everyone's problems, and I really found that refreshing seeing as all the self help books out there all seem to make ludicrous promises.This, and her first book (just as excellent) is not the sort of book that I would recommend to just anyone, because to most it would just be boring and a whole lot of intangible concepts far beyond comprehension. You have to be at the stage of your life, when you hunger for the quietening of the mind, when you want to give up the struggle, the fears, the dramas. And then, and only then will Charlotte's Books start hitting home. I just wish she would write another book, as I have read and re-read her 2 books and would love to read some more.
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14 people found this helpful
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Jill
5.0 out of 5 stars A must buy book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2020
Verified Purchase
This has become my go to book for emotional support
2 people found this helpful
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LuluBella
5.0 out of 5 stars Really glad I bought this book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 2, 2017
Verified Purchase
Really glad I followed my instincts/intuition and bought this book. It's something special and has given me so much to think about. Recommended for anyone who is serious about living in a more present way.
3 people found this helpful
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Nothing Special
by
Charlotte Joko Beck,
Steve Smith
4.01 · Rating details · 3,318 ratings · 133 reviews
WHEN NOTHING IS SPECIAL, EVERYTHING CAN BE
The best-selling author of 'Everyday Zen' shows how to awaken to daily life and discover the ideal in the everyday, finding riches in our feelings, relationships, and work. 'Nothing Special' offers the rare and delightful experience of learning in the authentic Buddhist tradition with a wonderfully contemporary Western master. (less)
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Aug 28, 2020Fergus rated it it was amazing
Our needs-driven lives are in fact endlessly reiterative vicious circles.
Will the circle be unbroken?
Charlotte Joko Beck infers that if it IS, we will condemn ourselves to lives of unceasing drudgery.
So how do we BREAK the circle that PREVENTS US FROM SEEING REAL LIFE?
It’s not easy, says Ms Beck.
For only slowly can we hope to wear out our If-Only’s.
Whuzzat?
You know the routine - if ONLY I had a new car... If ONLY I had that book... If ONLY I had the Perfect Soulmate! THEN my life’d be complete!
Except, it never is.
We keep running after what Baudelaire called Paradis Artificielles. And so we run ourselves ragged.
Why do we knock our heads AGAINST A WALL?
Just see The Miracle of Simple Life AS IT IS.
There IS an answer, and YOU can find it through meditation!
Just takes lotsa time, work, and Elbow Grease..
May the Circle soon be BROKEN
By and by, Lord,
By and by.
There’s a Better Home awaiting
WHERE I AM, Lord,
Where I AM. (less)
flag48 likes · Like · see review
Mar 17, 2020Jan-Maat added it
Shelves: 20th-century, buddhism
Abandon all hope all ye who enter here?
I did not love this book, which gave me a very distinct pleasure as I reached the end. I read a few of the other reviews and I agree with them all broadly, except that most of them enjoyed the book while I didn't, (view spoiler).
The volume is divided into eight sections each with a thematic sounding title, each section is divided into chapters with their own title. Each chapter seemed to be a talk mixed with some discussion with the author's students, each of whom is referred to as 'student'. I am not sure if these were transcripts of actual talks with real interactions with students or if it was pure authorial invention. Mostly I felt the chapter and section titles had little to do with the following text, but I did like two chapters: 'From Drama to No Drama'(view spoiler) and 'Simple Mind'. The author writes very nicely about joy as well, indeed even her own experiences of joy - so it is not all push-ups in the mud followed by cold showers.
Although I did not enjoy it much, I found the book very interesting because of it's content and tone.
This book has something of the drill sergeant about it, with a regular stress on the difficulty of practise - indeed the book begins with a complaint that there are too many students at the Zen centre and that most of them are not working seriously enough, her other leitmotiv is that Enlightenment is effectively an egoistic goal and not for the serious practitioner of Zen, and in any case so rare an occurrence so as not to be taken seriously. The result, I felt, was a desire to pursue a difficult path purely for the sake of pursuing a difficult path, a kind of puritan ultra marathon with no prizes, and ending in the grave (view spoiler) offering only the grim satisfaction of being among the toughest of the tough. This toughness is a kind of brutal realism, a shedding of illusions - self flagellation is not required - you can't help other, indeed you can barely help yourself even with years of sitting practice bursting your illusions, the world is how it is, this is the way things are. None of which I have any great disagreement with.
But still I found the emphasis on difficulty fascinating, after all Buddhism was famously 'the middle way', not the extreme way, and Enlightenment, while not easy, was an attainable goal, it was the desired end, the only way of escaping the miserable cycle of death and rebirth. Here it is just another egotistical goal, another enemy. This side-lining of Enlightenment is already present in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice, I believe Shunryu Suzuki's wife suggested that was because he himself had not achieved Enlightenment (view spoiler).
Curiously in this book enlightened Zen masters are still held up to the students, typically for displaying stoicism in the face of death, but they are not held up as role models as such because Enlightenment is presented as both impractical to attain and undesirable but as icons showing perfect behaviours that the student can admire but never emulate.
I felt, but I did not count them to make sure, that there were more references to Jesus Christ than to the Buddha and Zen teachers in this book (view spoiler). Ok, this is a book written by an American woman who is teaching other people in the USA and I guess the gospels are for them a more familiar set of references than Buddhist sutras, I wondered how much the author and her students were attracted to Zen because it offered a tougher form of practice than the Christianity they had (view spoiler)grown up with. And that gave me a sense of two towers high across the landscape of the USA, in one the prosperity churches and fans of the Law of Attraction, facing them their polar opposites, the adherents of ferociously realistic Zen schools. I suppose I see in this that the emotional needs of individuals are the most important factor in the development of any religious practice, and the community around the author wants and desires something rigorous and demanding, whether they have found it or created it I don't know. (less)
flag27 likes · Like · 6 comments · see review
Oct 08, 2011Adil rated it it was amazing
This book really changed my view of why I'm meditating and where I'm going with it. I have a completely different visual analogy now, one in which I'm peeling away layers and layers of mental junk I've built over the years. And then nothing special happens. You just peel away as much of it as you can, and the rest takes care of itself. In other words, I'm not trying to achieve any particular outcome, other than the peeling away. There is nothing special at the end of this path, and there is no end in this path. What will happen will unfold on its own naturally. This is a difficult fact to face sometimes but the sooner you face it the better and Joko Beck's book really helps you understand this. The message is universal and simple. I'm Turkish and yet I doubt the book is less accessible to me or anyone from my culture as it is to any American. That shows how successful the author was.
