The Zen Path Through Depression [Paperback]

Philip Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 2000

Drawing on his own struggle, Philip Martin reveals another path people can travel to get through depression – one that not only eases the pain, but mends the spirit. Extremely accessible to people with little or no Zen experience as well as to longtime students of Buddhism,The Zen Path Through Depression shows how the insights and exercises of Zen offer relief for those suffering from depression.This groundbreaking guide shows how to cope and heal, and even how to see the experience as an opportunity for spiritual growth and learning. Leading readers step-by-step through a recovery process that uses walking meditation and other meditative ways of enhancing awareness, koans, and other Zen teachings, Martin offers true help and spiritual guidance on the path to healing and contentment.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Since depression sometimes responds well to drugs, it's natural to think that, without medicinal intervention, we're helpless in the face of it. Like John Tarrant's groundbreaking Light Inside the Dark, Philip Martin's The Zen Path Through Depression offers a powerful alternative. A psychiatric social worker having recovered from depression himself, Martin is a sympathetic voice, urging the reader not to escape from depression or fight against it but to face it and work through it. He says that the mindfulness exercises appended to each short section of his book are optional, but they seem essential. It's true that the book could stand alone with its one- and two-page sections devoted to trenchant explorations of fear, death, sufficiency, choice. But the exercises bring you through the quagmire of depression and back into life. They are true experiences that untie knots impervious to thought alone. Instead of thinking your thoughts, you watch them, and where they can take you finally is back into joyful living. --Brian Bruya --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

At age 37, Buddhist scholar and psychiatric social worker Martin found himself in the grips of a depression that initially eluded his reliance on Buddhist practice to stay balanced. However, like Jonathan Zuess, M.D., the author of last year's The Wisdom of Depression, Martin eventually found in depression an unexpected opportunity for spiritual exploration. He has distilled the lessons he learned into 43 brief essays on topics such as pain, impermanence, death, faith and selflessness, each of which aim to encourage the patient to accept and examine depression rather than attempt to escape or heal it. In contrast to popular conceptions of Buddhism as "a dry, joyless, intellectual exercise," Martin asserts that "the path Buddha offered is one of turning toward and moving into joy." His meditative exercises will have a familiar ring to readers already versed in the subject. Among the more innovative ones are those dealing with thoughts of suicide and death, in which he recommends writing one's prospective obituary or imagining in detail the genuine effect of one's suicide on others, including those who discover the body. Agent, Scott Edelstein.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 1 edition (February 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060654465
• ISBN-13: 978-0060654467
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,051,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm usually a tough reviewer, but this book's actually good!, April 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Zen Path Through Depression (Hardcover)

Finally, something helpful for that interminable time when you're in the middle of a six-month bout of severe depression. It helped me to minimise the fear of long-lasting depression and the thoughts that maybe it will never pass. Maybe it won't (though we all know depressions usually eventually lift, but it's impossible to believe this at the time), but at least this book says: "Hey, there are some good things about being depressed." And it tells you what these are, so you can appreciate this awful state of mind for a few moments. Much easier to digest when you're depressed than those useless and offensive "Think Bright And Happy Thoughts"-style of books.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful in those wakeful moments at 3am,, April 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Zen Path Through Depression (Hardcover)

I have found his book very helpful to me when I am awake in the middle of the night and focused on my depression. The exercises at the end of the brief, useful chapters are a calm voice leading me back to letting me relax again. The table of contents allows me to look for the topic that strikes the most immediate note for me. I love this book and recommend it heartily, whether you take medication for depression or not.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cross out the word "depression;" change it to "life!", January 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Zen Path Through Depression (Hardcover)

This book came to my attention just when I really needed it.

Don't confuse this volume with the fuzzy-minded dreck filling the shelves of your local New Age bookstore. Martin's writing is simple and lucid, tempered by years of zazen under the guidance of an authentic master of the Soto school. He invites you to recognize your depression as an opportunity to grow, and as a teacher. The modest exercises offered at the end of most chapters cannot fail to help a sincere student.

Non-Buddhists will discover much of value here, but Zen students will find it especially rewarding. Many passages earned the approval of my day-glo hilighter. I will return to this little book of wisdom again and again.