Both a fascinating glimpse of the interaction between spiritual master and disciple and a lucid analysis of the Zen path of awareness, this book describes techniques for breathing, standing, walking, concentrating, moving the mind, overcoming ego, healing the body, and finally, opening a “window of opportunity” between stillness and motion that allows the expansion of time and consciousness.
Neil Claremon
Born and raised in New York, Neil Claremon graduated from Cornell University and received a Masters from the University of Arizona. While working towards his PhD at Stonybrook University, his first book of poetry, East by Southwest, was published by Simon & Schuster. Because of this early work, he was invited to become the director of the National Endowment for the Arts "Southwest Poetry Program", where he had the opportunity to collaborate with prominent American and native American writers.
He remained there for five years and his experience during that time -- with Native American and Mexican Indian cultures and shamanism -- profoundly influenced his future.
Claremon wrote his acclaimed novel, Borderland, in 1975. As one of the first contemporary books to seriously consider alternative healing techniques, it prompted the New York Times to state that Claremon was "breaking a new literary terrain" while the Bloomsbury Review called him a "shaman and an original thinker". In addition to his novels and books of poetry, Claremon has written screen treatments and synopses of novels for film and television.
In 1991, he published "Zen in Motion -- Lessons from a Master Archer on Breath, Posture, and the Path of Intuition", a product of his tutelage with renowned Zen master Kobin Chino Otagawa, a pioneer who helped fashion Zen Buddhism in the US.
Claremon, his partner Ruth, and his horse Chato balance their time between Westchester, New York and Tucson, Arizona, where he pursues his interest in cosmology. Zen, shamanism, Kabbalah and healing continue to inspire his work and his life.
