Introduction: Practice as If Your Head Is on Fire (1997) -- Part I. In Penn's Woods: On the Search for True Home (1992) -- Part II. Narrow Road to the Rising Sun: On Beginning to Practice (1997) -- Part III. All Is Lost, Be of Good Cheer: On the Death of the Self (2003) -- Part IV. Errant Pilgrim: On Zen Buddhist Ministry (2005-2012) -- Part V. Gone Beyond: On the Path of Heartland (2012-2022) -- Notes -- Acknowledgments.
Summary:
"This luminous memoir combines the hardscrabble setting of Appalachia with the spiritual wisdom of Shunryu Suzuki's classic Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Appalachian Zen describes a journey we all take, one that Buddhism calls "seeking our true home." Edgy, lyrical, and lovingly rendered, this book recounts how a kid from a Pennsylvania mill-town trailer park grew up-surrounded by backwoods farms and amid grief, violence, and passionate yearning-to become something improbable: a Buddhist minister teaching Zen. Author Steve Kanji Ruhl takes readers on an adventure of discovery, roving far from the Appalachian Mountains of central Pennsylvania on a footloose Zen pilgrimage to Japan and beyond. Featuring vivid firsthand accounts of spiritual seeking and teaching in Japanese temples, as well as forays to Tokyo and Hiroshima, the alleys of Kyoto, Amish cornfields near the Susquehanna, and a monastery in the Catskills, Appalachian Zen includes robust historical sketches, rapt nature passages, and cultural references ranging from Proust to punk rock. Throughout the book, Ruhl engages the Buddhist themes of awakening and death of the self by confronting the lives and deaths, including two by suicide, of his loved ones. This provocative memoir tells how it feels to practice Zen, and to move toward a life of hard-won forgiveness, healing, and freedom"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.