Ordinary Wonder

“For heaven’s sake, practice what Joko Beck recommends, what she spent forty years doing and teaching: sitting silent and still, for long periods of time, experiencing everything that is happening in what you call your body, your thoughts, and your emotions. If you persist, you will find, as Joko did, an ease and a simple happiness in all that life presents you.”—from the foreword by Jan Chozen Bays, author of Mindful Eating

“Beck’s work was foundational in developing communities of Zen practice in the United States, and her work in the early years of the movement solidified the place of women in American Zen tradition. This collection carries the full weight of her significance, but also echoes the lightness of her teaching and way of being.” —Foreword Reviews

Charlotte Joko Beck, one of the most influential Western-born Zen teachers, was born in 1917 and died June 15, 2011. She began her practice of Zen with Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi, from whom she received Dharma transmission. She was the founder of the Zen Center of San Diego and the Ordinary Mind Zen School. Through her teachings, and her work as the author of two modern Zen classics–Everyday Zen- Love and Work and Nothing Special- Living Zen–Joko Beck became a visible and widely admired force among the first generation of America’s convert Buddhists. Her influence continues through her teachings and through those for whom she was a direct teacher.

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