Shunryu Suzuki Roshi was a Soto Zen priest and the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center. He was born 1904 in rural Japan, arrived in the United States to teach in 1959, and died of cancer in San Francisco in 1971.

Description: I have read many Buddhist books, and this one is my favorite. In fact, I have read many books (full stop), and this one is my favorite. ZMBM is mystical and otherworldly yet day-to-day ordinary, it is philosophical and technical yet beautifully poetic and literary, it is challenging and demands your best yet is gentle and patient, it is traditional yet modern, it is serious and sincere yet light-hearted and easy, it is simple yet deep, it is Japanese yet American. To summarize : pimp as muhfgn hell. Steven Mitchell included excerpts from ZMBM in his anthological collection of traditional “enlightened” writings called “The Enlightened Mind”, and it’s easy to see why. My perspective is that these words emerge from the still silent heart of genuine spiritual liberation.

Anecdote: Suzuki Roshi was purportedly a small man with a wry and sometimes mischievous sense of humor. Once, while being transported between Zen temples, he reportedly ordered a burger, and then, saying he wasn’t that hungry, switched lunches with his driver (later admitting that it was because he thought the guy was too attached to being a hard-line vegetarian). Suzuki Roshi’s, a Zen master in his own right, described him as “soft and warm on the outside, hard as stone [in his self-discipline] on the inside”.

Potential Turn-Offs: I’ll leave others to try to cook some up. I can’t think of any. Maybe if your iman declared jihad on all religions besides your own? Aside from fundamentalism like that, if you’re into depth, clarity, beauty, and profundity, this is a good book for you.

What I Got out of it: In the twenty years since I first read it, every time I pick up this book and read a chapter or three, I get something out of it that speaks powerfully and directly to what is going on in my life. The relevant information is usually simultaneously simple, obvious, and everyday-decent, and yet also magical, deep, and paradoxical. I have noticed that my favorite books seem to grow deeper as the years go on, and the deeper I get, and ZMBM was the first book I noticed that seemed to be doing this. I look forward to seeing what as yet undiscovered treasures it will hold for me twenty or thirty years from now.

Learn more about Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, by Shunryu Suzuki

This particular style of Vipassina only has one teacher in the world at any given time, so the instruction was delivered via a pre-recorded video. I expected this to be a big turn-off, and it ended up feeling very natural.

Growth Potential: Vipassana meditation is designed to change the habits of one’s mind. Instead of living in constant reaction to the world and in constant slavery to craving and aversion, the Vipassana mind moves through the world with balance, equanimity, compassion, and power. After the course you might sit straighter, move more intentionally, and think a little more clearly without all the usual clutter that you probably don’t even realize you have.

Pop Potential: The food is yummy. Super tasty, clean, real vegetarian food prepared with love.

It’s affordable: the course is by donation only, and the organization prefers a donation of service (make yummy food for the next course!) to a donation of money.

“Get Real” Potential: The technique is a secular and potentially even non-spiritual practice, and that’s one of its merits. Anyone of any belief can practice and benefit from it. But in the teaching of the technique, a little Buddhist dogma (talk of karma and reincarnation) sneaks in.

What I Got out of it: I sharpened my mind, connected it with my body in deep ways, had some intense experiences of having my corporeal self disintegrate, and effectively changed my consciousness (for the better, I think). I’ve had a few difficult conversations since my retreat, and noticed that it was much easier and faster for me to clear my head and find resolution than I feel I’ve done in previous tough talks. So far, I’m still practicing Vipassana, and I plan to keep it up.

Learn more about California Vipassana Center