Returning to Silence (Shambhala Dragon Editions) (Paperback)

by Dainin Katagiri (Author) "WHEN WE THINK ABOUT what real silence is, we have to look at it from two angles; the first is to see silence through human..." (more)
Key Phrases: doing gassho, life force bloom, real zazen, Zen Buddhism, Buddha Way, Triple Treasure (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Offers a basic understanding of Zen Buddhism. Special emphasis on discovering the experience of enlightenment in the midst of everyday life.

From the Inside Flap
Offers a basic understanding of Zen Buddhism. Special emphasis on discovering the experience of enlightenment in the midst of everyday life.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala; Second Printing edition (April 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877734313
• ISBN-13: 978-0877734314
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #175,554 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to be read and re-read, October 8, 1999

By A Customer

The silence of the title is our essential core of being. In these essays, Dainin Katagiri Roshi talks about how to connect with this core, and to let it penetrate and resound through the moments of our lives. Katagiri Roshi was a sucessor of Shunryu Suzuki (Zen Mind Beginner's Mind) and like the later, he is at once simple and deep. These talks are not discourses, but "live words," spoken from the heart. They penetrate-- they beg read and read-read, to be taken in thougtfully and thoroughly digested. Katagri, in my mind one of the great modern masters, died in the early 90's. He has left us with this wonderful volume on what it is to know our essential self and to live our lives in this knowledge.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book!, October 25, 2000

By	Mateus N. C. Cunha (Sao Paulo, SP Brazil) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is perhaps one of the most profound books I ever read on Zen practice. His phrasing style is sometimes reminiscent of Heidegger's best philosophical prose. I strongly recommend it for the Zen practitioner... for the merely curious its considerations might appear too immaterial, for they are extremely subtle.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps not for everybody - but a great book nonetheless!, October 11, 1999

By A Customer

I enjoyed this book tremendously. However, I think that to someone who is not a fairly regular practitioner of zen meditation it may seem very strange. For those who DO practice zazen on a regular basis, this book has a lot to offer. It's a very pleasant, quasi-poetic extended meditation on many topics. Don't want to try to pigeonhole it much beyond that. I thought it was a great read and I'm grateful to the author for writing it.