The Zen cowboy or Taoboy, has mastered and given up all his desires in his quest for ultimate enlightenment. If you're into Zen, this takeoff will tickle your funny bone as you become one with the herd, singing Ommm, ommm on the range...

The Way Of The Zen Cowboy: Fireside Stories From A Globetrotting Rhythmatist is a new collection of 35 short stories from Grammy-winning percussionist, composer, and storyteller Barrett Martin. These stories are based on personal experiences around the world, as well as wisdom tales heard from indigenous people, grandparents, and some of the cowboys and veterans he was mentored by. The stories are built around themes important to the development of a human being, particularly as we become wiser stewards of the Earth and each other, those being: the cultivation of a spiritual practice; the development of one's character; the appreciation of music; a deep reverence for the environment; the importance of an astute political mind; the honoring of ancient wisdom; and the beautiful, ephemeral essence of the human soul. The book also comes with a digital download of the new double album from the Barrett Martin Group, "Songs Of The Firebird," which are 20 instrumental songs that serve as a soundtrack to the stories.

Although spare, sweeping landscapes may appear "empty," plains and prairies afford a rich, unique aesthetic experience--one of quiet sunrises and dramatic storms, hidden treasures and abundant wildlife, infinite horizons and omnipresent wind, all worthy of contemplation and celebration. In this series of narratives, photographs, and hand-drawn maps, Tyra Olstad blends scholarly research with first-hand observation to explore topics such as wildness and wilderness, travel and tourism, preservation and conservation, expectations and acceptance, and even dreams and reality in the context of parks, prairies, and wild, open places. In so doing, she invites readers to reconsider the meaning of "emptiness" and ask larger, deeper questions such as: how do people experience the world? How do we shape places and how do places shape us? Above all, what does it mean to experience that exhilarating effect known as Zen of the plains?

In A Glimpse of Nothingness, celebrated mystery novelist Janwillem van de Wetering offers a sequel to his earlier memoir, The Empty Mirror, which concerned the author's experiences at a Zen monastery in Japan in the middle 1960s. Originally published in 1975, A Glimpse of Nothingness chronicles van de Wetering's time at the Moon Springs Hermitage in Maine. The book offers a complete and compelling description of the Zen path pursued by one sensitive Westerner who began his quest by seeking for the sense of it all-and who eventually came to realize at least a part of it. The follow-up to this book is van de Wetering's Afterzen.

The Singing Earth is a collection of stories from musician and writer Barrett Martin, which follow his musical adventures around the globe. The reader is taken on a journey that starts with Martin's involvement in the '90s Seattle music scene, and then moves to Australian Aboriginal songlines, Garifuna ancestral drumming, Senegalese griot music, musical diplomacy in Cuba, touring with a Brazilian rock band, recording Shipibo shamanic music in the Peruvian Amazon, playing with a delta blues legend, recording in Jerusalem, Native American ceremonies, and the power of music as a form of political resistance. There is also a companion CD that comes with the book, which has rare, unreleased songs from Martin's various bands, as well as field recordings from the incredible musical environments he has visited. Those who have read the book have called it a musical adventure story that looks at the links between ecology, community, and how music helps us connect with our greater humanity.

Stillwater, the beloved Zen panda, now in his own Apple TV+ original series! Stillwater the Panda returns in a delightful companion to his Caldecott Honor Book, Zen Shorts. Summer has arrived -- and so has Koo, Stillwater's haiku-speaking young nephew. And when Stillwater encourages Koo, and his friends Addy, Michael, and Karl to help a grouchy old neighbor in need, their efforts are rewarded in unexpected ways.Zen Ties is a charming story of compassion and friendship that reaffirms the importance of our ties to one another.

Part travelogue, part meditation on an author and his work, Zen and Now is a tribute to a beloved American book and the landscape that inspired it. Since it was first published in 1974, Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has become a modern classic, a beautifully constructed blend of travel narrative and philosophical inquiry that has moved generations of readers. One of those readers was journalistMarkRichardson, who after rediscovering the book at middle age, decided to retrace Pirsig’s journey. Fromthe back of his own motorcycle, Richardson investigates what happened to the reclusive Pirsig, his family, and the people described in the book in the years after its surprising success.