....This astonishing collection of essays succeeds in his mission to show us
how everything is the Way. Here you will find cogent insights into practice,
impermanence, non-self, being transparency, and receiving the precepts.
Again and again, while reading Smith's book, we found ourselves, in the
author's phrase "stopping and popping" into the present moment, immersing
ourselves in the words and commentaries. We hope you will do the same.
Smith (Prairie Zen Center) has written a fine and well-controlled book on his own
experience and the fundamental truths of the Zen approach to Buddhist
understanding and life. Before the rise of Tibetan Buddhism’s popularity began to
overwhelm it, Zen Buddhism was perhaps the most acclaimed form of Buddhism
in this country; Smith’s intelligent book specializes in Zen’s startling and poetic
insights. VERDICT Revelatory for the Buddhist practitioner; fluent and fascinating
for the general reader.
