Books and Readings

Special Recommendations

	The Eight Gates of Zen, by John Daido Loori-roshi The Eight Gates of Zen are used as the organizing principle for training both of home-based and center-based practitioners at Clouds in Water Zen Center. Also, the appendix in this book contains a good sequential list of recommended readings for all stages of zen practice.
	Returning to Silence, by Dainin Katagiri-roshi
	You Have to Say Something, by Dainin Katagiri-roshi
	The Heart of Being, by John Daido Loori-roshi
	Two Arrows Meeting in Mid Air, by John Daido Loori-roshi

Zazen

• The Still Point, John Daido Loori-roshi
• The Wooden Bowl: Simple Meditation for Everyday Life, by Clark Strand
• Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Shunryu Suzuki-roshi
• You Have to Say Something, Dainen Katagiri-roshi
• Universal Recommendations for Zazen (Fukanzazengi), Dogen-zenji (see Clouds in Water Sutra Book or website)
• The Path to Bodhidharma, Shodo Harada Roshi
• Mindfulness in Plain English, Ven. Henepola Gunaratana
• Healing Breath: Zen Spirituality for a Wounded Earth, Ruben L.F. Habito
• Transformation and Healing: Sutra on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness, Thich Nhat Hanh
• Opening the Hand of Thought: Approach to Zen, Kosho Uchiyama
• Everyday Zen: Love and Work, Charlotte Joko Beck
• Nothing Special: Living Zen, Charlotte Joko Beck
• Calming the Mind, Gen Lamrimpa
• Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi, translated by Taigen Dan Leighton
• Two Arrows Meeting in Mid Air, John Daido Loori-roshi
• Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness, Shunryu Suzuki-roshi
• Flowers Fall: A Commentary on Zen Master Dogen's 'Genjokoan', Hakuun Yasutani-roshi

Working with a teacher

• Thank You and Okay: An American Zen Failure in Japan, David Chadwick
• Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki, David Chadwick
• Novice to Master: An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity, Soko Morinaga-roshi
• Bones of the Master, George Crane
• Cave of Tigers, Modern Zen Encounters, John Daido Loori-roshi

Liturgy

• Celebrating Everyday Life: Zen Home Litugy, John Daido Loori-roshi
• Practicing at Home, Clouds in Water manual (contact the office)
• Jizo Bodhisattva: Modern Healing and Traditional Buddhist Practice, Jan Chozen Bays

