Zen on the Trail

Zen on the Trail
Author: Christopher Ives
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2018-09-11
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1614294607

Discover how hiking can be a kind of spiritual pilgrimage—calming our minds, enhancing our sense of wonder, and deepening our connection to nature. Evoking the writings of Gary Snyder, Bill Bryson, and Cheryl Strayed, Zen on the Trail explores the broad question of how to be outside in a meditative way. By directing our attention to how we hike as opposed to where we’re headed, Ives invites us to shift from ego-driven doing to spirit-filled being, and to explore the vast interconnection of ourselves and the natural world. Through this approach, we can wake up in the woods on nature’s own terms. In erudite and elegant prose, Ives takes us on a journey we will not soon forget. This book features a new prose poem by Gary Snyder.

Zen and Now

Zen and Now
Author: Mark Richardson
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Total Pages: 5
Release: 2009-09-08
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0307373150

On the Trail of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Zen and Now is the story of a story that will appeal to the 5 million readers of the original and serve as an initiation to a whole new generation. Since its original publication in 1968, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values has touched whole generations of readers with its serious attempt to define “quality” in a world that seems indifferent to the responsibilities that quality brings. Mark Richardson expands that journey with an investigation of his own – to find the enigmatic author of Zen and the Art, ask him a few questions, and place his classic book in context. The result manages to be a biography of Pirsig himself – in the discovery of an unknown life of madness, murder and eventual resolution – and a splendid meditation on creativity and problem-solving, sanity and insanity.

Meditations on the Trail

Meditations on the Trail
Author: Christopher Ives
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2021-05-11
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1614297525

"Going for a long hike or spending time in nature can be like a pilgrimage, a journey into the sacred. In Meditations on the Trail, Christopher Ives offers a rich array of do-anywhere meditations that will help you make the most of your time on the trail and help you return home more peaceful, more filled with gratitude, more aware of interconnection, and maybe just a little wiser. This small book-perfect for throwing in a daypack or a back pocket as you head out for the trail-is filled with practices to take you deep into the heart of the natural world and uncover your deepest, truest, most vibrant self"--

Zen and the Art of Running

Zen and the Art of Running
Author: Larry Shapiro
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2009-11-18
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1598699601

Draws on Zen philosophies to counsel runners on how to achieve better results by aligning the body and mind for success, providing case testimonials while providing coverage of topics ranging from staying committed and training mindfully to visualizing goals and accepting limitations. Original.

The Trail

The Trail
Author: Ethan Gallogly
Publisher:
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2021-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781737419228

In the wake of his father's death and recently fired from his job, Gil agrees to accompany his father's best friend Syd on a monthlong hike on the John Muir Trail. There's just one problem: Gil hates camping and is woefully unprepared for the rigors of the 200-mile journey. Moreover, he learns Syd may not survive the hike. Set authentically in the High Sierra and fused with insightful accounts of history and ecology, The Trail illustrates how wilderness can serve as our greatest guide.

Nothing on My Mind

Nothing on My Mind
Author: Erik Storlie
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 285
Release: 1996-11-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0834800063

This frank account by a longtime Zen student looks back over a journey that began in Berkeley in the heady sixties when the author experimented with psychedelics and started to study with Suzuki Roshi, who encouraged his students to find a genuine way of practicing Zen.

Zen Women

Zen Women
Author: Grace Schireson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2009-11-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0861719565

This landmark presentation at last makes heard the centuries of Zen's female voices. Through exploring the teachings and history of Zen's female ancestors, from the time of the Buddha to ancient and modern female masters in China, Korea, and Japan, Grace Schireson offers us a view of a more balanced Dharma practice, one that is especially applicable to our complex lives, embedded as they are in webs of family relations and responsibilities, and the challenges of love and work. Part I of this book describes female practitioners as they are portrayed in the classic literature of "Patriarchs' Zen"--often as "tea-ladies," bit players in the drama of male students' enlightenments; as "iron maidens," tough-as-nails women always jousting with their male counterparts; or women who themselves become "macho masters," teaching the same Patriarchs' Zen as the men do. Part II of this book presents a different view--a view of how women Zen masters entered Zen practice and how they embodied and taught Zen uniquely as women. This section examines many urgent and illuminating questions about our Zen grandmothers: How did it affect them to be taught by men? What did they feel as they trying to fit into this male practice environment, and how did their Zen training help them with their feelings? How did their lives and relationships differ from that of their male teachers? How did they express the Dharma in their own way for other female students? How was their teaching consistently different from that of male ancestors? And then part III explores how women's practice provides flexible and pragmatic solutions to issues arising in contemporary Western Zen centers.

