Nothing Extra: Notes on the Zen Life by Barry Graham
We live with so much pain and sadness, so much uncertainty and fear—but, if we understand the truth about reality, it doesn’t have to be a problem. Zen practice isn’t about improving yourself, or otherwise changing yourself—or, least of all, finding yourself. It’s about no longer identifying with the self, the personality, your story of who you think you are. It’s about stripping such delusions away, meeting life as it is without adding anything extra, and awakening to your enlightened nature. And that’s what this short book—with some chapters only a couple sentences long—does.
Although Zen has been described as “a special transmission outside the scriptures, and not dependent on words,” it has produced more written words than any other Buddhist tradition, more than most people can hope to read in a lifetime. The Buddha Dharma has been buried under words, ideas, beliefs and dogma. This book is an antidote. Category: Nonfiction