The Intimate Way of Zen: Effort, Surrender, and Awakening on the Spiritual Journey [Paperback]

An intimate mystery encompasses you and tugs upon your heart—what does it mean to follow that tug across the arc of a spiritual life?

Reflecting out of more than fifty years of practice in Zen Buddhism, Unitarian Universalism, and other contemplative traditions, James Ishmael Ford invites us into a journey through life's mysteries and the stages of spiritual development.

Lightly structured by the archetypal Buddhist oxherding images, Ford’s exploration is rooted in the Zen way while being deeply enriched by various strains of world mysticism. The book, sprinkled with insights and quotes from Buddhist, Daoist, and Christian traditions, serves as a map and a companion to spiritual seekers or pilgrims—whether within one religious tradition or cobbling together a way of one’s own. “Here is the most natural of all natural experiences,” writes Ford. “In the midst of our suffering, our longing, our desperation, we capture a glimpse. Something touches us. And with that, if we are lucky and really notice some movement of some spirit within us, we turn our attention to the intimate way.”“This book is about the messy path of Zen as lived and taught by James Ford. It tells no lies. Nothing linear or logical, no quick ecstatic fix, only a lifetime of longing and steadiness, of pilgrimage. If your life, too, is a pilgrimage, take The Intimate Way of Zen as guide and rudder. It will steer you through the vastness of Zen practice and show you how to live a life that isn’t just spiritual, but real.”
—Eve Myonen Marko, co-author of The Book of Householder Koans: Waking Up in the Land of Attachments

“The Intimate Way of Zen is a marvelous combination of stories, teachings, and practices that is partlsQ