Publication date:
22 May 2020Length of book:
162 pagesPublisher
Hamilton BooksDimensions:
231x155mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780761872078
Autumn Light: My Fifty Years in Zen is one woman’s witness to the half-century when Zen Buddhism took root in the West. Told in the intimate voice of a dharma friend, Autumn Light weaves Norton’s lifeexperiences with the Zen teachings and practice that sustained her through many life challenges.
Over many years of Zen practice I have come to feel that Buddhist enlightenment is nothing more or less than being a normal functioning person, capable of living a full human life right to the end. It turns out that this simple normal thing is actually rare; and that it takes some doing. In Autumn Light: My Fifty Years in Zen, Edie Norton, Zen priest, shows us her long life of enduring what time and the world will do to you, and how, through the simple process of paying honest attention to what happens, while maintaining the disciplined practice of sitting in the silence of the purely present moment, an ordinary person can come to great wisdom and compassion. Especially moving is Edie’s detailed description (by far the longest part of her story, though it occupies only three months of her life) of her monastic training period at Tassajara Zen monastery, a place I know very well; it is the best and most thorough description of what happens there that I have ever read. I am so moved by this book. I know you will be too. Thank you, Edie!