Grassroots Zen by Perle Besserman

Grassroots Zen by Perle Besserman

Future generations may come to see the publication of Grassroots Zen as a pivotal moment in the emergence of a uniquely American Zen.
--Rami Shapiro, Minyan: Ten Principles for Living a Life of Integrity

Steger and Besserman offer something quite different, and quite welcome. a Zen that comes to terms with, and ultimately transcends, the hierarchical, sexist, otherworldly, and pseudo-militaristic overtones of the Zen tradition. --Library Journal

This book will appeal to all] who are uncomfortable with Zen's hierarchies and moral prescriptions. --Shamhbala Sun

. Steger and Besserman name and describe a phenomenon that is occurring all over the country: relatively small, democratically run groups of Zen Buddhist practitioners are banding together and sustaining a sangha, or community, free of the hierarchy and formality of the monastery.
--Publishers Weekly

A short, clear presentation on one way to make Zen less Japanese and more Western. --Rita M. Gross, Buddhism After Patriarchy

Grassroots Zen envisions a socially engaged Buddhism where zazen is integrated each day with work, family, and social obligations. Though both authors have practiced traditional Zen for decades, here they eschew the militaristic, patriarchal tendencies of Zen in favor of an egalitarian community of socially mobile members who place less emphasis upon transmission and hierarchy than on individual responsibility.

Married university professors and authors Manfred Steger (Gandhi's Dilemma: Nonviolent Principles and Nationalist Power) and Perle Besserman (aka Perle Epstein) (The Shambhala Guide to Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism) studied first under the cultural weight of Japanese Zen, then with the light-footed lay master Robert Aitken. Founders of the Princeton Area Zen Group in NJ, they have been teaching their democratic, grassroots-style of Zen for over twenty-five years.

Recipient of the Theodore Hoepfner Fiction Award and past writer-in-residence at the Mishkenot Sha'ananim Jerusalem Art Colony, Perle Besserman was praised by Isaac Bashevis Singer for the clarity and feeling for mystic lore of her writing and by Publisher's Weekly for its wisdom [that] points to a universal practice of the heart. Her fiction includes novels Pilgrimage (Houghton Mifflin), Kabuki Boy (Aqueous Books) and Widow Zion (Pinyon Publishing), and the short story collection Yeshiva Girl (Homebound Publishing). Her stories regularly appear in print journals like Agni, The Southern Humanities Review, The Nebraska Review, Transatlantic Review, Southerly, North American Review, and in numerous literary journals online. Besserman's creative non-fiction includes many books on mysticism and spirituality, like The Shambhala Guide to Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism (Shambhala/Random House); Teachings of the Jewish Mystics (Shambhala/Random House); A New Kabbalah for Women (Palgrave Macmillan); A New Zen for Women (Palgrave Macmillan); and, most recently, with Manfred Steger, Grassroots Zen: Community and Practice in the 21st-Century (Monkfish Book Publishing). Her books have been recorded and translated into over fourteen languages. www.perlebesserman.net

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781939681690
ISBN 10	1939681693
Title	Grassroots Zen
Author	Perle Besserman
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Monkfish Book Publishing Company
Year published	2017-06-15
Number of pages	200
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.