Zen Miracles: Finding Peace in an Insane World

by Dr. Brenda Shoshanna

In the book Zen Miracles: Finding Peace in an Insane World, Dr. Shoshanna uses her own experiences with Zen to explain its common concepts and principles. Sometimes the writing is quite subjective; however, it is enjoyable even for someone not familiar with Zen.

I don’t understand many of the koans in it but they say it takes a lifetime to understand some, or sometimes, you don’t understand them at all.

I leave you with the Zen Miracle Commandments at the end of the book. Brenda asks the readers to keep them as companions and enjoy living with them.

• Do not lean on others. Do not lean on anything.
• Keep your back straight at all times. Your spine connects heaven and earth. Honor it.
• Loneliness is an unwillingness to communicate freely with all of creation. Remedy this.
• Do not puff yourself up and put others down. We are all treading on the same earth.
• This particular breath will not come again. Pay attention to it.
• We cannot stop the noise, but we can stop ourselves. We can accept the noise.
• What you are at this moment contains the whole message of what you were.
• You can never see anything worse than yourself.
• Place after place is the right place.
• Don’t put a head on your own head. What’s wrong with your own?
• Going somewhere doesn’t take you anywhere else.
• Doing nothing is more than enough. Flowers grow on their own.