Living With Zen

Rating:
Summary: All Bark and No Bite
Review: After reading such good reviews I was very disappointed with this book. It is a large, pretty, new age-y, coffee table style book, and I guess that's it's main function. The prose is unenlightened (not to say down right boring), the pictures are too few and far between and not very helpful or explanatory. Unless the whole book is supposed to be a koan (unanswerable zen meditation riddle), you might as well skip this one. The publisher was ready, but alas, no one else was apparently.

Rating:
Summary: Do not miss
Review: Baholyodhin will transform the way you look at life. He has a way of explaining Zen that leaves you somehow enlightened, thanks to his lucid descriptions of the world he sees. Accompanied by stunning photography, this book will leave you feeling tranquil, content, and fortified. A must for anyone seeking a more harmonious life. A true revelation in an age of shallow consumerism. Well done, Baholyodin. Roll on the next one!

Rating:
Summary: Yuppie Zen...
Review: Initially, I thought that this book was very appealing. It's expensive and beautiful, with a simple, elegant layout. As I paged through it, however, something began to bother me. Then I figured it out: ALL of the pictures were of beautiful houses, tastefully and very expensively appointed to illustrate the "simple" life of zen. There was not one picture of a truly simple room with real objects, or an ordinary person's house (someone with a modest income). It was all beautiful, high end stuff that is only had by the wealthy.

Therefore, I think Ou Balyhodhin missed the point. Real Zen living is not about buying lots of pricey stuff for your trophy house, it's about inner simplicity. I had the feeling this is the kind of book some wealthy person would buy so they could construct a "Zen lifestyle" to show off to others how 'simple' and 'spiritual' they are. .. I think there is a clue in the author's biography when it lists Conrans as one of the places he's consulted for and worked.

For a much better take on Japanese/Zen aesthetic, get a little book called "Wabi Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers", by Leonard Koren. It's fantastic.