I have finished Janwillem van de Wetering’s trilogy about his Zen experiences. “The Empty Mirror” (about his experiences in Japan) and “A Glimpse of Nothingness” (about his experiences in the US) were both great. In the former book, I could identify with his struggles and it was fascinating to read about the monastic landscape of that time. In the latter book, I really got the message of how important it is to “do my best”. Jan-sen, as he was called, was given that admonition over and over by his Roshi. This is something I can apply to my life.

Jan-sen’s last book, “After Zen”, was a disappointment. His mood was cynical, bitter and defeated. He focused on the dysfunctional characters he met during his Zen practice. He continues to have great doubt but without the desire for the great insight and seems to have forgotten his Roshi telling him to do his best. If he wanted to show that the Zen community is made up of various characters, he didn’t have to do it in such a one-sided way. No doubt, Zen has its fair share of dysfunctional characters.

I hope I’m not too stuck in my own perceptions about the Zen experience. Too stuck in wanting it to be proper that I forget that we are people and people can be weird. Here “weird” is not negative or really judgmental, it just means deviated from the usual. I’m betraying my conventionality. Anyways, this last book is n my opinion too dark and I wouldn’t recommend it.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2006 at 7:41 am and is filed under Book A Week, Zen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.