About the Author

John Daido Loori is one of the most well-known and respected Zen teachers in the United States. He is a successor of the late Taizan Maezumi Roshi and has received transmission in both Soto and Rinzai lineages of Zen. He is the author of numerous books, including Mountain Record of Zen Talks, Making Love with Light, and Riding the Ox Home: Stages on the Path of Enlightenment.

Reviews

“A well-written, wise, insightful book on creativity and Zen, a subject made all the more intriguing and persuasive by Daido Loori’s long experience as a student and teacher in both. The text is enhanced by fine Zen dialogues and stories, poems, koan, photographs, and illustrations as well as apt, stimulating quotations from many writers and Zen teachers. An altogether excellent book.”
—PETER MATTHIESSEN (Muryo Roshi)

“Zen is the immediate suchness and spontaneity of life, a creativity that is art itself. John Daido Loori, one of the truly great American Zen masters, has given us a simple yet profound guide to art, creativity, and life itself—for they all spring from the same source, the same ordinary magic of this and every moment. The Zen of Creativity is a rare, elegant, beautiful book, highly recommended.”
—KEN WILBER, author of A Brief History of Everything

What is it about the open-ended Zen perspective that awakens our psyche in art and in life? How do the Zen concepts simplicity, mystery, attention, and spontaneity help us to discover the mental blocks to our inherent spiritual wisdom? Loori, an artist and leading facilitator of Zen Buddhist tradition in the West, ardently probes these questions, calling upon a whole mind/body approach to (rather than a technical explanation of) Zen practices and the Zen arts (poetry, photography, painting, and tea ceremony). Heartily advocating that self-trust, trust in spiritual practice, and trust in the intuitive process are key to freeing ourselves mentally, the author engages the reader by sharing how his life became completely graced through the Zen aesthetic. Interesting parables of the Zen masters abound, especially when the author explores koans. Loori achieves her goal of showing readers that Zen practices bring about both creative results in art and lasting spiritual benefits in life. Creativity is hence a means to self-understanding, not simply an end in itself. Artists and soul-searchers will find this book satisfying. Recommended for larger public libraries in a category bridging self-help and comparative religion. Lisa Liquori, Syracuse, NY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

"A well-written, wise, insightful book on creativity and Zen, a subject made all the more intriguing and persuasive by Daido Loori's long experience as a student and teacher in both. The text is enhanced by fine Zen dialogues and stories, poems, koan, photographs, and illustrations as well as apt, stimulating quotations from many writers and Zen teachers. An altogether excellent book."
-PETER MATTHIESSEN (Muryo Roshi)

"Zen is the immediate suchness and spontaneity of life, a creativity that is art itself. John Daido Loori, one of the truly great American Zen masters, has given us a simple yet profound guide to art, creativity, and life itself-for they all spring from the same source, the same ordinary magic of this and every moment. The Zen of Creativity is a rare, elegant, beautiful book, highly recommended."
-KEN WILBER, author of A Brief History of Everything