"Originally published in Japanese by Ichimannendo Publishing under the title of Tannisho wo hiraku, 2008"--T.p. verso.

"We say that we want to be happy. If that's what we really want, we should start planting seeds of happiness. The kind of flower you get depends on the seed you have planted; this is a law of nature. In the same way, if you plant the seeds of happiness, the flowers of happiness will bloom. Buddhism teaches the law of cause and effect, which enables you to become a happier you. This book applies that clear law to the troubles that various people have, explaining things in a way that will be easy for them to understand."--Amazon.com.

This book brings together two giants of the history of Zen: Linji (Japanese, Rinzai) and Hisamatsu Shin'ichi. Linji is looked upon as the founder of the Rinzai sect in Japan. Hisamatsu was a leading twentieth century master/thinker who lived in Kyoto and was a tremendous influence on the development of the Kyoto school of Japanese philosophy. The translators and editors have translated and annotated twenty-two of Hisamatsu's Zen teisho (Dharma talks, in effect, sermons for Zen practitioners) of a classical Zen text, the Record of Linji, the recorded sayings of the Chinese founder of Rinzai Zen.

As human beings, we have one thing in common - we search all our lives for lasting happiness. This book tells us that happiness can indeed be found. It shows us how to navigate life's obstacles from a deep and abiding source of inner peace. It shows why human life is not only meaningful, but infinitely precious.

This complete translation of Masao Abe's essays on Dogen probes the core of the Zen master's philosophy and religion. This work analyzes Dogen's formative doubt concerning the notion of original awakening as the basis for his unique approach to nonduality in the doctrines of the oneness of practice and attainment, the unity of beings and Buddha-nature, the simultaneity of time and eternity, and the identity of life and death. Abe also offers insightful, critical comparisons of Dogen and various Buddhist and Western thinkers, especially Shinran and Heidegger.

The stories and anecdotes in this book are full of variety, ranging from historical incidents to family problems. Yet each one has something to teach about Buddhist truth, which permeates time and space. This little book may enable people the world over to share in the precious teachings of Buddhism and acquire an unshakable spirit.

From one of France’s leading contemporary thinkers, “an astutely reasoned philosophical text, offering a revolutionary analysis of theistic religion” (The Midwest Book Review). This book is a profound and eagerly anticipated investigation into what is left of a monotheistic religious spirit—notably, a minimalist faith that is neither confessional nor credulous. Articulating this faith as works and as an objectless hope, Nancy deconstructs Christianity in search of the historical and reflective conditions that provided its initial energy. Working through Blanchot and Nietzsche, re-reading Heidegger and Derrida, Nancy turns to the Epistle of Saint James rather than those of Saint Paul, discerning in it the primitive essence of Christianity as hope. The “religion that provided the exit from religion,” as he terms Christianity, consists in the announcement of an end. It is the announcement that counts, however, rather than any finality. In this announcement there is a proximity to others and to what was once called parousia. But parousia is no longer presence; it is no longer the return of the Messiah. Rather, it is what is near us and does not cease to open and to close, a presence deferred yet imminent. In a demystified age where we are left with a vision of a self-enclosed world—in which humans are no longer mortals facing an immortal being, but entities whose lives are accompanied by the time of their own decline—parousia stands as a question. Can we venture the risk of a decentered perspective, such that the meaning of the world can be found both inside and outside, within and without our so-immanent world?