What Is Zen?

“This book is pure Zen, pure Norman, pure Sue, and pure poetry in spite being in the form of prose: refreshingly down-to-earth, modest, razor sharp, and subtle. Zen can’t but come alive for you in the reading, and even more, in coupling your reading with practice.“—Jon Kabat-Zinn”‘What is Zen?’ is a perplexing question, one I’m frequently asked, and one I ask myself, again and again. Norman Fischer and Sue Moon’s conversation is a wonderful, profound, affectionate, and immensely readable answer to this perplexing and ultimately unanswerable question. What Is Zen? is a book I know I’ll return to again and again, whenever the question arises.”—Ruth Ozeki

Norman Fischer is a Zen teacher in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki and Sojun Mel Weitsman. An award-winning poet and author of numerous books, he is the founder of Everyday Zen, an organization that brings Zen teachings to people from a wide range of backgrounds. He also teaches meditation in Jewish communities throughout the United States.

Susan Moon was for many years the editor of Turning Wheel, the Journal of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. A longtime writer, writing teacher, and activist, she is the author of several books and the creator of the fictional Zen teacher Tofu Roshi, whose “Dear Abby”-style advice column has entertained Bay Area readers in several publications for nearly thirty years.