Reddit reviews Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

The word Zen has entered the pop culture lexicon to mean something that has little to do with Buddhism. The public imagination has taken the word "zen" as license to mean whatever they want it to mean.

I am not an expert on Zen but authentic Mahayana practice of any school is about becoming a Bodhisattva. It is not about being content with being lazy.

​

May these resources of the Buddha's teachings be of benefit to you:

​

http://ftp.budaedu.org/ebooks/pdf/EN132.pdf

https://www.readingfaithfully.org/in-the-buddhas-words-an-anthology-of-discourses-from-the-pali-canon-linked-to-suttacentral-net/

​

If you want to learn about Zen practice exclusively, I would recommend this book. This author is a highly trustworthy teacher of Zen practice and of dhamma:

https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Keys-Guide-Practice/dp/0385475616

Daoism and zen Buddhism helped me a lot.

Don't dismiss this as new age woo, it's whatever you make of it.

Zen creates a mind set that places you beyond yourself, and from there you can become your own puppet master.

Zen keys by Thich Nhat Hanh is really good.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0385475616/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521050527&sr=1-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=Zen+keys

Besides that I think it's just really important to have the courage to be your own advocate. No one else but you will always be there for you as bleak as that sounds.

You have to begin seeing yourself as your own magnum opus. Your self is your ultimate creation that you continue to develop and refine and all other things extend from that.

Plato likened a person to a republic in the sense that you can be a master of the self or a slave of the self.

When you sprint at max speed your strength is dragging your weakness along. If you keep doing that you'll unify yourself more and more.

If you want the second slice of cake, you mind says no, but the body says yes.

It's that sort of a thing.

Have faith in yourself that you can be as great as you can imagine yourself to be, and any doubt you have is just the lesser man inside of you trying to snuff out the greater man.

All this talk of cope is really toxic because it is blatantly playing on your weaknesses.

I read a lot of philosophy books and random stuff that I thought could be useful. A really powerful book for me was les miserables.

That was referred to by Hugo as his religious masterpiece, only its a view of Christianity that was overriden by fundamentalism. It's Christianity as a philosophy or even better said, the science of subjectivity. There is nothing supernatural but it demonstrates how there is no need.

If you want me to break down the plot I can but I don't wanna ruin it, but it's basically a perspective on spirituality where you realize what's "true" doesn't really matter.

A person who believes something makes it real.

The subjective world is entirely our own creation.

Beyond that I'd say just read everything you're interested in and process it on two different levels.

There is the message of the author, and then a meta analysis where it's essentially just a thought exercise. You can actually learn way more than even the author intended that way and it puts you in a mindset where you are in control of how it shapes you.

To hear more of his in-depth insights into Buddhism I'd recommend The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching, and perhaps Zen Keys.

Zen Keys by Thich Nhat Hanh is the easiest to understand introductory to Zen philosophy and practice.