Appreciate Your Life: The Essence of Zen Practice (Shambhala Classics) [Paperback]

Taizan Maezumi (Author), Wendy Egyoku Nakao (Editor), Eve Myonen Marko (Editor), Bernie Glassman (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 11, 2002 | Series: Shambhala Classics

Here is the first major collection of the teachings of Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931-1995), one of the first Japanese Zen masters to bring Zen to the West and founding abbot of the Zen Center of Los Angeles and Zen Mountain Center in Idyllwild, California. These short, inspiring readings illuminate Zen practice in simple, eloquent language. Topics include zazen and Zen koans, how to appreciate your life as the life of the Buddha, and the essential matter of life and death.

Appreciate Your Life conveys Maezumi Roshi's unique spirit and teaching style, as well as his timeless insights into the practice of Zen. Never satisfied with merely conveying ideas, his teisho, the Zen talks he gave weekly and during retreats, evoked personal questions from his students. Maezumi Roshi insisted that his students address these questions in their own lives. As he often said, "Be intimate with your life."

The readings are not teachings or instructions in the traditional sense. They are transcriptions of the master's teisho, living presentations of his direct experience of Zen realization. These teisho are crystalline offerings of Zen insight intended to reach beyond the student's intellect to her or his deepest essence.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Do a roll call of the major foreign Zen priests who lived in America to transmit Zen, and you have a pretty short list: Shunryu Suzuki, Seung Sahn, and Taizan Maezumi. Of these, Maezumi is the least well-known, though he transmitted to 12 successors and established 35 Zen centers. In the great Zen tradition of recording a master's words, Maezumi's students have brought together a number of his teisho, presentations to the disciples of a master's realization. Rather than general lectures or public talks, these short pieces were meant to be heard at times of intense practice, during breaks in meditation, when the student's mind is piqued for sparks of enlightenment. Maezumi touches on subjects relevant to the serious practitioner--the bodhi mind, life as a koan, practicing the paramitas, copying sutras, etc. Though not technically difficult, these pieces assume a background in the fundamentals of Buddhism, perfect for the increasing number of readers who have progressed beyond the introductory level and seek more sophisticated guidance. --Brian Bruya --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A brilliant, simple, infinitely subtle appreciation of this precious life."—Peter Matthiessen, author of The Snow Leopard "With a loving heart, Maezumi Roshi carried these teachings in his two hands across the ocean to offer to the West. Now you hold them in your hands, the subtle, profound, enigmatic Zen that awakens trust in your own true nature. Enjoy."—Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry "We are fortunate, with Appreciate Your Life , to finally have a volume that evokes the voice and broad-minded teaching that have meant so much to all of us in Western Zen."—Zoketsu Norman Fischer, Zen priest and poet, founder of the Everyday Zen Foundation, senior dharma teacher at the San Francisco Zen Center "Maezumi Roshi's dharma is gentle, generous, accessible, humorous, and above all encouraging."—Robert Aitken, author of Taking the Path of Zen and Original Dwelling Place --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala (June 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570629161
• ISBN-13: 978-1570629167
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.3 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Teacher, December 30, 2003

By 

Swing King (Cincinnati, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Appreciate Your Life: The Essence of Zen Practice (Shambhala Classics) (Paperback)

In the book "Appreciate Your Life", we come in contact with a compilation of teachings once given by one of the West's greatest Dharma propogators. One would not be making an understatement in saying that Taizan Maezumi was quite possibly one of the most influential Zen masters of modern times. Three of his Dharma heirs include Bernie Glassman Roshi, Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi, and Charlotte Joko Beck. If you know anything about just one of those 3 individuals, you understand Taizan Maezumi's wonderful teachings.

This book shows Maezumi's unique teaching style throughout, providing us with insight after insight unto both the philosophy, and more importantly, the practice of Zen Buddhism. He covers zazen, koan work-and in a nutshell, how to simply appreciate this life we all have. After all, having life is truly awesome! This being so, we go through some rough periods, as well. That's why we practice and sit zazen, why we hold a koan. And yet not only for ourselves, but for everyone we encounter. We literally practice for everyone. I also recommend Tuttle Library's "Teaching of the Great Mountain: Zen Talks by Taizan Maezumi" for those interested in further reading on him. Sincerely, buy this book. It's not "just another book on Zen"; no this book is about life. Guaranteed to not simply collect dust!

Enjoy:)

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Appreciate your life!", January 17, 2007

By 

J. H. Minde "Everything I need is right here" (Boca Raton, Florida and Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Appreciate Your Life: The Essence of Zen Practice (Shambhala Classics) (Paperback)

Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931-1995) was the founder of the White Plum Asanga, one of the largest and most successful of the Western Zen lineages. It is also among the best in its approach to Zen practice, and this slender volume of short teisho shows why. Maezumi Roshi's language is simple and concise while being elegant and yet quite ordinary.

The underlying message here is: Appreciate your life! The direct message is: Appreciate your life! Maezumi Roshi's Dharma talks cover a variety of subjects, from an exploration of Dogen's Fukanzazengi, to the actual practice of sitting zazen, to the effects of daily practice on daily life, but it all comes down to simple humanity and the cultivation of character.

This is a wonderful book for teaching, and zendos frequently use it as a touchstone for discussion and study. Whether you are a Zen practitioner, merely Zen-curious, or know nothing about Zen at all but want to understand the human condition a bit better, APPRECIATE YOUR LIFE is a comfortable and accessible little book, a way to appreciate not only your life, but the good heart of this very wise Master.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important book - Zen MUST read, August 11, 2011

By 

J. LaCoss "Rt. Rev. Maker-of-sawdust" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Appreciate Your Life: Zen Teachings of Taizan Maezumi Roshi (Hardcover)

10-Aug-2011

Appreciate Your Life: Zen Teachings of Taizan Maezumi Roshi ([...]) is an important - and VERY readable - book for anyone interested in Zen practice.

Compiled and edited by Wendy Egyoku Nakao Roshi (Abbot of Zen Center of Los Angeles) and Eve Myonen Marko after his death, Appreciate Your Life is a series of 3- to 7-page chapters organized into three sections relating to key aspects of Zen: The Essence of Zen (basics of practice), Clarify the Great Matter (seeing into who we are), and Where is the Hindrance? (getting past obstacles in our path to realizing Zen in everyday life).

These short chapters are drawn from numerous dharma talks delivered by Maezumi Roshi at ZCLA and other places. These talks are transcribed so that when I read Appreciate Your Life, I felt myself sitting with Maezumi Roshi and hearing him speak. His thinking and delivery are straightforward and clear. Maezumi connects his lessons to everyday life and practice in a very plain, matter-of-fact manner. He also brings his very broad perspective to bear on how Zen relates to Western religions: persons of all faiths can gain considerable insight by reading about his experiences with religious leaders and celebrations.

Egyoku Roshi and Myonen Marko have done a masterful job of transmitting the message of Maezumi Roshi. Many of the lessons arose from questions asked by students, others are his commentary on traditional questions arising in Zen practice.

I highly recommend this book. I also recommend reading it slowly to give time to absorb the material - I read only one or two chapters per day, and plan to re-read the book later this year.