Larry Jordan

On April 7, the Pragmatic Buddhist Book Discussion Group will be discussing "The Way" on a Meetup zoom call:


https://www.meetup.com/pragmatic-buddhist-book-discussion/events/293816505/


This is a really good group, and this will be a great discussion. The group was seeking a book which is not overtly Buddhist that discusses Buddhist concepts. The group is a public group, and most people feel comfortable whether they are Buddhist or not and whether they have read the book or not.

I began my Zen practice after I finished the book, when I discovered that Zen was compatible with my experiential, open-hearted, open-minded spirituality. The book's opening statement is a quote from Zen master Dogen. One of my editors suggested that I take the quote out because "This is not a Zen book." Looking back, I realize that I wrote a Zen book without meaning to do so, so I left the quote in.

In my opinion, the quote perfectly frames the book:
 

To study the Way is to study the Self.
To study the Self is to forget the Self.
To forget the Self is to be enlightened by all things.
To be enlightened by all things is to remove the barrier between Self and other.

—Dogen Zenji