A Glimpse of Nothingness: Experiences in an American Zen Community

VAN DE WETERING, Janwillem

ISBN 10: 0395204429 / ISBN 13: 9780395204429

Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA, 1975

About this Item

This book recounts the author's two-week intensive retreat in the company of an oddly assorted and fascinating group of Americans who have dedicated themselves to the a arduous discipline of Zen meditation. Professional book dealer since 1975. All orders are processed promptly and packaged with the utmost care.

Seller Inventory # 018872

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Glimpse of Nothingness: Experiences in an American Zen Community
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA
• Publication Date: 1975
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0395204429
• ISBN 13: 9780395204429
• Binding: Cloth w/ DJ in mylar
• Edition: First American Edition
• Condition: Very Good+
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

The author records a two-week intensive retreat with the American assistant of his former Japanese Zen master, his reactions to the company of American disciples, and his achievement of mystical experience after more than ten years of meditation

From the Publisher

"A Glimpse of Nothingness is so honest--so 'Zen'--that it contains...just life....it's just truth." --San Francisco Review

"This is a book that deserves serious attention...eminently readable, easy to relate to on several different levels, and a fascinating and encouraging tale of human communal endeavor." --The New York Times Book Review

"I was pleasantly surprised to find the book enjoyable...the main virtue of this book is van de Wetering's skill for re-creating places, feelings, scenes, and encounters. The book is relaxed, alternately serious and humorous, and insightful. A Glimpse of Nothingness describes the Zen path of one Westerner who began by seeking for the sense of it all, and who came to realize at least a part of it." --The Shambhala Review

"The most down-to-earth account of the Zen discipline ever written for Westerners...van de Wetering clears away the thicket of intellectualization and mannered inscrutability and gets down to the ordinariness of Zen. Even those who normally reject spiritual trips...will find this dogged, bourgeois seeker hard to ignore." --Kirkus Reviews