I've been meditating on and off, completely on my own (no teacher, no Zen center, etc.), with very strong resistance. I do not have a broad exposure to Eastern philosophy or Buddhism (I don't consider myself a Buddhist). While reading this book, I've broken through a good deal of that resistance because of this "better" understanding of what meditation is about. After a few years, I've finally been able to meditate daily again; and this shows again how successful the author was. As a result of my increased insight, I'm compelled to meditate and thus, the resistance has been naturally weakened; it's not a struggle anymore. I wish all of our actions were backed up by this kind of compelling insight.
One caveat: I'm not sure if certain paradoxes or contradictions in Zen were explained as deeply as they could have been, and I'm not sure if they ever could be... But this also leaves room for you to do your own thinking. And a small note: This is not a how-to (e.g., you sit like this, you breathe like this, etc.) book. (less)
flag22 likes · Like · 4 comments · see review
Oct 09, 2019Gabrielle rated it really liked it
Shelves: zen, own-a-copy, reviewed, philosophy, buddhism, non-fiction, read-in-2019
Charlotte Joko Beck’s books always feel like a breath of fresh air. Just as in “Everyday Zen” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), “Nothing Special” is a collection of her lectures, often followed by some questions from her students. Those lectures are not really for beginners, but they are perfect for students who have been practicing for a certain time, who have seen their practice mature and who are trying to intergrate it into every aspect of their daily lives. This is not an easy balancing act, and Beck gives strong perspective, great motivation and encouragement, as well as plenty of food for thought.
Her style is referred to as “blunt clarity”, and it is one of the things I like most about her. When a student asks a silly question, she just says “I’m not going to answer that. Go practice, you’ll figure it out.” And that’s not rude: that’s the right answer. Zen is something you do, not something you parrot from a teacher. There is also no point in sugar-coating how tough it can be, but we have to find good reasons to keep doing it, and reading what Beck has to say about it helps. Well, it helps me, for what that’s worth!
Here are a few quotes: if you like what you read here, you’ll enjoy the rest of the book!
“Whatever choice we make, the outcome will provide us with a lesson. If we are attentive and aware, we will learn what we need to do next. In this sense, there is no wrong decision.”
“Sitting is like our daily life: what comes up as we sit will be the thinking tat we want to cling to, our chief feature. If we like to evade life, we’ll find some way to evade our sitting. If we like to worry, we’ll worry. If we like to fantasize, we’ll fantasize. Whatever we do in our sitting is like a microcosm of the rest of our lives. Our sitting shows us what we’re doing with our lives and our lives show us what we do when we sit.”
“Every unhappy person I’ve ever seen has been caught in a belief system that holds out some promise, a promise that has not been kept. Persons who have practiced well for some time are different only in the fact that they recognize this mechanism that generates unhappiness and are learning to maintain awareness of it – which is very different from trying to change or fix it.”
“Life is not a safe space. It never was, and it never will be.”
“Anything that annoys or upsets us (which, if we’re honest, includes almost everything) becomes grist for the mill of practice. Working with everything leads to a practice that is alive in every second of our lives.” (less)
flag20 likes · Like · 4 comments · see review
Jan 19, 2017Emma Sea rated it it was amazing
Shelves: kindle, i-own-it, zen, meditation
wow, fantastic. Life changing for me.
flag16 likes · Like · 3 comments · see review
Jan 02, 2009Eric added it
Shelves: zen
Plain, simple and tough. Very good.
I guess maybe part of the usefulness of reading Zen books (as opposed to say, sitting) is to reinforce your commitment to practice and for me, this was a pretty good book for that. No artificial flavours or preservatives, no mystical bullshit, no made-up words, no exhortations for loving-kindness and compassion, no pseudoscientific justifications or the grating "scientists are starting to discover X; Buddhists have known this for thousands of years", just the same messages presented over and over again from slightly different angles, jarring me out of my self-conscious, self-centered loop (maybe if I practice long enough, I'll stop being so anxious). (*)
Books tend to go in one ear out the other, and I'm always anxious (hah!) about not having gotten anything out of them, so...
Useful distinctions: (a) preferences vs demands (b) goals vs obsessions with outcomes (c) things vs attachments to things. Useful practices: labeling your thoughts.
This book seems to be a collection of talks, of which I particularly liked:
- The Talk Nobody Wants to Hear - gives you an idea for the tone of this book.
- Cocoon of Pain pointing out strategies people have for avoiding unpleasantness (one of which is "If we can 'bliss out', if we can be a mindless 'buddha', we don't have to assume any responsibility for the world's unpleasantness".)
- Melting Ice Cubes (needs to turn into an animated cartoon)
- The Six Stages of Practice (not a how-to, just a catalogue of people's tendencies as they practice): [i] awareness of self, desire to control [ii] breaking emotions in physical and mental components [iii] more experiential living [iv] 80-90% experiential living [vi] (theoretical, likely non-existent) buddahood
Fun quotes:
- A guilt trip is a very self-centered activity
- Attachment concerns not what we have, but our opinions about what we have
- That's the problem with "positive thinking" and affirmations: we can't keep them up forever. Such efforts are never the path to freedom. In truth, we already are free
- Feelings are simply thoughts plus bodily sensations
(*) One slightly annoying bit is when she drags out the "oh, what a terrible thing it would be if somebody invented a pill that would let people live forever"... seems like should that come to pass, it would just be another thing that just is.
