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Stories about my First Zen Teacher Taizan Maezumi-roshi mix with ones about the outrageous Beat Poet and Zen Master, my Second Teacher, Zenshin Phil Whalen at the infamous Hartford Street Zen Center as the years of Maitri Hospice at that address came to a close. Other stories emerge about the men and women I met as a Zen Monk, hospice worker, Rehabilitation Teacher of the Blind, volunteer meditation teacher in prisons in Texas and California, and I don't hold back my comments about American Buddhism and Zen.

The book is easier to buy and slightly cheaper at amazon.com or Barnes and Noble, but if you can put up with the complications, I make more money when you buy it from AuthorHouse.

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and attend them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
Welcome difficulty.
Learn the alchemy True Human Beings know: the moment you accept what troubles you've been given, the door opens.
Welcome difficulty as a familiar comrade.
Joke with torment brought by a Friend.
Sorrows are the rags of old clothes and jackets that serve to cover, and then are taken off.
That undressing, and the beautiful naked body underneath, is the sweetness that comes after grief.

Click on either image above (Christ Pantokrator or the Healing Buddha) and you will be taken to a list of recommended links and resources