Dispatch #11: "The Sun Is My Eye, the Wind My Breath"

My 2024 Reading List: Zen & Not-So Zen

Hello Spark Zen Readers! I decided to make my second post in 2024 a listicle of books on my to-read shelf. Some of these books I began in 2023 but never finished. I’m committed to finishing them in 2024. There’s a habit of body-mind that gets so enthralled with the prospect of beginning the adventure of starting a new book that I frequently end up with a stack of half-read books on my nightstand. I opted to list 15 books and hoping that by listing them publicly, one of you will hold me accountable (seriously!). I’d love to hear what on’s your list!

Bowing from the mountain valley, Rev. Shōren Heather

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Dharma Books

1. Opening to Darkness by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel

   1. I’ve had the good fortune of podcasting with

      Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
      about her book The Shamanic Bones of Zen, which I highly recommend. Our conversation was so rich, enlivening, and illuminating that I decided to edit it into two episodes: The Shamanic Bones of Zen and Zen, Shamanism, & Freedom Amid Oppression. Her her prose shimmers and her wisdom is beyond words. Check her out on Substack:
      Zenju Earthlyn Manuel

2. The Flowing Bridge: Guidance on Beginning Zen Koans by Elaine Macinnes

   1. One of my Zen teachers, Dosh Port Roshi, suggested I read this book. Unfortunately, it’s not such an easy book to find. I managed to get a copy through Thrift Books—my go-to used bookstore. I’ve already read the first 20 pages and her expression of Truth is profound, inspiring, and mystical.

3. In Love with the World: A Monk’s Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and Helen Tworkov

   1. One of my Dharma mentors mentioned this book to me as he’s a student of Mingyur Rinpoche, a Tibetan monk who was born in 1975 in Nubri, Nepal. Who doesn’t want to be in love with the world? That’s the ultimate liberation.

4. Throw Yourself Into The House Of Buddha: The Life And Zen Teaching Of Tangen Harada Roshi by Tangen Harada

   1. This book wasn’t on my list until I just spotted it now on Dosho Port’s website Vine of Obstacles Zen. The quote below piqued my interest in reading more:

      “Wake up, and you can say for yourself, ‘The sun is my eye, the wind my breath, all of space my heart, the mountain and ocean my body. The sun shining brightly, vividly, is the eye of my life. The vastness of the sky is my heart.’ Who is the master of this boundless heart? No one else but you. This is your reality. Heaven and earth—same root, all things—one body.”

5. Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment by Robert Wright

   1. I subscribe to

      Robert Wright
      ’s Non-Zero Newsletter and find his insights on politics, humanity, religion, and just about everything else to be incisive, heartfelt, and compassionate. I sure hope Buddhism is true as I’ve devoted many years of my life to embodying its teachings—or at least trying to.

Non-Fiction

1. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

   1. My spouse is the introvert, and she highly recommended that I read this book by

      Susan Cain
      , who also writes on Substack. My spouse just finished it last fall while I was living at Tassajara. I grew up in a loquacious family where it was hard to get a word in amid all the chatter. However, since embarking on my Zen quest, the impulse to speak has quieted. Although I still present as gregarious, I thoroughly enjoy my solitude, and solitude engenders creativity.

2. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

   1. “Grief is different. Grief has no distance. Grief comes in waves, paroxysms, sudden apprehensions that weaken the knees and blind the eyes and obliterate the dailiness of life.”

3. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes

   1. Okay, so this book has been sitting on my shelf for about 10 years. I first heard about it while reading The God Delusion by the brilliant evolutionary biologist

      Richard Dawkins
      . If I recall correctly, Dawkins said that Julian Jaynes was either a genius or insane. I decided to include this book because I just saw it in a post on
      5AM StoryTalk
      where
      Cole Haddon
      mentions David Bowie’s 100 favorite books. If Bowie and Dawkins’s recommend it, I gotta crack it open!

4. We Are Too Many: A Memoir (Kind of) by Hannah Pittard

   1. I’m a huge fan of memoirs and I’ve never heard of this one. I stumbled upon it after recently subscribing to The Biblioracle Recommendsby John Warner, a weekly columnist for the Printers Row, the literary supplement for the Chicago Tribune. A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I met John when we were both enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing program. I trust his “Delphi eye” when it comes to book recommendations as he’s responsible for my reading The Magus—an extraordinary and beguiling thriller that’s set in Greece.

5. The Key to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel

   1. I read Bechdel’s graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic while at Tassajara several years ago and was enthralled by it! In this superhuman graphic memoir, Bechdel explores her lifelong addiction-fascination with a panoply of exercise: cross-country skiing, cycling, karate, yoga, running, weightlifting, as a way to both feel empowered and to escape her deep emotional suffering. Along the way, she turns to the Transcendentalists and the Buddhists for inspiration and guidance. She is hilarious, heartfelt, and hip. She’s a fabulous artist too!

Fiction

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

   1. About 30 years ago, I recommended this book to a colleague of mine when I worked as a newspaper reporter at The Tampa Tribune in Florida. He loved it and thanked me for telling him about it. When I told him I had never read it, he was flabbergasted. Okay, so now I’m finally going to make amends!

2. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

   1. “How easy it was to lie to strangers, to create with strangers the versions of our lives that we have imagined.”

3. HamNet: A Novel of the Plague by Maggie O’Farrell

   1. “Every life has its kernel, its hub, its epicentre, from which everything flows out, to which everything returns.”

4. North Woods by Daniel Mason

   1. My dear friend who lives in Brattelboro, VT, just sent me a brand new copy of this book! It’s so refreshing to have a new-hardcover-just-published novel. It’s been years since I’ve purchased one for myself. And, she had no idea that I’d been eyeing it on the shelf at Barnes & Noble in LA over the holi-DAZE. Can’t wait to curl up and dive in.

5. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

   1. During the first few months of the pandemic, I stumbled upon the audiobook on the San Francisco Public Library’s website. I’d been wanting to read it for awhile. I’m ashamed to say that I never finished listening to it even though it was exquisitely narrated by the late, great actress Ruby Dee. Listening to it was akin to watching a one-woman play as Dee animates each character with passionate perfection. Zora’s on my mind lately because I just finished her autobiography last night, Dust Tracks on a Road. Her voice is so vibrant, intimate, and beckoning that it felt as though she were sitting beside me, regaling me with her impossible rise out of the ashes of poverty in rural Florida to shine brightly as a core member of the Harlem Renaissance.

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