The Circle of the Way by Barbara O'brien

The Circle of the Way by Barbara O'brien

A comprehensive, accessible guide to the fascinating history of Zen Buddhism--including important figures, schools, foundational texts, practices, and politics.

Zen Buddhism has a storied history--Bodhidharma sitting in meditation in a cave for nine years; a would-be disciple cutting off his own arm to get the master's attention; the proliferating schools and intense Dharma combat of the Tang and Song Dynasties; Zen nuns and laypeople holding their own against patriarchal lineages; the appearance of new masters in the Zen schools of Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and later the Western world. In The Circle of the Way, Zen practitioner and popular religion writer Barbara O'Brien brings clarity to this huge swath of history by charting a middle way between Zen's traditional lore and the findings of modern historical scholarship. In a clear and often funny style, O'Brien parses fact from fiction while always attending to the greatest interest of contemporary practitioners--the development of Zen doctrine and practice as a living tradition across cultures and centuries.

BARBARA O'BRIEN has been practicing Zen Buddhism since the 1980s. She works as a journalist, reporting primarily on religion in America. She is the author of Rethinking Religion: Finding a Place for Religion in a Modern, Tolerant, Progressive, Peaceful and Science-affirming World and has written about Buddhism for many outlets including About.com, The Guardian, Tricycle, and Lion's Roar. She blogs about whatever is on her mind at her personal blog, The Mahablog (mahablog.com).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781611805789
ISBN 10	1611805783
Title	The Circle of the Way
Author	Barbara O'brien
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Shambhala Publications Inc
Year published	2019-11-12
Number of pages	256
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.