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Again and again, books have opened my eyes to the Dharma, shaken me out of superficial views and commonplace understanding, and even led me to good teachers. These experiences put the lie to the commonly heard notion that reading and study are at odds with Zen practice and with religious life generally.

- Robert Aitken roshi
from the Foreword of The Roaring Stream
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Nelson Foster Roshi's
Buddhist Books to Sit On

Nelson Foster's zen booklist Diamond Sangha Zen teacher Nelson Foster on rare occasion writes a column for Ring of Bone Zendo's newsletter called Books to Sit On. Foster Roshi's selection from his last Books to Sit On (Fall 1996) are listed below along with some of his remarks on each book.
Hakuin scratched it out a couple of centuries ago, and the heart in question is none other than the Heart Sutra. The old lion really knew how to make the fur fly, and his energy comes slashing through in this outstanding translation . . .
Zen Words for the Heart : Hakuin's Commentary on the Heart Sutra
Hakuin, et al / Paperback / Published 1996
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. . . collection of talks and essays that Roshi has done over the past 15 years. He's grouped them in five sections, whose titles give a good sense of his subject matter: Ancestors, The Classical Discourses, Practice, Ethics and Revolution, and taking Pleasure in the Dharma. I especially enjoyed the first and last sections and the chapters "Koans and Their Study" and "About Money."
Original Dwelling Place : Zen Buddhist Essays
Robert Aitken / Paperback / Published 1997
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Shambhala has published a paperback edition of Aitken Roshi's book of conversations with Brother David Steindl-Rast . . . a great improvement on the original hardback . . . German edition of the book, titled Der spirituelle Weg, is now available as well, with a French edition to follow.
The Ground We Share : Everyday Practice, Buddhist and Christian
Robert Aitken, et al / Paperback / Published 1996
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Haiku lovers, students of the late Nakagawa Soen Roshi, and observers of the North American Zen scene shouldn't miss Endless Vow.
Endless Vow : The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa
Soen Nakagawa, et al / Paperback / Published 1996
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Now a brief but shameless plug . . . this is the first anthology, we can say in all honesty, to offer a reasonably complete selection of Ch'an and Zen writings spanning from Bodhidharma in the sixth century to Ryokan in the nineteenth. Our aim was to give readers ready access to many of the tradition's greatest texts and a sense of its historical and literary evolution.
The Roaring Stream : A New Zen Reader
Nelson Foster (Editor), Jack Shoemaker (Editor) / Hardcover / Published 1996

The Roaring Stream : A New Zen Reader
Nelson Foster (Editor), Jack Shoemaker (Editor) / Paperback / Published 1997
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Finally, other sangha members have been producing books, too – not Zen books exactly, but books that deserve a place in this column nevertheless.

1996 Firecracker Alternative Book Award . . . a wizard's brew of reportage folk knowledge, science, poetry, and art, all illuminating what Dale calls "the Poison Path." The subject, not to put too fine a point on it, is drugs and their use, and Dale handles this tricky topic as those who know and love him might guess he would -- like a trickster.
Pharmako/Gnosis : Plant Teachers and the Poison Path
Dale Pendell / Paperback / Published 1998

This is a cycle of poems mainly, but also some prose, that'll take us all over the land and into its mysteries – where Gary goes, as Gary uniquely sees it but also as a continuation of Asian, European, and Turtle Island landscape traditions. This book has been a work-in-progress since the fifties . . . . it might properly be greeted as Gary's magnum opus.
Mountains and Rivers Without End
Gary Snyder / Paperback / Published 1997
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Another hard and loving look at the land . . . informed by an extraordinary range of experience in the wild places of Asia and North America. His care for such places and the life they support is passionate, and he writes with the precision of a philosopher and an artist as well as the eye of a Zen student.
The Abstract Wild
Jack Turner / Paperback / Published 1996
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