Zen Miracles: Finding Peace in an Insane World

by Brenda Shoshanna

This wonderful book brings East and West--and ancient and modern worlds--together and provides profound wisdom and guidance for anyone struggling with stress, anxiety, anger, fear, or loneliness. Beautifully written, funny, warm, and filled with unusual, wonderful exercises. A real miracle.--Rabbi Gary Moskowitz, Director of the Institute for Violence Prevention

""A healing journey into the inner conflicts and contradictions that separate spirit from self."" --Armand DiMele, the DiMele Center for Psychotherapy

""Dr. Brenda Shoshanna is a versatile, creative, warm, and truly excellent teacher."" --Rabbi Joseph Gelberman, founder of the Interfaith Seminary and Director of the All Faith Seminary

""Zen Miracles is an inviting and inspiring message for those looking for a more simple and powerful way to enhance their lives and for those who want to integrate a practical way of peace in today's distorted and increasingly violent world.""--Bob Goff, NY Naturally

""Zen Miracles is a book that is invaluable for anyone seeking to bring a profound, yet genuinely joyous, experience to life. Brenda Shoshanna explores the spiritual and therapeutic aspects of Zen practice in a way that is acceptable to anyone, no matter what their faith, philosophy, or religious beliefs. With her warm and compassionate style, she exhibits the unique ability to explain even the most difficult ideas in understandable terms. Her approach is readily accessible and applicable to even the most mundane of activities. This book is a must for anyone seeking the secrets for attaining a balanced life and true peace of mind.""--Lewis Harrison, Director of the Academy of Natural Healing

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Psychology, Spirituality, Philosophy

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2002

About the author

I am a psychologist, speaker, author and long term Zen practitoner who is dedicated to integrating the teachings and practices of East and West, and showing how to make them real in our everyday lives.

My weekly podcast is Zen Wisdom For Your Everyday Life.

Zen Wisdom For Your Everyday Life
(www.zenwisdomtoday.com)

Reviews

[Lamyaa AL-Harrassi]

سأخبركم عنه حالما أنتهي منه...كتاب حقاً رائع.

[Zahraa]

أعدتُ قراءة الكتاب لمرات كثيرة حتى أنني فقدت الاِهتمام بمعرفه الرقم. لكن؛ أجزم بأنه يساعد على تَهْذيب النَفْس في كل مره تعود إليه.

[Duaa Ahmed · Rating 3 out of 5]

*One Cup of Green Tea*

Drinking a cup of green tea,
I stopped the war.

—Paul Reps, Zen Telegrams

What is this green tea? How can we learn how to drink it? In order to really drink a cup of green tea, to stop the war, within and without, we must first become receptive.
We must deeply appreciate the cup it is served in, and the efforts of those who bring it to us.
Our mouths must be empty enough to taste this cup of tea.
Of course we cannot just gulp it down.
Sip by sip we receive it.
We honor the green tea and it honors us.
This is the only way the tea can stop the war that rages within us.

Once we become simple and aware the violent mind is exposed for the lie it is, and the harm it is doing.
Then it is not so hard to just drop it.
We drop the false notion that the outside world and the people in it are enemies to be conquered, demeaned, or harmed in anyway.
We let go of wanting our good from another or feeling they can get in the way.
It is a shocking moment to realize that we are all truly one, subject to exactly the same longings and pressures, brothers and sisters, living briefly on this earth.
An excerpt from a beautiful poem by Thich Nat Hanh, the great Zen Master involved with engaged Buddhism, expresses this deeply.

Promise me,
promise me this day
while the sun is just overhead AMBITION:TAMING THE VIOLENT MIND
Even as they strike you down
With a mountain of hate and violence
Remember, brother,
Man is not our enemy
And one day,
when you face
This beast alone,
Your courage intact,
your eyes kind
Out of your smile
Will bloom a flower

[Michelle Cruz-Rosado · Rating 5 out of 5]

A life-changing book that brings loving truth to the heart. Brenda Shoshanna's gentle teaching of Zen can be shared with all religions and belief systems. She teaches the reader how to be aware, be accountable and be steadfast; no matter what challenges one is faced with. I now use Zen Miracles: Finding Peace in an Insane World as a guide in my daily meditation and in life.

