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    The Art of Zen Meditation
    The Art of Zen Meditation
    The Art of Zen Meditation
    Ebook64 pages22 minutes

    The Art of Zen Meditation

    By Howard Fast

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    About this ebook

    Bestselling author Howard Fast’s straightforward introduction to Zen meditation
    Howard Fast began to formally practice Zen meditation after turning away from communism in 1956. The Art of Zen Meditation, originally published by the antiwar political collective Peace Press in 1977, is the fruit of Fast’s study: a brief and instructive history of Zen Buddhism and its tenets, written with a simplicity that is emblematic of the philosophy itself. Fast’s study of Zen also inspired his popular Masao Masuto mystery series about a Zen Buddhist detective in Beverly Hills, which he published under the pseudonym E. V. Cunningham.  The Art of Zen Meditation is illustrated with twenty-three beautiful photographs. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author’s estate.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateDec 27, 2011
    ISBN9781453235003
    The Art of Zen Meditation
    Author

    Howard Fast

    Howard Fast (1914–2003) was one of the most prolific American writers of the twentieth century. He was a bestselling author of more than eighty works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenplays. The son of immigrants, Fast grew up in New York City and published his first novel upon finishing high school in 1933. In 1950, his refusal to provide the United States Congress with a list of possible Communist associates earned him a three-month prison sentence. During his incarceration, Fast wrote one of his best-known novels, Spartacus (1951). Throughout his long career, Fast matched his commitment to championing social justice in his writing with a deft, lively storytelling style.

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    Reviews for The Art of Zen Meditation

    3.5/5

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    • 5/5
      Another informative book on Zen. I enjoyed it. I most enjoyed the end of the book, which provided a short biography of the Late Mr. Fast.
    • 4/5
      This is a good book for someone wants to practice zen. It is short but very easy to understand and easy to follow the techniques.

    Book preview

    The Art of Zen Meditation - Howard Fast

    The Art of Zen Meditation

    Howard Fast

    This small book is intended as an introduction to the art of Zen meditation. Since Zen masters are fond of stating that Zen is the most direct and obvious thing in the world, a simple manual for the art of Zen is neither extraordinary nor presumptuous; but it must be presented with the additional reminder that while Zen meditation is very simple, very direct, very ordinary, it is also very difficult and very frustrating. There is no ladder of ascension; there are no points; there is no score; and as for the rewards, they are not to be spoken of, or calculated, or even expected, and if one demands to know what they are, a proper Zen answer would be a simple shrug of the shoulders.

    Nevertheless, for those who undertake the process of Zen meditation and stay with it, the process becomes the most important and central fact in their lives. And if Zen meditation promises nothing, it very often achieves more than all the rest of living can grant a person. And while this is intended as an instruction in doing the process of meditation, I feel that a few words about Zen, as I understand it, are not inappropriate.

    About five hundred years before our era, there lived in the north of

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