Customer Reviews

The Life and Letters of Tofu Roshi

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Tofu Roshi is the alter ego of Susan Moon, a longtime Zen practitioner and writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tofu Roshi's advice to the lovelorn, instructions on meditation, and overall guidance on life gave me many, many belly laughs. Roshi's words are complimented by photos of his (or is it her? Tofu Roshi's gender is rather questionable!) students hard at work to get enlightened. If you know anything about Buddhism, or are involved in a Buddhist group {sangha), and are prone to taking yourself and the practice too seriously, this book is just the right medicine for you.

This book was a very entertaining story about the No Way Zen Center. Tofu Roshi and his two students' rivalries carry the story through instructive chapters and humorous accounts of their lives. Nonetheless, their spiritual journies move them along their paths. As Tofu Roshi says "Life is like a washing machine-it is a transforming process. And like a washing machine, you do not always get out of it what you put into it."

The interesting thing about Zen is that a humor book about Zen can be just as enlightening as a normal book about Zen. Zen has a strong tradition of humor and self-parody. Susan Ichi Su Moon has a warm heart which shows through her gentle and hilarious book. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Some readers may be tempted to view this as a book of humor, intended to "lighten up" the often ponderous tendency of American practictioners of Eastern religions to take themselves too seriously. Such readers would be completely mistaken. This is a very serious book. The laughs it elicits on each page are merely sweet flavoring intended to make the deep truths of Tofu Roshi's teachings more palatable.

Gahan Wilson's gruesome Forward is just a premonition of the deep sea of profundity that awaits the eager seeker after enlightenment in this book

The best joke in the book is the one about the Zen Masters changing light bulbs, how it takes two, one to change it and one not to change it. Hmmm. Did I get that right?

Also, there is a running shoe motif thoughout the book that I didn't quite get.

Am I really that clueless?

See how Enlightenment spreads from the words of Tofu Roshi! I've already started the daily measurement of the length of my toenails.