[John Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A ton of common sense on every page. A philosophy that I was unable to dodge. I am a skeptic by observation, yet everything in this little book rings absoultuly true.

[Stephen C. Kifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent Zen book with practical advice and tips. Some good exercises to do.

[Hawraki · Rating 4 out of 5]

لقد كانت هذه الجوهرة مهملة في مكتبتي منذ سنوات كثيرة. قررت قراءتها بالصدفة في هذه الفترة بينما كنت أقوم بترتيب رف الكتب. وأدرك لم تحديدًا وقع الكتاب في يدي في هذا الوقت.

[Angela Klaiber · Rating 5 out of 5]

cannot recommend it enough

[Dien · Rating 3 out of 5]

I accidentally pick up this book at the library why searchig for The Art of Happiness. I have read some books about mediation but I am not quite sure what Zen is all about. Flipping through the first few pages of this book caught my attention right away. I am not going to summarize this book because I don't want to spoil it for you. This book is a must read for those who are searching for a balanced life and a simple daily living life. However,I gave this book 3 stars is because she does present the problems, the emotions, the internal conflict that we at some time in our life encounter but she doesn't explain enough in detail of how we can solve these problems. It is a little bit ambiguous for me. Her style of writing is neat and simple but sometimes, it is a little bit hard for me to follow. When I read the book, I can understand what she was talking about but when I put it down, I will forget what I just read. This is a good book though but I think it can be written better. Nevertheles, I learn some valuable lessons and gaining some new insight from this book.

As I read along the book, I can relate myself to the stories of the Zen students that she mentioned. I also ask myself the same questions that she presented in the content. For example, what to do when I feel so bored and why I need to constantly have entertainment and activities to be able to feel completed. Before reading this book, I was under the false assumption that in order to live a full life and to live a life with purpose, one need to have a lot of things going on and have many friends in life. She stated that when you feel bored, just sit and do nothing, experience the moment and the emptiness because that is where your trueself resides. This strucks me and make me wonder. It has been so long that I was searching for myself, to know who I am and why I am here. I tried to go out, to put myself in social events hoping that I will define myself through interacting with people because I think that those external forces will open me up and can help me to see through myself. So what did I find out from that experience? I found myself busy looking for the external forces in the outside world that I sometimes feel lost and blended with the crowd rather fathoming my inner self. I found myself often compromised to other people's needs and opinions that I forget about what the self of me think and want. At the end, I still can't find the answer that I am looking for. So now, I will try her method of looking from the inside first before I look at the outside.

Overall, a Zen life is not easy. Although it looks very simple, you don't need to spend more money, buy a new house or a new car, don't need to travel, don't need read a bunch of books or finding the right master. All it takes is self discipline, to be content with the being and be happy with simple things. You need to learn how to live through the bad and good of life and to accept both faces of it. There is good in bad and there is bad in good. With the way our society structured, there are so many peer pressure and materials we need and want. We believe that they are the souces for our happiness instead of our basic need for survival such as a roof to live, clothes to wear and food to eat. I found myself buy a lot of stuff that I don't need too so now I will practice to consider whether it is necessary for me, would I be happiner if I buy this or that. Like she said in the book, Zen life is a process, a daily practice that we can't just expect to be enlightened over night.

[Leigh Marsden · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is no denying that the message of this book is excellent. I wanted to give it a higher rating, but I simply could not due to the extreme number of grammatical and layout errors throughout. Literally every other page has a really obvious error that makes me wonder if it was even proofread at all. After about ten pages I started waiting for the next mistake, looking for it (didn't take long to find the next one), which totally ruined the reading experience.

[Belle · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's a lot to absorb, but i liked the author's approach at introducing the topic to newbies. many nuggets of wisdom.

[Suman Shekhawat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not as expected.