Robert Aitken is a retired master of the Diamond Sanga, a Zen Buddhist Society he founded in Honolulu with his late wife in 1959. He now lives in the district of Puna on the big island of Hawai'i. He is the author of eleven books on Zen Buddhism and co-author with Brother David Steindl-Rast of The Ground We Share: Everyday Practice, Buddhist and Christian. Aitken is also co-founder of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship and serves on its international board of advisors. He has been active in peace, social justice, and ecological movements, and his writing reflects his concern that Buddhists be engaged with the struggles of those who are suffering in the world.

Having practiced zazen for more than half a century, Robert Aitken has been affectionately called "the unofficial American dean of Zen." This excellent and wide-ranging collection brings together 29 essays gathered under the thematic headings of "The Basics," "Commentaries," and "Reflections." The book begins with a long and substantive essay, "Taking The Path Anew," where Aitken muses on Zen practice. Whether writing about teachers he has known and worked with, the poetry of Basho, the insights of Dogen, Wallace Stevens and Zen, money, or envisioning the future; the author proves himself to be a wise and witty teacher of nuances.

Here are just a few of the marvels we appreciated in this collection of essays: the important place given to humor and playfulness in monasteries, the ripening of practice when you lose yourself in the doing, the avoidance of doctrine and rigidly defining good and evil in the Zen tradition, the sad ways that individuals can be hurt by gossip, the danger of being so reactive that discouragement or other conditions can color your day, the looming role of questions in the teaching of Zen, beauty as the enjoyment of the suchness of things, the sage as a mature human being, the magical way generosity engenders good things beyond our perception or measurement, and the squandering of our energy on protecting and maintaining our private kingdoms while the public realm goes wanting. And here's a truly thought-provoking quotation on the spiritual practice of connections:

"You live in your all-inclusive universe as you stand up, sit down, and go to the toilet. There is actually only one dimension — in the whole universe there is no being that is not yourself: the bombers and the hapless peasants they bomb, the lumber executives and the old-growth forests they chop down, your spouse and kids tooling around with you in your SUV, and the innumerable who cannot afford a bicycle. Peasants and redwoods are not 'out there.' . . . Bombs destroy the bombers. Chain saws level the mansions, SUVs poison the air and exhaust the oil reserves, and those of us still with feet are reduced to walking. You cannot get out of the boundless dimension that you center, the plural 'you,' of course, but the one responsible is singular."

Try a Spiritual Practice on Connections