(less)
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Sep 26, 2007K. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: buddhism
Best book on Zen I have ever read (and I've read maybe a hundred). Clear, direct, accessible, and profound. (less)
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May 26, 2018Marie rated it did not like it
Shelves: health-diet-and-well-being
A tedious read for me and most likely why it took 8 months to complete. With each new chapter, I was expecting something new and I felt like it was the same information over and over in different words: upset is optional, sitting is hard work and not for everyone, nothing is real except this moment, no matter how long you sit you likely never reach enlightenment and there's probably more that I just couldn't absorb because I felt like I was reading the same chapter over and over again.
In addition, the conversational bits with the students got old really quickly. It felt trite and condescending. (less)
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May 07, 2014Beatrice rated it it was amazing
Shelves: mind-body
I do not carve time to meditate in the Zen tradition of sesshin but I read this book to explore the practice of Zen and its canons.
It did awaken some considerations about my own approach to life and they were a useful addition. I found the Dorothy chapter resonated with something I read in Jon Kabat Zin's book and that is, we are on a constant search for our "path" when in fact, our path is in everything we do on a daily basis. From the mundane tasks to our deepest connections with those around us. I absolutely savored this book.
(less)
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===
5.0 out of 5 stars CHARLOTTE JOKO BECK IS SOMETHING SPECIAL!
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2002
Verified Purchase
"Nothing Special" is paradoxically something very special. It is a simple and enjoyable read and yet gives much insight into the essence of Zen. I have read many Zen related books and this one stands out as one of the best. It would be valuable to those familiar with Zen and Buddhism, as a reminder that the very root of Zen is "nothing special" and is most often best kept uncomplicated. Even more, this is an excellent book for readers who are unfamiliar but curious about Zen practice and ideas, as the author has a gift for relating the concepts simply and without unnecessary dogma. The question and answer portion at the end of each chapter is also helpful, as her students ask many questions which the reader may have as well. Based upon my reading of her books, it is my opinion that Ms. Beck is one of the true Western Zen Masters. She is one of the few here in America who has managed to keep the Zen in Zen and still make it pallatable, practical, and practicable.
Parenthetically, her other books, "Everyday Zen", and "Now Zen" are equally worthwhile. "Now Zen" is a little compilation book and an absolute gem. It is the first book I would give to anyone who was interested in Zen or what is so special about Nothing.
31 people found this helpful
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A Halaw
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't let the title fool you; this book is very sepcial
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2010
Verified Purchase
This is the first book of Beck's that I read; it was excellent, perhaps the best I have read about Zen. Beck is one tough old lady with a no nonsense approach to Zen practice. I highly recommend this book to anyone--veteran or beginner. What I especially like about Beck's approach is how she demystifies Zen. Zen isn't about some lofty bliss state; it's about being right here right now. Her practice forces us to confront and then accept the hardest koans of all--life koans from our everyday experiences. Anger, frustration, grief, these are materials of Beck's Ordinary Mind Zen. I loved it!
--Andre Doshim Halaw
10 people found this helpful
--
Top reviews from other countries
Woolco
3.0 out of 5 stars Fairly Special
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 16, 2016
Verified Purchase
"Thousands of words myriad interpretations/ Are only to free you from obstructions..." - so says Shitou Xiqian's 'Song of The Grass Hut' - well worth a read, alongside Ben Connelly's useful commentary 'Inside The Grass Hut', if you can find it.
There's plenty of words in Beck's 'Nothing Special' and it does get a bit repetitive. Still, attritionally, it rams home the message I guess. Perhaps it's only a stylistic preference but compared with, Ezra Bayda, say, I do feel Beck's prose lacks warmth, plus, she rather lectures. She's very convinced by her own assessments, including the notion that no truly realised person exists, which strikes me as needlessly presumptuous. Then there's the clunky metaphors she employs: whirlpools, plug sockets, Victorian houses. All of them indulgent misjudgements that actually only serve to confuse the points she's trying to make, in my opinion.
Beck has a strong grip on the Zen essentials though and conveys them in an everyday language using everyday situations as examples. It's a commendable achievement and certainly worth the reading effort.
Read less
9 people found this helpful
--
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Illuminating
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 19, 2018
Verified Purchase
Wonderful to be able to access these teachings. The wisdom and compassion are evident throughout.
The practical advice is invaluable. I would recommend it to anyone thinking of taking up meditation. What is particularly useful is the willingness of the author to tell the story without trying to varnish the truth. Sitting and being as we are, here and now, is incredibly simple, yet the hardest thing to do. It's not something we accomplish overnight. It's not pretty and it's not blissful. Will be dull as hell too at times, we're told. Persistence is key. Of course, we won't "arrive " anywhere as we never left in the first place. These comprehensive teachings, clearly based on years of practice, guide us to realise that,by demystifying and encouraging at the same time.
One person found this helpful
===
L. Mateus
5.0 out of 5 stars What's in this book actually WORKS!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2007
Verified Purchase
What sets Charlotte's work apart from other Zen books is that what she has to say is relevant to modern times: the reader can relate. I confess to being a self help junkie: I have read MANY books on self improvement and most are inspirational at best, but when put into practice the contents and methods fail to bring about practical results. This book is different: I tested out a few of her concepts and I saw a brief change in my life that left me gobsmacked. Of course sustaining the change is not easy, because it requires constant awareness and Charlotte is the first to say, it isn't easy.It doesn't happen overnight: after all bringing awareness to one's previously unchallenged mind is going to be challenging because one needs to question and be aware of oneself. This is something we're not familiar with, so the process requires a relearning of sorts.
