Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery

Wetering, Janwillem Van De

ISBN 10: 0710092024 / ISBN 13: 9780710092021

Published by Routledge & Kegan Paul PLC, London, 1973

About this Item

paperback, 145 pages, very good. We are a real bookshop with real books situated in and shipping from the United Kingdom. Shelf B164.

Seller Inventory # 148767

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery
• Publisher: Routledge & Kegan Paul PLC, London
• Publication Date: 1973
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0710092024
• ISBN 13: 9780710092021
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket Issued
• Seller catalogs:
  • Theology

About this title

Synopsis

A small and admirable memoir that records the experiences of a young Dutch student who spent a year and a half as a novice monk in a Japanese Zen Buddhist monastery.

From the Publisher

"It seems obvious that van de Wetering's eight months in a Kyoto monastery still affect the course of his existence." --The Boston Globe

"A vivid, humorous, and slightly disillusioning account of a Dutchman's frustrating struggle toward enlightenment in a Japanese Zen monastery. Insightful, funny." --Carl Rogers

"As might be expected, the author shows a deep respect for the teachings of Zen. What makes this account extraordinary, however, is that the book contains none of the convert's irritating certitude, and no suggestion that the reader rush to follow the author's example." --Time

"What is accessible is the day-to-day description of life, of the monks themselves and of the others he met, of the jokes they played and the food they ate, of the moments of satori, the explosive moment of an understanding surpassing understanding." --The Los Angeles Times

"What emerges is a work of nonfiction told through the ingenuous persona of van de Wetering, that is as enjoyable to read as a well-crafted novel." --East West Journal