Zen Traces

Zen Traces: Exploring American Zen with Twain and Thoreau / 178-page paperback / 6" x 9" / ISBN 9781589881280 / Publication Date: June 2018 As Zen takes root in the west, new forms arise. For centuries Zen masters have tested their students with “koans” and “capping phrases.” A koan is a spiritual paradox that must be solved intuitively. A capping phrase is a trenchant comment. Both are meditative practices that reveal deeper truths about the self and, ideally, lead to enlightenment. In Zen Traces, Buddhist scholar Kenneth Kraft plays off these practices in a new idiom. He selects passages from four sources: traditional Zen, present-day Zen, Henry David Thoreau, and Mark Twain. When a koan-like story about a contemporary Zen teacher is paired with a pithy comment by Mark Twain, something fresh emerges. “What is most interesting about the book is how it indicates the timelessness of writing, whether it is traditional Zen koans and capping phrases, 19th century literature, or contemporar