{"product_id":"book-gp06","title":"Appalachian Zen","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis luminous memoir combines the hardscrabble setting of Appalachia with the spiritual wisdom of Shunryu Suzuki's \u003ci\u003eZen Mind, Beginner's Mind\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAppalachian Zen\u003c\/i\u003e describes a journey we all take, one that Buddhism calls \"seeking our true home.\" Edgy, lyrical, and lovingly rendered, this book recounts how a kid from a Pennsylvania mill-town trailer park grew up—surrounded by backwoods farms and amid grief, violence, and passionate yearning—to become something improbable: a Buddhist minister teaching Zen. Author Steve Kanji Ruhl takes listeners on an adventure of discovery, roving far from the Appalachian Mountains of central Pennsylvania on a footloose Zen pilgrimage to Japan and beyond.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFeaturing vivid firsthand accounts of spiritual seeking and teaching in Japanese temples, as well as forays to Tokyo and Hiroshima, the alleys of Kyoto, Amish cornfields near the Susquehanna, and a monastery in the Catskills, \u003ci\u003eAppalachian Zen\u003c\/i\u003e includes rapt nature passages and cultural references ranging from Proust to punk rock. Throughout the book, Ruhl engages Buddhist themes of awakening and the death of the self by confronting the lives and deaths, including two by suicide, of his loved ones. This provocative memoir tells how it \u003ci\u003efeels\u003c\/i\u003e to practice Zen, and to move toward a life of hard-won forgiveness, healing, and freedom.","brand":"Tantor","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49356375851312,"sku":"BDgp06","price":25.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio CD","offer_id":49356375916848,"sku":"ZEgp06","price":55.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio MP3-CD","offer_id":49356376047920,"sku":"ZMgp06","price":45.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/gp06-Square-cover.jpg?v=1780192973","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-gp06","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}