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Opening to You: Zen-Inspired Translations of the Psalms

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Fischer has reclaimed the essence of these ancient, passionate songs of suffering and praise. In clear, almost transparent language, he reveals the timeless human longing to *be heard* by a presence that transcends suffering. By stripping away exhausted and loaded language imposed by previous English translations, Fischer shows how language itself can be the tool with which we can forge an intimate relationship with the sacred. As he says in his introduction, "Prayer is not some specialized religious exercise, it is just what comes out of our mouths if we truly pay attention. To pray is to form language, and to form language is to be human." As a Jew who has often turned to poets like Rumi and Rilke for spiritual inspiration, I am delighted to rediscover, thanks to Norman, the treasures within my own heritage.

There was a period in China when monasteries switched between Nestorian Christianity and Chan (Zen) Buddhism based on which was the most persecuted at the time. It is therefore appropriate, I suspose, to translate the Judeo-Christian prayer book, i.e. the Psalms, into a Zen Buddhist conceptual world.

In his search for why the Psalms have retained their value as a prayer book over 3000 years, the Buddhist monk Norman Fischer finds a translation of ideas that works for him. For example, he sees the Psalms' concept of the sovereignty of God as a particular kind of consciousness, related to the mindfulness of Buddhism. In this scheme wickedness is unmindfulness and hence alienation; enemies are internal as much as external.

Many of these translations work in that they make one see the Psalm in a new way ... they serve as a catalysis for a new understanding. Their translation is poetic ... the volume is worth reading simply as poetry. However, the volume is not appropriate either in style or in content, to serve as a Psalter for daily prayer.

Place this volume in the same category as The Psalms in Haiku - a useful and thought-provoking version of the Psalms to turn to when the Psalter is growing old ... to return to for renewing the freshness of your understanding of the psalms.

Norman Fischer has given great thought and deep contemplation to this Zen-inspired translation of many of the Psalms. This book broadened my understanding of ways in which Zen might encounter a Western God. In such an encounter, both East and West might be enlightened. It is beautiful and I highly recommend it.