Bad Dog! : A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places

What would happen if, instead of bolting your doors against the intrusion of demons you invited them in? Bad Dog! is a vivid testament to the unforeseen love, beauty, and redemption discovered in the most difficult times and places. It reads like a collection of closely linked short stories (think JD Salinger) but is in fact a work of literary nonfiction (think Robert Fulgham, or Augusten Burroughs). Bad Dog! will appeal to anyone who has fallen into dark places and wants to climb back into the light. With quietly crafted poetic language of a quality rarely seen in spiritual books, Lin Jensen tells the stories of his remarkably difficult life: his tumultuous early years on a struggling Midwestern turkey farm, his failed marriage, and the search for meaning that led him eventually to become a Zen teacher. The raw and earthy lessons of Bad Dog! cut to the quick with an understated power, and the reader is left at the end of each chapter subtly transformed, able to reflect more deeply and more fruitfully on the struggles of our own lives. Lin Jensen's writing has rare poetic and literary merit. Lin Jensen received the Best Nonfiction/Spiritual Book award from Today's Librarian for his previous book, Uncovering the Wisdom of the Heartmind . He has taught writing in various colleges and universities for over twenty years, and continues to teach Buddhist ethics and practices at Chico State University. He is the founding teacher and senior teacher emeritus of the Chico Zen Sangha, in Chico, California, where he lives with his wife. A Collection Of Thirty Stories By Buddhist Writers Covers A Wide Range Of Forms And Topics, Including Short-shorts And Fictionalized Memoirs. Acceleration / Mark Terrill -- Nixon Under The Bodhi Tree / Gerald Reilly -- Martyr / M.j. Huang -- Rebirth / Lama Surya Das -- Where Do We Go From Here / Doris Dörrie -- Zoo Animal Keeper I, Rec-svc-zk / Martha Gies -- Hungry Ghost / Keith Kachtick -- The Golden Mix / Ira Sukrungruang -- Buddherotica / Jeff Wilson -- Morning / Leah E. Sammel -- Meditation / Judith R. Peterson -- In The Sky There Is No Footstep / Margo Mcloughlin -- Enlarging The Zendo / John Rueppel -- A Walk In Kurama / Pico Iyer -- The Prediction, And, Teeth / Marilyn Stablein -- Beheadings / Kira Salak -- At The Change Of Seasons / Marie Henry -- Fire Sermon / Merry Speece -- Beautiful Work / Sharon Cameron -- The Mantra And The Typist: A Story Of East And West / Anne Carolyn Klein -- Memorizing The Buddha / Keith Heller -- Mi Mi May / Diana Winston -- Greyhound Bodhisattva / Francesca Hampton -- The War Against The Lawns / Easton Waller -- Tanuki / Jan Hodgman -- No Kingdom Of The Eyes / Dinty W. Moore -- Old Horse / Jake Lorfing -- The Guest At The Feast Of Bon / Victor Pelevin -- Buddha In A Box / Cathy Rose. Edited By Kate Wheeler ; Foreword By Charles Johnson. Playful, thoughtful, and important, the 28 poets found in The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry offer innovations on traditional and time-honored Buddhist poetic forms. This unique collection brings us African Americans reading the Black diaspora through the eyes of exiled Tibetan monks; Americans of Vietnamese and Tibetan heritage wrestling with the cultural norms of their parents or ancestors; Zen and Dada inspired performance pieces; and groundbreaking writings from the pioneers of the Beat movement, so many of whom remain not just relevant but vital to this day. With its eclectic mix of acknowledged elders and newly emergent voices, this landmark anthology vividly displays how Buddhism is influencing the character of contemporary poetry. Includes biographical notes and historical introduction by the editor, enhancing its value for workshop and classroom use. Includes works Everybody loves Novice to Master ! As you'll see in the glowing endorsements and reviews included below, this modern spiritual classic has been embraced by readers of all types. In his singularly humorous and biitingly direct way, Zen abbot Soko Morinaga tells the story of his rigorous training at a Japanese Zen temple, his spiritual growth and his interactions with his students and others. Morinaga's voice is uniquely tuned to the truth of the condition of the human mind and spirit and his reflections and interpretations are unvarnished and succinct. His great gift is the ability to lift the spirit of the reader all the while exposing the humility and weakness in the lives of people, none more so than his own. Read on to see what everyone from Publishers Weekly to well-known Buddhist figures and even New York Times bestselling author Anthony Swofford have to say about this one of a kind book! "To most of us there have come exceptional, unworldly moments, like unsuspected deeps in a stream, when we fell through appearances - fell through ourselves - into an intuition of majesty and wonder." - Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano in Landscapes of Wonder Landscapes of Wonder deftly transports the spirit of Buddhist contemplation off the cushion and into the natural world. With a lyricism and spiritual immediacy reminiscent of Thoreau and Emerson, in eighteen meditational essays Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano considers Buddhist themes through the prism of nature. The reflections captured in these satisfying literary explorations will appeal to all who appreciate contemplation of the natural world and our place in it.

Playful, thoughtful, and important, the 28 poets collected here — including pioneers of the Beat movement, many of whom remain not just relevant but vital to this day — offer innovations on traditional and time-honored Buddhist poetic forms. The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry contains valuable biographical notes and an historical introduction by editor Andrew Schelling. The anthology includes works by: Diane di Prima, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Norman Fischer, Sam Hamill, Jane Hirshfield, Mike O'Connor, Gary Snyder, Eliot Weinberger, Philip Whalen, Michael McClure, Leslie Scalapino, and more.

Pico Iyer, Victor Pelevin, Doris Dorrie and other renowned contributors join young award-winners in what National Book Award-winner Charles Johnson calls "an embarrassment of literary riches," sure to please fiction lovers of every stripe. From the O. Henry Award-winning title story, to visionary short-shorts and barely fictionalized personal memoirs, Nixon Under the Bodhi Tree is inventive, exciting, and unlike any collection before it. A collection of 18 literary essays on the philosophy and practices of Buddhism, "Landscapes of Wonder" is an unusual and highly original work. Nyanasobhano has taken one of the oldest traditions of Buddhism and presented it in its most natural surroundings--the natural world in which we live. Eighteen essays "outline some important features of Buddhism ... and suggest how to find illustrations and timely lessons in our own surroundings."--Preface, p.xii