The Nature of Zen

Zen is natural, so it invites us to be natural. We were born with the intuitive ability to experiencedirectly, without the intrusive influence of names and ideas. But the spontaneity and clarity of thisdirect experience is gradually enticed out of us until we discover that a long journey of contradictionsand riddles lies between who we have become and who we always were.The result has been an inner and restless disquietude as we search for a way back to the beginning- to a time before mountains were called mountains, before seas were called seas, before streamsand trees and clouds were obscured by our names and ideas. It was a time when the freedom ofdirect experience was not structured and confined by thinking. And the Zen poets of China and Japan lived in this special place because they were so close to nature.This book uses their poems and insights to inform us as we search for identity and meaning in a timeof ecological crisis.