Suggested Reading

This page features a variety of excellent resources for studying Zen and Buddhism. The first section is books, and the second is online resources.

SUGGESTED BOOKS

Practicing Zen/Getting Started

  • Shrunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind and Not Always So
  • Normon Fischer, Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up; Sailing Home
  • Robert Aitken, Taking the Path of Zen
  • Thich Naht Hahn, The Miracle of Mindfulness
  • Charlotte Joko Beck, Everyday Zen
  • John Diado Loori, The Still Point
  • John Daishin Bukspazen, Zen Meditation in Plain English

Bodhisattva Precepts (Zen Ethics)

  • Robert Aitken, Mind of Clover
  • Reb Anderson, Being Upright
  • Daine Eshin Rizzetto , Waking Up to What You Do

Zen Studies

  • Shrunryu Suzuki, Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness
  • David Chadwick, Crooked Cucumber: the Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki
  • Kazuaki Tanahashi, Enlightenment Unfolds
  • Robert Aitken, The Practice of Perfection

Early Buddhism (Theravada)

  • Bhikkhu Bodhi, In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
  • Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught

Vipassana/Insight

  • Joseph Goldstein, The Experience of Insight
  • Gil Fronsdal, The Issue at Hand
  • Jack Kornfield, Path with Heart

Tibetan/Vajrayana

  • Pema Chodron, The Wisdom of No Escape; When Things Fall Apart
  • Chogyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism; The Myth of Freedom

SUGGESTED ONLINE RESOURCES

Zen Groups

Internet Buddhist Resources