Zen and the Birds of Appetite
New York: New Directions, 1968. First edition, first printing. Publisher's light blue cloth, in David Ford dust jacket (price-clipped). 141, [7, blank]pp. 8.25" x 5.5" Light rubbing extremities, else fine in very good or better, lightly edge worn dust jacket with a few small shadows jacket verso, in mylar cover. Item #239581
A LITTLE ZEN IN ALL THINGS
Among their many contributions to the world, the Catholic mystics promoted peace, a theologically rich social justice, poetry, and deep interfaith dialogue. In many ways, it was twentieth-century contemplatives who helped introduce Eastern religious thought to a broader Western audience. Thomas Merton (1915–1968) was one of the most important of these figures. Shortly after his conversion to Catholicism in 1937, Merton was exposed to—and immediately intrigued by—Eastern religions. Throughout his life as a theologian and Trappist monk, he engaged in sustained interfaith dialogue with some of the East’s most prominent thinkers.
In Zen and the Birds of Appetite, Merton explores the indubitable overlap between mystic Christianity and Zen Buddhism. For Merton and D.T. Suzuki––Zen master and personal friend of Merton––there is a little Zen in all things spiritual and creative. Both Zen and Christianity, it seems, are less about immovable boundaries surrounding their frameworks and more about uncovering the ultimate Truth that undergirds all of existence. Let the dialogue commence!
An increasingly scarce first edition of Merton's engagement with Zen Buddhism and one of its great masters.
[Dell'isola A53].
Price: $375.00