Customer Reviews

Zen Paths to Change

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This book really resonated with me, like the experience of listening to a wonderful concert in a great hall surrounded by beautiful flowers while smelling their marvelous fragrance.

The book's introduction explains the key concepts developed here. "It is through change that we learn and grow as individuals." "Zen teaches us to seek out our true selves -- our own talents and creativity -- rather than conforming to what is expected or demanded of us." "Drawing on themes of responsibility, discipline, and perserverance, the quotations and images in this book reveal how we an take a Zen approach to change." "The paths . . . promote . . . a summary of . . . bravery and and passion that will lead us to greater personal fulfillment."

You will find a series of quotations in the book from leading Eastern and Western thinkers. These quotations are typeset to emphasize certain words by making them larger, or putting them at an angle, or dangling them below a line. As the backdrop for the quotes are stunning black-and-white photographic images that draw you into them visually and inside the meaning of the quotations psychologically.

Here are a few of my many favorite quotations in the book:

"Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself." -- Chinese proverb (illustrated by a closed metal gate)

"A man with outward courage dares to die. A man with inward courage dares to live." -- Lae Tzu (illustrated by a ladybug)

"If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark." -- St. John of the Cross (illustrated by a short wooden dock)

"There is no security in life, only opportunity." -- Mark Twain (illustrated by flowers)

"The whole of life lies in the verb seeing." -- Telhard de Chardin

"The Ultimate Path is without difficulty; Just avoid picking and choosing." -- The Blue Cliff Register (illustrated by a scenic spot overlooking the shore)

"If nature is permitted to guide our life, we grow healthy, fruitful and happy." -- Abraham Maslow (illustrated by drops of water on a tomato)

"The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely." -- Carl Jung (illustrated by a tree covered in ice after an ice storm)

"He who knows he has enough is rich." -- Lao Tzu (illustrated by two hands holding grains of rice)

"Life is a daring adventure, or nothing." -- Helen Keller (illustrated by palm trees bending in the breeze on a tropical shore)

"You see things and say, 'why?' but I dream things that never were and say, 'why not?'" -- George Bernard Shaw (illustrated by a starfish)

As you can now see, there is a quiet, meditative quality to this book that is like entering a Japanese garden by yourself.

The right time to share this book is when someone you know is about to face a change that they are fearful of. This book will help them see the beauty instead.

Enjoy your changes in as many ways as you can!

This is part of a three-book series that includes "Zen Paths to Harmony" and "Zen Paths to Laughter." It is a very short collection of (typically one-sentence) snippets of wisdom paired with black & white nature photographs. As I read through the book, I kept thinking that each page should be shrunk, laminated and reincarnated as a refrigerator magnet. The sayings are interesting although in my mind, not necessarily profound -- for example, one page quotes Abraham Maslow -- "If our nature is permitted to guide our life, we grow healthy, fruitful and happy." The facing page sports a photograph of a tomato. On the next spread, Carl Jung says "The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely," and the accompanying (not particularly interesting) photograph is of a tree. This would make a cute gift or something to sit on a coffee table; I don't think that it would provide much more than a starting point for serious thought.

These are beautiful little books full of phrases, both ancient and modern, that are zen-like. I love it! The photography is fantastic. I wish that Amazon would let us see the interiors of these books. I'm going to buy them as book-sized Hallmark cards to send as gifts.