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The Path of Direct Awakening: Passages for Meditation

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The book is simply beautiful. The selections are splendid, and the introductions and explanations read so smoothly, as being told them by a dear old friend-- restrained yet warm, personal but never cutesy (or even close to it), simple, dignified. For anyone of a non-deistic bent -- or mood -- what a welcome collection this is: meaningful passages, the translations crystal clear, smooth-running, elegant, a great pleasure to read. And the book sits cozily in my hand.

I use Steve Ruppenthal's, The Path of Direct Awakening in my course on the sacred and mystical literature of the world. The passages, selected from Lao Tsu, Confucius, The Buddha, Huang Po, Han Shan, The Sixth Patriarch of Zen, and others from the Chinese tradition, radiate the spirit of nontheistic thought and experience of seekers who sought peace directly, without the intervention of any soul or deity.
Instructions for meditating on passages are included. Those who wish merely to read and be inspired can read happily here, but the means of going deeper are given for those who wish to make the attempt, and are willing to accept the challenge.
Ruppenthal hopes we take it up, and that we will experience "...the ever-real possibility of a breakthrough from the mundane world into that higher realm of light we all have, unnoticed and untapped, within ourselves."

My search for passages from Lao Tsu has been amply rewarded in The Path of Direct Awakening. I am a meditation student of Eknath Easwaren and have read his translation of the Bhagavad Gita. Easwaren's amazing translation makes it seem as though the Gita was originally written in English. The translations in this book are every bit a fluid, readable, and sensible. I am also looking forward to becoming familiar with the work of Han Shan and Chuang Tsu, both new to me.