The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen monastery [De lege spiegel. English][The gate of the monastery a chicken and a vendor of noodles -- Meditating hurts -- Life is suffering -- Caught between the tigers -- A large glass of soya sauce and a dangerous snake -- A thirsty fish -- A difference of rank and a pigeons -- The first sesshin and the whales penis -- A little black magic -- Rohatsu week of weeks -- The eightfold path and a jump into the swamp -- A shameless day and satori in the willow quarter -- Devils are no good you know that dont you? -- If you dont hold out your hand a Zen master will be murdered -- A court lady discourteously treated -- Attempted manslaughter and doing some shopping -- Is a cloud a member of the sky?]

[1st American ed.] 145 pages 22 cm ISBN 9780395182826, 0395182824 ; OCLC 677437 Contents: The gate of the monastery a chicken and a vendor of noodles -- Meditating hurts -- Life is suffering -- Caught between the tigers -- A large glass of soya sauce and a dangerous snake -- A thirsty fish -- A difference of rank and a pigeons -- The first sesshin and the whales penis -- A little black magic -- Rohatsu week of weeks -- The eightfold path and a jump into the swamp -- A shameless day and satori in the willow quarter -- Devils are no good you know that dont you? -- If you dont hold out your hand a Zen master will be murdered -- A court lady discourteously treated -- Attempted manslaughter and doing some shopping -- Is a cloud a member of the sky? -- Whatever ends begins ; Seen by many as a contemporary classic, Janwillem van de Wetering's small and admirable memoir records the experiences of a young Dutch student-later a widely celebrated mystery writer-who spent a year and a half as a novice monk in a Japanese Zen Buddhist monastery. As Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, author of Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, has written, The Empty Mirror "should be very encouraging for other Western seekers." It is the first book in a trilogy that continues with A Glimpse of Nothingness and Afterzen. ; note laid in from an interviewer of Van De Wetering ; ex-lib, stamps marks ; VG/VG.…