Word: zens
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Beware of men in robes. Fallen spiritual figures are in painfully plentiful supply these days, and as a sprawling new history of the San Francisco Zen Center shows, the list of faiths bedeviled by them very definitely includes Zen Buddhism?in particular, the unique American variety of it that sprang into being...
...Placed next to the appalling ego circuses of Eastern gurus such as Sai Baba or Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the goings-on at Zen Center were pretty tame fare. But the real lure of Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center (Counterpoint; 385 pages) isn't the abuses and failings it chronicles, so much as the fact that they happened in the ever-elusive, and ever-alluring, world of Zen. Of all the Far Eastern spiritualities that Americans began importing as replacements for their own moribund faiths in the '60s and '70s, Zen has always...
...only problem with this way of thinking is that Zen never really was such a pure beast, even before America got its hands on it. One of the hardest things for many of the Americans who fell in love with Zen in the '60s and '70s to accept was that Zen didn't grow grubby with its arrival on American shores?it was that way already. While Zen insights may transcend the limits of culture, Zen as an organized religion doesn't, and never did. Zen is a school of Buddhism, and organized Buddhism is an institution?a product created...
Author of What Would Machiavelli Do? and a columnist for FORTUNE magazine, Bing has written a wry 21st century courtier's manual that irreverently harnesses the wisdom of the ancient Zen masters. The elephants in this clever business handbook are the outsize ceos and captains of industry who take up all the air and space in every room they enter. Bing offers advice on the care and feeding of such corporate pachyderms, but, more important, he tells you how not to get trampled. Drain yourself of all hope, he says. Don't expect anything--especially kindness. And never, ever, criticize...
...looking to cleanse their souls. But taking their cue from the popularity of citrus soaps and berry body lotions, designer-housewares stores such as Williams-Sonoma and the Terence Conran Shop are offering household-cleaning products--dishwashing soaps, floor cleaners and countertop sprays--infused with essences fit for a Zen retreat. Consumers can choose among scrubs that smell like green-tea patchouli, citrus-mint ilang-ilang or basil lemon verbena. For the most part, the earth-friendly cleansers are "plant derived," meaning they don't contain man-made substances like ammonia. Degreasers by the manufacturer Caldrea get their punch from...