What I like about her two books, is that she doesn't promise that what she has to say will be the solution to everyone's problems, and I really found that refreshing seeing as all the self help books out there all seem to make ludicrous promises.This, and her first book (just as excellent) is not the sort of book that I would recommend to just anyone, because to most it would just be boring and a whole lot of intangible concepts far beyond comprehension. You have to be at the stage of your life, when you hunger for the quietening of the mind, when you want to give up the struggle, the fears, the dramas. And then, and only then will Charlotte's Books start hitting home. I just wish she would write another book, as I have read and re-read her 2 books and would love to read some more.
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14 people found this helpful
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Jill
5.0 out of 5 stars A must buy book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2020
Verified Purchase
This has become my go to book for emotional support
2 people found this helpful
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LuluBella
5.0 out of 5 stars Really glad I bought this book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 2, 2017
Verified Purchase
Really glad I followed my instincts/intuition and bought this book. It's something special and has given me so much to think about. Recommended for anyone who is serious about living in a more present way.
3 people found this helpful
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Nothing Special
by
Charlotte Joko Beck,
Steve Smith
4.01 · Rating details · 3,318 ratings · 133 reviews
WHEN NOTHING IS SPECIAL, EVERYTHING CAN BE
The best-selling author of 'Everyday Zen' shows how to awaken to daily life and discover the ideal in the everyday, finding riches in our feelings, relationships, and work. 'Nothing Special' offers the rare and delightful experience of learning in the authentic Buddhist tradition with a wonderfully contemporary Western master. (less)
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Aug 28, 2020Fergus rated it it was amazing
Our needs-driven lives are in fact endlessly reiterative vicious circles.
Will the circle be unbroken?
Charlotte Joko Beck infers that if it IS, we will condemn ourselves to lives of unceasing drudgery.
So how do we BREAK the circle that PREVENTS US FROM SEEING REAL LIFE?
It’s not easy, says Ms Beck.
For only slowly can we hope to wear out our If-Only’s.
Whuzzat?
You know the routine - if ONLY I had a new car... If ONLY I had that book... If ONLY I had the Perfect Soulmate! THEN my life’d be complete!
Except, it never is.
We keep running after what Baudelaire called Paradis Artificielles. And so we run ourselves ragged.
Why do we knock our heads AGAINST A WALL?
Just see The Miracle of Simple Life AS IT IS.
There IS an answer, and YOU can find it through meditation!
Just takes lotsa time, work, and Elbow Grease..
May the Circle soon be BROKEN
By and by, Lord,
By and by.
There’s a Better Home awaiting
WHERE I AM, Lord,
Where I AM. (less)
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Mar 17, 2020Jan-Maat added it
Shelves: 20th-century, buddhism
Abandon all hope all ye who enter here?
I did not love this book, which gave me a very distinct pleasure as I reached the end. I read a few of the other reviews and I agree with them all broadly, except that most of them enjoyed the book while I didn't, (view spoiler).
The volume is divided into eight sections each with a thematic sounding title, each section is divided into chapters with their own title. Each chapter seemed to be a talk mixed with some discussion with the author's students, each of whom is referred to as 'student'. I am not sure if these were transcripts of actual talks with real interactions with students or if it was pure authorial invention. Mostly I felt the chapter and section titles had little to do with the following text, but I did like two chapters: 'From Drama to No Drama'(view spoiler) and 'Simple Mind'. The author writes very nicely about joy as well, indeed even her own experiences of joy - so it is not all push-ups in the mud followed by cold showers.
Although I did not enjoy it much, I found the book very interesting because of it's content and tone.
This book has something of the drill sergeant about it, with a regular stress on the difficulty of practise - indeed the book begins with a complaint that there are too many students at the Zen centre and that most of them are not working seriously enough, her other leitmotiv is that Enlightenment is effectively an egoistic goal and not for the serious practitioner of Zen, and in any case so rare an occurrence so as not to be taken seriously. The result, I felt, was a desire to pursue a difficult path purely for the sake of pursuing a difficult path, a kind of puritan ultra marathon with no prizes, and ending in the grave (view spoiler) offering only the grim satisfaction of being among the toughest of the tough. This toughness is a kind of brutal realism, a shedding of illusions - self flagellation is not required - you can't help other, indeed you can barely help yourself even with years of sitting practice bursting your illusions, the world is how it is, this is the way things are. None of which I have any great disagreement with.
But still I found the emphasis on difficulty fascinating, after all Buddhism was famously 'the middle way', not the extreme way, and Enlightenment, while not easy, was an attainable goal, it was the desired end, the only way of escaping the miserable cycle of death and rebirth. Here it is just another egotistical goal, another enemy. This side-lining of Enlightenment is already present in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice, I believe Shunryu Suzuki's wife suggested that was because he himself had not achieved Enlightenment (view spoiler).
Curiously in this book enlightened Zen masters are still held up to the students, typically for displaying stoicism in the face of death, but they are not held up as role models as such because Enlightenment is presented as both impractical to attain and undesirable but as icons showing perfect behaviours that the student can admire but never emulate.
I felt, but I did not count them to make sure, that there were more references to Jesus Christ than to the Buddha and Zen teachers in this book (view spoiler). Ok, this is a book written by an American woman who is teaching other people in the USA and I guess the gospels are for them a more familiar set of references than Buddhist sutras, I wondered how much the author and her students were attracted to Zen because it offered a tougher form of practice than the Christianity they had (view spoiler)grown up with. And that gave me a sense of two towers high across the landscape of the USA, in one the prosperity churches and fans of the Law of Attraction, facing them their polar opposites, the adherents of ferociously realistic Zen schools. I suppose I see in this that the emotional needs of individuals are the most important factor in the development of any religious practice, and the community around the author wants and desires something rigorous and demanding, whether they have found it or created it I don't know. (less)
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Oct 08, 2011Adil rated it it was amazing
This book really changed my view of why I'm meditating and where I'm going with it. I have a completely different visual analogy now, one in which I'm peeling away layers and layers of mental junk I've built over the years. And then nothing special happens. You just peel away as much of it as you can, and the rest takes care of itself. In other words, I'm not trying to achieve any particular outcome, other than the peeling away. There is nothing special at the end of this path, and there is no end in this path. What will happen will unfold on its own naturally. This is a difficult fact to face sometimes but the sooner you face it the better and Joko Beck's book really helps you understand this. The message is universal and simple. I'm Turkish and yet I doubt the book is less accessible to me or anyone from my culture as it is to any American. That shows how successful the author was.
