Buddha's Flower - Newton's Apple: One Person's Exploration of Enlightenment in a Material World

A young German singer on a concert tour in Japan discovers Zen Buddhism. After many years of meditation practice and arduous effort, she finally attains enlightenment—that’s when her troubles begin. Her tumultuous life and an odyssey through spiritual disciplines force her to confront and doubt everything she has been taught and believed about this special state of consciousness beyond words. She is compelled to ask: What is enlightenment when the religious context is stripped away? How helpful is a mind state that is devoid of all emotion? How does it fit with the equally real experience of being an energetic, impulsive woman living in today’s complex world?…an unemployed singer who needs to earn money?…a wife in love with a husband living on the other side of the ocean in New York? She desperately needs to come to peace with a reality that has no morals, no ethics, no advice, yet feels beautiful and serene. In a quest to find a solution to her dilemma, and in order to stay healthy and sane, she dives into neuro-science, developmental psychology, philosophy and more…but is there really a solution?

Dagmar Apel began practicing Zen Buddhism in 1970 with Roshi Philip Kapleau at the Rochester Zen Center, and she has since been deeply involved in meditation practice. She studied with Jiddu Krishnamurti and was an assistant, co-teacher, and close friend of the late Toni Packer of the Springwater Center. She originally trained as a classical singer, touring extensively with the a capella group "Collegium Vocale Köln," performing contemporary and Renaissance music. She received her Master's degree in Functional Voice Training from Antioch University in 1990, and is also a certified Feldenkrais practitioner. For more than a decade she was on the faculty of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. She currently works as a voice coach and lives with her husband in New York.