Review: Read a book, change your life
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 15, 2013
I was going to title this review, "One of the best books in the universe," but decided against it because, I figured, everyone would think I was a friend of the author. So let me state I've never met him, but would like to see him speak some day. Zen and Tao, A Little Book on Buddhist Thought and Meditation by Dennis Waller is packed with so much wisdom, that if you completely lived by the contents of a single page you could change your life. The 50 Quotes at the beginning are well worth the price of the book. Then the author skillfully takes us through a series of translations he has done and finally to essays where he makes a compelling case that the Tao has been practiced by a diverse collection of "sages" from Jewish mystics, to great Native American chiefs to Emerson and even comic genius George Carlin! He also has written a simple and wonderful explanation of Zen. Two quotes from the book, "We cling to our point of view as though everything depended on it. Yet, our opinions have no permanence: like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away." - Chuang Tzu,  and "The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings." -Okakura Kakuzo are a good frame of mind in which to begin this book. I can't wait to read this book again - it's one of those rare finds that needs to be reread at least once a year.