I've been meditating on and off, completely on my own (no teacher, no Zen center, etc.), with very strong resistance. I do not have a broad exposure to Eastern philosophy or Buddhism (I don't consider myself a Buddhist). While reading this book, I've broken through a good deal of that resistance because of this "better" understanding of what meditation is about. After a few years, I've finally been able to meditate daily again; and this shows again how successful the author was. As a result of my increased insight, I'm compelled to meditate and thus, the resistance has been naturally weakened; it's not a struggle anymore. I wish all of our actions were backed up by this kind of compelling insight.
One caveat: I'm not sure if certain paradoxes or contradictions in Zen were explained as deeply as they could have been, and I'm not sure if they ever could be... But this also leaves room for you to do your own thinking. And a small note: This is not a how-to (e.g., you sit like this, you breathe like this, etc.) book. (less)
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Oct 09, 2019Gabrielle rated it really liked it
Shelves: zen, own-a-copy, reviewed, philosophy, buddhism, non-fiction, read-in-2019
Charlotte Joko Beck’s books always feel like a breath of fresh air. Just as in “Everyday Zen” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), “Nothing Special” is a collection of her lectures, often followed by some questions from her students. Those lectures are not really for beginners, but they are perfect for students who have been practicing for a certain time, who have seen their practice mature and who are trying to intergrate it into every aspect of their daily lives. This is not an easy balancing act, and Beck gives strong perspective, great motivation and encouragement, as well as plenty of food for thought.
Her style is referred to as “blunt clarity”, and it is one of the things I like most about her. When a student asks a silly question, she just says “I’m not going to answer that. Go practice, you’ll figure it out.” And that’s not rude: that’s the right answer. Zen is something you do, not something you parrot from a teacher. There is also no point in sugar-coating how tough it can be, but we have to find good reasons to keep doing it, and reading what Beck has to say about it helps. Well, it helps me, for what that’s worth!
Here are a few quotes: if you like what you read here, you’ll enjoy the rest of the book!
“Whatever choice we make, the outcome will provide us with a lesson. If we are attentive and aware, we will learn what we need to do next. In this sense, there is no wrong decision.”
“Sitting is like our daily life: what comes up as we sit will be the thinking tat we want to cling to, our chief feature. If we like to evade life, we’ll find some way to evade our sitting. If we like to worry, we’ll worry. If we like to fantasize, we’ll fantasize. Whatever we do in our sitting is like a microcosm of the rest of our lives. Our sitting shows us what we’re doing with our lives and our lives show us what we do when we sit.”
“Every unhappy person I’ve ever seen has been caught in a belief system that holds out some promise, a promise that has not been kept. Persons who have practiced well for some time are different only in the fact that they recognize this mechanism that generates unhappiness and are learning to maintain awareness of it – which is very different from trying to change or fix it.”
“Life is not a safe space. It never was, and it never will be.”
“Anything that annoys or upsets us (which, if we’re honest, includes almost everything) becomes grist for the mill of practice. Working with everything leads to a practice that is alive in every second of our lives.” (less)
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Jan 19, 2017Emma Sea rated it it was amazing
Shelves: kindle, i-own-it, zen, meditation
wow, fantastic. Life changing for me.
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Jan 02, 2009Eric added it
Shelves: zen
Plain, simple and tough. Very good.
I guess maybe part of the usefulness of reading Zen books (as opposed to say, sitting) is to reinforce your commitment to practice and for me, this was a pretty good book for that. No artificial flavours or preservatives, no mystical bullshit, no made-up words, no exhortations for loving-kindness and compassion, no pseudoscientific justifications or the grating "scientists are starting to discover X; Buddhists have known this for thousands of years", just the same messages presented over and over again from slightly different angles, jarring me out of my self-conscious, self-centered loop (maybe if I practice long enough, I'll stop being so anxious). (*)
Books tend to go in one ear out the other, and I'm always anxious (hah!) about not having gotten anything out of them, so...
Useful distinctions: (a) preferences vs demands (b) goals vs obsessions with outcomes (c) things vs attachments to things. Useful practices: labeling your thoughts.
This book seems to be a collection of talks, of which I particularly liked:
- The Talk Nobody Wants to Hear - gives you an idea for the tone of this book.
- Cocoon of Pain pointing out strategies people have for avoiding unpleasantness (one of which is "If we can 'bliss out', if we can be a mindless 'buddha', we don't have to assume any responsibility for the world's unpleasantness".)
- Melting Ice Cubes (needs to turn into an animated cartoon)
- The Six Stages of Practice (not a how-to, just a catalogue of people's tendencies as they practice): [i] awareness of self, desire to control [ii] breaking emotions in physical and mental components [iii] more experiential living [iv] 80-90% experiential living [vi] (theoretical, likely non-existent) buddahood
Fun quotes:
- A guilt trip is a very self-centered activity
- Attachment concerns not what we have, but our opinions about what we have
- That's the problem with "positive thinking" and affirmations: we can't keep them up forever. Such efforts are never the path to freedom. In truth, we already are free
- Feelings are simply thoughts plus bodily sensations
(*) One slightly annoying bit is when she drags out the "oh, what a terrible thing it would be if somebody invented a pill that would let people live forever"... seems like should that come to pass, it would just be another thing that just is.