A Walk in the Woods

A Walk in the Woods
Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Anchor Canada
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2012-05-15
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0385674546

God only knows what possessed Bill Bryson, a reluctant adventurer if ever there was one, to undertake a gruelling hike along the world's longest continuous footpath—The Appalachian Trail. The 2,000-plus-mile trail winds through 14 states, stretching along the east coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine. It snakes through some of the wildest and most spectacular landscapes in North America, as well as through some of its most poverty-stricken and primitive backwoods areas. With his offbeat sensibility, his eye for the absurd, and his laugh-out-loud sense of humour, Bryson recounts his confrontations with nature at its most uncompromising over his five-month journey. An instant classic, riotously funny, A Walk in the Woods will add a whole new audience to the legions of Bill Bryson fans.

I Promise Not To Suffer

I Promise Not To Suffer
Author: Gail Storey
Publisher: Mountaineers Books
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2013-03-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1594857466

"Witty, wise, and full of heart, Gail Storey’s winning memoir of her hike on the Pacific Crest Trail at the age of fifty-six is a book for every one who ever dreamed of taking the road less traveled. I Promise Not to Suffer is as inspiring as it is hilarious, as poignant as it is smart. It’s one of those oh-please-don’t-let-it-end books. I’d carry it in my backpack anywhere.”—Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild CLICK HERE to download the first 50 pages from I Promise Not To Suffer (Provide us with a little information and we'll send your download directly to your inbox) With comfortable urban lives in Houston, Texas, and career and life goals mostly accomplished, Gail D. Storey and her husband were in their fifties when they decided it was time to test themselves on a new path—a 2,663-mile path known as the Pacific Crest Trail, which stretches from Mexico to Canada. I Promise Not to Suffer is Gail's light-hearted yet heart-felt memoir about her and her husband's adventures and misadventures, deepening marriage, and reflections on being irrevocably changed by life on the trail. She was a novice hiker, while he was an experienced outdoorsman. Removed from their usual routines and living outside in the wilderness for months exposed hidden intricacies in their relationship. Hiking 20 miles a day over mountains, thirsting in the high desert of California, forcing frozen feet into icy socks and boots each morning in the High Sierra, stumbling through lava fields in Oregon—Gail was required to meet the elements on their own tough-love terms. From an encounter with a mountain lion to her mother's battle with cancer at home, she confronts each challenge with wit and brave style. While a dangerous loss of weight forces Gail to leave the PCT after 900 miles, she regains strength and later rejoins her husband on sections until he triumphantly reaches the northern terminus in Canada. Humorous yet honest, this journey of harrowing hilarity and reluctant revelations will be loved by active hikers (appendices include details of their unique ultralight gear and other essential how-to information), fans of female adventure stories, and armchair travelers alike. Want to know more about author Gail Storey? Head to her website today. Praise for I Promise Not To Suffer: “At times wrenching memoir, at times hilarious, I Promise Not to Suffer pulls no punches and has a wicked sense of fun. Storey reminds me again of what is possible with a big imagination, a dose of scrappy courage, and a lot of love.” --Peter Heller, author of The Dog Stars and Kook “Some have called Gail Storey the Nora Ephron of the wilderness. With her own unique wit, Storey shares Ephron’s commitment to creating and tending a long, nourishing marriage. I Promise Not to Suffer is a portrait of a union that does not fray or break under pressure but is forged, toughened, and tenderized.” --Sara Davidson, author of Leap!, Loose Change, and The December Project “Of the many books that I have read about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, none have captured the trail experience from so many different perspectives.Single hikers, couples, and those who stay behind will all enjoy Gail Storey’s account of the challenges, the beauty, and the PCT community found along the way.” --Liz Bergeron, Executive Director and CEO, Pacific Crest Trail Association Winner of the Nautilus Awards 2014 "Better Books for a Better World" Silver Award! Winner of the Colorado Books Awards 2014 in the Memoir category!

Running with the Mind of Meditation

Running with the Mind of Meditation
Author: Sakyong Mipham
Publisher: Harmony
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2013-04-09
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0307888177

A unique fitness program from a highly respected spiritual leader that blends physical and spiritual practice for everyone - regardless of age, spiritual background, or ability - to great benefits for both body and soul. As a Tibetan lama and leader of Shambhala (an international community of 165 meditation centers), Sakyong Mipham has found physical activity to be essential for spiritual well-being. He's been trained in horsemanship and martial arts but has a special love for running. Here he incorporates his spiritual practice with running, presenting basic meditation instruction and fundamental principles he has developed. Even though both activities can be complicated, the lessons here are simple and designed to show how the melding of internal practice with physical movement can be used by anyone - regardless of age, spiritual background, or ability - to benefit body and soul.