Our library in Hewett Centre is open every Sunday after service during Coffee Hour in Hewett Centre, and our Library Team offers related reading lists based on the topic of Sunday service. Here is their list for the upcoming service featuring Mei Jia Lam, Hisako Masaki and Rev. Shawn Gauthier on Sunday, May 25, 2025 at 11 a.m. All are welcome in Hewett Centre after the Sunday service to check out some books and to have coffee and conversation.
VanU library books related to this Sunday’s sermon:
1. This Very Moment: A Brief Introduction to Buddhism and Zen for Unitarian Universalists, by James Ishmael Ford, 1996, 294 FOR [Published by Skinner House Books. From LibraryThing: “An elegant primer, This Very Moment includes basic teachings of the Buddha, the historical development of Zen Buddhism, Zen meditation practices, koans and more. Ford also highlights the spiritual and political connections between Zen Buddhism and Unitarian Universalism, demonstrating the harmonious balance that can be struck between the two.”].
2. Buddhism, Unitarianism, and the Meiji Competition for Universality (Harvard East Asian Monographs), by Michel Mohr, 2014, 289.1 [From LibraryThing, provided by the publisher: “This book spotlights the debates between Unitarianism and Buddhism in Japan since the late 1800s. Focusing on the events triggered by the missionaries of the American Unitarian Association in Japan between 1887 and 1922, this study investigates this formative time in Japanese religious and intellectual history”].
3. The World of Zen; An East-West Anthology, by Nancy Wilson Ross, 1960, 294 ROS [From LibraryThing: “The first comprehensive anthology of writings of Zen that presents both Eastern and Western sources. Illustrated.”].
4. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: 50th Anniversary Edition, by Shunryu Suzuki, 2020, 294 SUZ [From LibraryThing: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few. So begins this most beloved of all American Zen works. In a single stroke, the simple sentence cuts through the pervasive tendency students have of getting so close to Zen as to completely miss what it’s all about. In the years since its original publication, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind has become one of the great modern Zen classics. Suzuki Roshi presents the basics of Zen in a way that is remarkably clear and resonates with the joy of insight. …”].
5. In This Very Moment: A Simple Guide to Zen Buddhism, by James Ishmael Ford, 2000, 294.3 FOR [Gift of Gail Stephan. Published by Skinner House Books. From LibraryThing: “A valuable beginner’s resource and teaching tool, this brief and useful history of Zen Buddhism introduces the history, philosophy and practice of Zen for beginners and others who want an overview that is at once wise and accessible. The helpful Glossary demystifies the terminology of Buddhism.”].
6. Buddhism: Religions of our Neighbors: Volume 3, by Sid Bentley, 1983, 294 BEN [Published by the Province of BC, Ministry of Education].
7. This Is It: and Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience, by Alan Watts, 1973, 294.39 WAT [From LibraryThing: “… six revolutionary essays exploring the relationship between spiritual experience and ordinary life-and the need for them to coexist within each of us. With essays on “cosmic consciousness” (including Alan Watts’ account of his own ventures into this inward realm); the paradoxes of self-consciousness; LSD and consciousness; and the false opposition of spirit and matter, …”].
8. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Buddhist Wisdom: A Complete Introduction to the Principles and Practices of Buddhism, by Gill Farrer-Halls, 2000, 294.3 FAR [From LibraryThing: “An illustrated introduction to Buddhism, focusing on the three major traditions of Theravada, Zen, and Tibetan; with discussion of how Buddhism developed, the principles of the religion, and meditation.”].
9. Buddhism and Whiteness, by George Yancy, 2021, 294 YAN [From LibraryThing: “… contributors use Buddhist philosophical and contemplative traditions, both ancient and modern, and deploy critical philosophy of race, and critical whiteness studies, to address the proverbial elephant in the room – whiteness”].
10. Following the Brush: An American Encounter With Classical Japanese Culture, by John Elder, 1993, 952.04 ELD [Gift of Sheilah Thompson. Published by Beacon Press. From LibraryThing, re: the book jacket: “… A professor of English, John Elder lived for a year with his family in Kyoto. As a cultural outsider and devoted amateur, Elder brings a distinctive and sympathetic eye to arts and institutions that are, as the author points out, peopled by Japanese who are these days themselves outsiders in an important sense, lovers of pursuits which have been “swirled off into eddies by the velocity of the economic mainstream.”” … We are given an insider’s look at a Japanese elementary school – attended by all three of the author’s children – that is both startling and admiring.” … Elder describes the sisterhood of Kyoto geishas as they “venture out, self-possessed and superbly eccentric, in their errands along the noisy streets of Japan.” And we watch with fascination as Elder is allowed in as the only foreigner to a traditional Go club, where men only pursue “the austere beauty, and the pure competition, of the world’s most demanding game.”” “Elder’s experience as a leading writer on nature leads him also to reflect in other essays on distinctly Japanese attachments to nature and wildness.”].