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Sep 26, 2007K. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: buddhism
Best book on Zen I have ever read (and I've read maybe a hundred). Clear, direct, accessible, and profound. (less)
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May 26, 2018Marie rated it did not like it
Shelves: health-diet-and-well-being
A tedious read for me and most likely why it took 8 months to complete. With each new chapter, I was expecting something new and I felt like it was the same information over and over in different words: upset is optional, sitting is hard work and not for everyone, nothing is real except this moment, no matter how long you sit you likely never reach enlightenment and there's probably more that I just couldn't absorb because I felt like I was reading the same chapter over and over again.
In addition, the conversational bits with the students got old really quickly. It felt trite and condescending. (less)
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May 07, 2014Beatrice rated it it was amazing
Shelves: mind-body
I do not carve time to meditate in the Zen tradition of sesshin but I read this book to explore the practice of Zen and its canons.
It did awaken some considerations about my own approach to life and they were a useful addition. I found the Dorothy chapter resonated with something I read in Jon Kabat Zin's book and that is, we are on a constant search for our "path" when in fact, our path is in everything we do on a daily basis. From the mundane tasks to our deepest connections with those around us. I absolutely savored this book.
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Nothing SpecialLiving Zen
By Charlotte Joko Beck, Steve Smith
A very practical and creative guidebook to transformation.
Book Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
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It takes a long time for Zen practice to transform a person. A teacher in Japan often requires new students to practice for ten years before they can hope to work with him personally. After this probation period, he may tell them to sit for another ten years. Then he will take them on. Charlotte Joko Beck tells this story to illustrate the truth that practice takes a long time and a strong commitment. She has taught Zen in San Diego and is the author of Everyday Zen.
In this practical volume, Beck answers questions from students and comes up with many creative ways to look at the Zen path. Practitioners are advised to get out of the stagnant waters they have created through self-centered thoughts, anger, and depression. She challenges us to think about Zen as melting cubes. There are chapters on struggle, sacrifice, separation and connection, change, awareness, freedom, wonder and nothing special. The last phrase refers to the ability to stay with life as it is in the present moment. Or as Master Rinzai has put it: "Put no head above your own."
Beck's major theme in these talks is spiritual growth. We were quite taken with two passages. In the first, she says: "In spiritual maturity, the opposite of injustice is not justice, but compassion. Not me against you, not me straightening out the present ill, fighting to gain a just result for myself and others, but compassion, a life that goes against nothing and fulfills everything." This quality seems in short supply in our times. And we desperately need to bring it to fruition in our lives.
In the second passage, Beck writes: "The everyday tedium of our lives is the desert we wander, looking for the Promised Land. Our relationships, our work, and all the little necessary tasks we don't want to do are all the gift. We have to brush our teeth, we have to buy groceries. we have to do the laundry, we have to balance our checkbook. This tedium — this wandering in the desert — is in fact the face of God. Our struggles, the partner who drives us crazy, the report we don't want to write — these are the Promised Land." Everything in our lives becomes part of the practice of waking up to things as they are. Charlotte Joko Beck brings the Zen path to life in this wonderful book.
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Notes on: Nothing Special: Living Zen by Charlotte Joko Beck
Struggle:
1. Self-centered thinking arises from living in fear and drains us of life energy thereby resulting in stagnation.
2. Pursuit of comfort and security blinds us to the true nature of reality.
3. Finding fault with ourselves or others helps no one, especially oneself.
4. It is not what we do that makes us unhappy but the judgments we make about it. (Note: Judgments are grounded in our beliefs)
5. Positive thinking like negative thinking is a burden that requires constant lifting (effort) that eventually wears us down.
6. We all experience pressure or stress. Our chief feature or coping strategy is how we handle it, e.g., anger or blaming.
7. The little mind or the observer is the ego. When the observer is silenced and no longer produces a swarm of self-centered thoughts, there is only awareness and acceptance of things as they are.
8. Our baseboard or interpretive mind is the source of all of our distress, not the events that we experience.
9. Any time one feels upset about something, we have evidence that the interpretive mind is engaged.
10. The task is not to avoid reacting to events but rather how long we stay with the reaction and what we do with the energy.
11. Meditation is a method to aid us in dissolving self-centered thoughts arising out of the interpretive mind and thereby quieting the interpretive mind.
Sacrifice:
1. Feeling guilty about victimizing (treating as objects) others in the past is a way of sacrificing (victimizing) ourselves in a misguided attempt at atonement.
2. Practice leads to self-knowledge, which increases our choices, including becoming aware of impulses to treat others as objects and choosing not to act on the impulse and break the cycle of suffering.
3. Desires demand satisfaction and lead to disappointment. Realization that nothing will ever permanently satisfy us is the first step toward serious practice.
4. Desires arise from beliefs about how things should be. Practice helps us recognize these beliefs for what they are - egocentric (dualistic) thinking.
5. Disappointed desires lead to anger, which serves to separate us and sustain dualistic thinking.
6. The opposite of injustice is not justice but compassion. Fighting to gain a just result is grounded in anger, which is the mother of resentment, jealousy and depression.
7. The failure to know joy is a reflection of one's inability to forgive, which in turn is rooted in our egocentrism (subject/object dualism). In practice we observe this egotistic thinking and learn to release it making room for forgiveness.
8. We enter into practice with the expectation that it will solve our problems. This makes practice about what ego wants. Practice must be about being focused on life and learning from it rather than being focused on ourselves and what we desire.
9. The more intent we are on controlling our circumstances the more stress we feel. The more stress we feel the more miserable we become and the more willing we are to victimize (sacrifice) others to our ends.
10. Life is not a safe space and all protective mechanisms eventually fail. We must simply live life without expectations (beliefs) about how it should be.
Separation and Connection:
1. Dualistic thinking leads to a feeling of separation, which is the source of ego-centric thinking and contention.
2. Ego-centric thinking produces attachments, which are not possessions but our beliefs, thoughts and feelings about possessive objects.
