num_pages: 416
description: Eastern tradition collides with Western individualism in this provocative and compulsively readable investigation of Buddhism American-style. A genuine spiritual movement becomes strangely entangled with elitist aesthetics the culture of celebrity multi-million-dollar investment portfolios sex scandals and an unsolved crime.Told Rashomon-fashion by a singular mix of hippies millionaires intellectuals and lost souls whose lives are almost unbelievably intertwined Shoes Outside the Door is the first book to examine the inner workings of the profoundly influential San Francisco Zen Center. In exploring the history of the most important institution in American Buddhism author Michael Downing provocatively captures the profound ambivalence of people who earnestly seek both inner peace and worldly satisfaction.
language: English
title: Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center
publisher: Counterpoint