Buddhist Studies

• Periodical
  • 'Mountain Record: The Zen Practitioner's Journal' available through Dharma Communications, PO Box 156MR South Plank Rd, Mt. Tremper, NY, 12457 or through their website: http://www.mro.org/
• General
  • The Eight Gates of Zen: Spiritual Training in an American Zen Monastery, John Daido Loori-roshi
  • Start Where You Are, Pema Chodron
  • The Wisdom of No Escape, Pema Chodron
  • What the Buddha Taught, Walpola Rahula
  • The Four Noble Truths, The Dalai Lama
  • The Path of Enlightenment: Stages in the Spiritual Journey, John Daido Loori-roshi
  • The Practice of Perfection: The Paramitas from a Zen Buddhist Perspective, Robert Aitken-roshi
  • Warm Smiles from Cold Mountain, Reb Anderson-roshi
  • Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, by Chogyam Trungpa
  • Loving Kindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, Sharon Salzberg
  • Goddesses, Mayumi Oda
  • Bodhisattva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin, John Blofeld
  • A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night: A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, The Dalai Lama
  • Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a Buddhist Perspective, The Dalai Lama
  • Thoughts Without a Thinker, Mark Epstein
  • Bodhisattva Archetypes: Classic Buddhist Guides to Awakening and their Modern Expression, Taigen Daniel Leighton
  • Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, Alfred Lansing
  • Nagarjuna's "Seventy Stanzas", translated by David Ross Komito
  • The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to its History and Teachings, Donald Lopez
  • "How we get hooked / How to get unhooked" by Pema Chodron. Article on shenpa found in Shambhala Sun.
• Dogen
  • Enlightenment Unfolds, Kaz Tanahashi
  • The Heart of Dogen's Shobogenzo , Norman Waddell and Masao Abe
  • Moon in a Dewdrop, translated by Kaz Tanahashi
  • Master Dogen's Shobogenzo, Nishijima and Cross
  • The Wholehearted Way: A Translation of Eihei Dogen's 'Bendowa' With Commentary by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, translated by Shohaku Okumura and Taigen Daniel Leighton
  • Sounds of Valley Streams, translated by Francis Cook
  • Zen Master Dogen, translated by Yuho Yokoi
  • Dogen and the Koan Tradition, Steven Heine
• Zen Studies
  • A Man of Zen: The Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang, translated by Ruth Fuller Sasaki
  • Zen Letters: Teachings of Yuanwu, translated by J.C. Cleary and Thomas Cleary
  • The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader, edited by Nelson Foster and Jack Shoemaker
  • Soto Zen in Medieval Japan, William Bodiford
  • The Essential Teachings of Zen Master Hakuin, translated by Norman Waddell
  • Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings, Andy Ferguson
  • The Iron Flute: 100 Zen Koans, Nyogen Senzaki
• Sutras
  • Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha, rendering by Thomas Byrom
  • The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti, translated by Robert Thurman
  • The Long Discourses of the Buddha, translated by Maurice Walshe
  • The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, Bhikkhu Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi
  • The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, Bhikkhu Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi
  • The Awakening of Faith, translated by Yoshito S. Hakeda
  • The Lotus Sutra, translated by Burton Watson
  • The Flower Ornament Scripture, Thomas Cleary
• Women and Buddhism (no order here)
  • Women Living Zen by Paula Arai
  • Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism by Miranda Shaw
  • Buddhist Women on the Edge: Contemporary Perspectives from the Western Frontier, edited by Marianne Dresser
  • Turning the Wheel: American Women Creating the New Buddhism, Sandy Boucher
  • Being Bodies: Buddhist Women on the Paradox of Enlightenment>, edited by Lenore Friedman and Susan Moon
  • Women in Buddhism: Images of the Feminine in the Mahayana Tradition, Diana Y. Paul, Frances Wilson
  • The First Buddhist Women, Susan Murcott
  • Buddhism After Patriarchy, Rita M. Gross
  • Love Dharma: Relationship Wisdom from Enlightened Buddhist Women, Geri Larkin
• Buddhism and Other Paths (no order here)
  • Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit: The Place of Zen in Christian Life, Robert E. Kennedy
  • The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India, Rodger Kamenetz, Michael Tucker
  • The Cloud of Unknowing, translated by Clifton Wolters
  • The Ground We Share: Everyday Practice, Buddhist and Christian, Robert Aitken-roshi and Brother David Steindl-Rast
• Poetry (no order here)
  • Crow With No Mouth: Ikkyu 15th Century Zen Master, versions by Stephen Berg
  • Great Fool: Zen Master Ryokan: Poems, Letters, and other Writings, translated by Ryuichi Abe and Peter Haskel
  • Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death, Yoel Hoffman
  • The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan, translated by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani
  • Nice Fish: New and Selected Prose Poems, Louis Jenkins
  • The Winter Road, Louis Jenkins
  • Just Above Water, Louis Jenkins
  • Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong, translated by John Balaban
  • Beneath a Single Moon: Buddhism in Contemporary American Poetry, Kent Johnson and Craig Paulenich
  • The Zen Works of Stonehouse, translated by Red Pine
  • The Clouds Should Know Me By Now: Buddhist Poet Monks of China, Red Pine and Mike O'Connor
  • Given Sugar, Given Salt, Jane Hirshfield
  • Moment to Moment: Poems of a Mountain Recluse, David Budbill
  • The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, Stephen Mitchell
  • A Drifting Boat: Chinese Zen Poetry, JP Seaton and Dennis Maloney
  • The Kabir Book: Forty-Four of the Ecstatic Poems of Kabir, versions by Robert Bly

Art Practice (no order here)

• Brush Mind, Kazuaki Tanahashi
• Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg
• Making Love With Light, John Daido Loori
• Life, Paint, Passion: Reclaiming the Magic of Spontaneous Expression, Michelle Cassou
• Seeds from a Birch Tree, Clark Strand

Body Practice (do, don't read)

Work Practice

• Work as Spiritual Practice, by Lew Richmond
• The Diamond Cutter, by Michael Roach
• Mindfulness and Meaningful Work: Explorations in Right Livelhood, edited by Claude Whitmyer

Right Action (no order here)

• Returning to Silence, Dainin Katagiri-roshi
• The Heart of Being: Moral and Ethical Teachings of Zen Buddhism, John Daido Loori-roshi
• The Mind of Clover: Essays in Zen Buddhist Ethics, by Robert Aitken-roshi
• Being Upright, Tenshin Reb Anderson-roshi
• Zen At War, Brian Victoria
• Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center, Michael Downing
• Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism, edited by Stephanie Kaza and Kenneth Kraft
• Ethics for the New Millennium, The Dalai Lama
• Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting, Myla Kabat-Zinn, Jon Kabat-Zinn