3. Attachments imply a fear of losing possessive objects. Thus, to let go of an attachment requires facing and letting the fear pass.
4. Subject/object thinking divides the world into self and other about which we form many beliefs and feelings that govern our interactions.
5. Unity with All That Is flows from awareness (Be Here Now) unimpeded by beliefs, judgments and emotional reactions to them.
6. Pain and discomfort are a natural part of life and part of the experience of being human and being alive.
7. We must make peace with ourselves before we can become one with the world.
8. Separateness requires fear of annihilation or death, which leads to anger and from this comes conflict that destroys relationship and strengthens separateness.
9. The urge to action, to do "something," arises from self-centered thinking and seldom makes much difference. We just like to think it does.
10. Awareness (Be Here Now) gives one patience, which allows right action to arise spontaneously.
11. Focus on our own thoughts, feelings, sensations and actions instead of judging others will lead to self-knowledge and release us from attachments.
Change:
1. The reality of our live includes pain as well as joy in the flow of events.
2. Dealing with this reality is preparation of the ground from which transformation of the mind and body and grow.
3. Events come and go and letting them pass through your life without grasping at or complaining about them allows room for enjoying life.
4. Practice will reveal the simple meaning to be found in life -- enjoying the opportunities that flow the flow of life presents to us.
5. We perceive life as a series of experiences and to each we bring associations and memories from our past. This turns the experience into an object, which promotes subject/object or dualistic thinking and separateness.
6. Enlightenment is found in experiencing life free of associations, memories and thoughts. Letting go of the cognitive structures that we impose on experience is the most difficult and threatening task we face in our practice.
7. We experience life as a series of dualistic relationships. We need a strategy for dealing with not-self. The most common strategies are:
conforming, attacking or withdrawing.
8. The ego is grounded in the strategy we choose and elaborate. We live our life seeking confirmation of our strategy through our choices in work, friends, organizations, etc.
9. No matter how well developed our strategy there are always uncertainties, which opens us up to fear and since the body reflects the mind, we develop physical effect or "emotional contractions" that can become illnesses.
10. Our ceaseless internal dialogue or chatter Benoit calls "the imaginary film," which is our ceaseless thinking, planning and plotting to avoid the emotional contraction that arises from our efforts to protect ourselves from unpleasantness and pain.
11. The path to enlightenment must pass through this imaginary film and we must come to terms with what lies beneath it. Then we can "be here now" and know non-duality and peace.
12. We labor under the delusion that other people are going to comfort us, save us and give us peace. Until we let go of this delusion that other people exist to do something for us, it will not be possible to deal with our emotional contraction (fear).
13. Life is a series of disappointments that prompt us to work ever harder at refining our strategy to make it work better. The disappointments continue and so does our misery until we realize that the disappointments are really opportunities.
14. When we're frozen like an ice cube by our emotional contraction, we thin life is going around slamming into other ice cubes or being slammed by them.
15. We need to just watch and experience who we really are. We must recognize we can't do much about other "ice cubes" and know it is not our business to do so anyway. When we complain about, analyze or try to fix others, we are playing the futile ice cube game.
16. What we usually think is our problem is often a pseudo-problem. The real problem is the underlying fear (EC) that we are trying to avoid. The problem is not out there it is in us.
17. From our beliefs, opinions and judgments, we build a castle in which we imprison ourselves. Anything that threatens the castle we've built upsets us and is perceived as a problem.
18. Zen practice isn't about adjusting to the problem. It is seeing that there isn't any problem.
Awareness:
1. We try to avoid just being what we are.
2. Our thoughts latch onto conditioned beliefs, which give us an illusory view of reality. If we simply maintain awareness of our thoughts, just looking at them will cause them to fade away.
3. All doing arises from the thought that things should be different than they are. Our thoughts are always occupied with trying to get somewhere.
4. Anxiety lies in the gap between idea and reality. When we let go of our idea about how things ought to be and accept that things are as they are, we become centered.
5. Practice is learning to live in reality, seeing it for what it is and enjoying it.
6. All of our opinions about life separate us from it. We become numb to the sensations associated with what's happening now and are left feeling unsatisfied with life.
7. Life in the present consists of the five senses plus functional thought
(abstract and creative thinking and planning), i.e., not ego centered thought.
8. When one finds oneself engaged in ego-centered thinking, refocus awareness on one sensory input such as the sounds present and awareness of other sensations will be drawn back into focus.
9. Right action in a situation arises naturally from being centered.
Emotions that arise when centered are true emotions and are immediate and unique reactions to the present situation and lack ego involvement.
10. Problems arise when we subordinate awareness of the moment to self centered thoughts such as our personal priorities, i.e., what I want. Thus, when life doesn't go the way we want it to go, we get angry, depressed or upset in some way.
11. A narrow practice though at times useful restricts awareness and doesn't transfer well to living our daily lives.
12. Awareness practice is open to any present experience and helps us release self-centered emotional reactions and attachments.
13. If we think our feeling are more important than what's happening at the moment we're spinning a web in which we'll become entangled.
14. Generalizations about life create a fog that obscures our awareness of reality. Conceptual thinking can be useful and necessary for some things but concepts are descriptive abstractions, not reality.
15. False generalizations and harmful concepts always have an ego centered emotional association.
16. The essence of Zazen practice is to be totally what you're doing. The point is to experience directly and unfiltered what is happening.
17. Our psychological self is revealed by labeling our habitual thoughts about ourselves and our lives.
18. drama is always in self-centered mental creations that we use to generate excitement as a diversion to avoid being what we are.
19. To be ego-centric is to be allergic to being.
20. Good practice is uneventful and viewed as boring but over time we experience "boring" as joy and recognize this as the ground state for our life.
Freedom:
1. Pre-practice: One is wholly caught up in emotional reactions to life and the belief life happening to us.
2. Steps in Practice
a. Becoming aware of our feelings and internal reactions to our thought. Knowing our personal dramas.
b. Breaking down emotional states into their physical and mental components.
c. Brief periods of pure experiencing without self-centered thought.
d. Movement into a more consistent non-dual state of living the is experiential.
e. Most of one's life is lived from an experiential base.
f. Pure experiential living -- Buddhahood -- rarely achieved.
3. The move from step one to two is the hardest. If we persist in making emotional judgments such as believing another person makes us angry our ego is still hard at work and we're still in step one.
4. Practice is nothing but an attitude of curiosity. What's going on right now? What am I thinking and feeling? What is happening right now?
5. Zen practice is about functioning from moment-to-moment. Instead we get caught up in thoughts and emotional reactions, which are obsessive loops. We may have an obsessive perfectionism loop, obsessive understanding or knowing loop, an obsessive work loop or whatever. Loops are simply detours, distractions or resistance to truly knowing ourselves rather than who we think we are.
6. There is a kind of impersonal quality or God's eye view of things that develops in someone who sits for a long time. This is not unfeeling or callous just impersonal. Franklin Merrill-Wolff's "the high indifference."
7. Transformation arises from a willingness to be what life asks of us. We must really be open to life as it is to experience transformation.
8. Our life needs to be impeccable -- Carlos Castaneda -- that is being aware as we can be in every moment.
9. Zen practice is about growing up, which requires an investigation of our self-centered dream reality.
10. In separating ourselves from the world we create duality. We occupy our ego with avoiding what we believe to be threatening, unpleasant or boring.
11. There is nothing natural about self-centered emotions. They are simply physical sensations and thought that we've cooked up.
12. Compassion comes from openness to what is. Trying to be compassionate is like trying to be spontaneous.
Wonder:
1. Worrying about the past or imagining the future is pointless. There is nothing for us to do except live in the moment.
2. We spend our lives trying to avoid the unavoidable. Instead of living in the moment, we spend most of our lives in imaginative fantasies and melodramas, which are rooted in memories.
3. We view life as a struggle but the struggle arises because of the difference between reality and the thoughts in our mind. The struggle is what practice is about, that is, facing our life directly so that we see what we're really doing. We must understand that thinking won't change anything.
4, We have preferences to which we add emotions that transform them into demands. These needs are mental creation that should be dissolved back into simple preferences.
5. Happiness implies unhappiness and is an example of the dualistic thinking trap. Joy on the other hand is who we are, if we're not preoccupied with our ego-centered thoughts.
6. Our lives are basically about perception or the precepts created from the sensations that we experience. Problems arise through ego-centered analysis and evaluation of our precepts. Doing this we create drama and try to use it to avoid the world of perception and simple being, which we find dull or uncomfortable. Are you allergic to being?
7. Practice is about facing our suffering. If we can't learn to be our experience, whatever it may be, we'll never know joy.
8. We obsess about troublesome persons, our relationships, our work or whatever. We get caught up in self-centered thoughts about these and become upset. We become absorbed in dramas of our own creation, which keep our minds racing and our emotions fired up. This is the barrier to joy.
9. Enlightenment is simply experiencing the joy that flows from total commitment to living in the moment. Being fully immersed in the flow of perceptions without interruption by ego-centered thoughts.
10. What is necessary for a good sitting is to become willing to be aware of what is happening in the moment. Be here now!
11. If we are angry, we have to know this, we have to feel it, we have to sense what thoughts are creating it. Often it is found to come from thoughts arising from deep-seated conditioning that drives us to do what we do.
12. When we fail to see the wonder in what we experience in life then we are in trouble. Wonder isn't to be found only in special things and events but can be found in the most mundane aspects of our lives.
13. Practice is about wonder. We gain the ability to see the wonder in life no matter what it is and regardless of whether we like it or don't like it.
14. From movement comes change and in change there is chaos. From chaos comes new order, which in turn becomes chaos. That's what life is. Peace is being willing to be with the chaos. That doesn't mean we don't take any action, but even our action is part of the chaos. Yet the chaos is not chaos -- it is wonder.
Nothing Special:
1. Diaphragmatic breathing is an important first step when sitting.
2. Don't try to quiet the mind rather be conscious of what it's doing. Observe you mind with detachment like a conscientious scientist. Label your thoughts and let them pass on. Mindfulness.
3. What we quiet is not our thoughts but our attachment to them. This attachment is the major obstacle to Samadhi or full absorption in the present.
4. As the quality of our practice increases so does our ability to distinguish between what is real and what is fantasy, which is how we begin to eliminate our personal dramas.
5. Our dramas usually focus on negative events, experiences and beliefs that we think define our lives. We become very attached to these stories and believe they convey great truth. We must be willing to abandon our beliefs in these stories if we are to eliminate their hold on us.
6. Perfectionist ideals and guilt over failing to live up to them block clear awareness and the possibility of experiencing who we are, which is the only thing that matters.
7. The most important thing about our practice is our intent. We must intend to practice, to be present in the moment and to be aware.
8. Experience life as it appears right now and live without drama, which seals us off from a functioning, caring life and the experience of joy.
9. Practice is about developing a simple mind or a natural mind (our Buddha nature), which is unassuming and unpretentious. Living through our natural mind eliminates the confusion that arises from the complex external environment.
10. The natural mind doesn't need to oppose others even when they're difficult. We observe their foibles without thinking we have to fix them. We enjoy the world as it is and without judgment.
11. Through our natural mind we sense our connectedness to everything and that leads us to act differently.
12. Just being present now and with the awareness of the natural mind is cleansing and promotes healing in our life.
13. Chasing after ideals or enlightenment is grasping at an illusion.
14. Trying to achieve enlightenment (Kensho or Satori) will never unlock the door, which is always open. It is our belief that it is locked that keeps it shut.
End
