“Essential Zen is a pithy compendium of subtle dharmic gists. It is a tool kit for survival in samsara. I bow to its poetry, wit, and wisdom.”

— Anne Waldman, director of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa University, author of Fast Speaking Woman

“I am grateful to Kaz Tanahashi and David Schneider for the gift of this splendid collection, through whose pages the mind of Zen—permeable and particular, timeless and new-born, many and one—happily wanders. An ox eating flowers, flowers eating an ox—here, last for yourself.”

— Jane Hirshfield poet & translator, author of Ten Windows; How Great Poems Change the World

“Essential Zen is at once a charming collection of teachings, and a challenging array of ideas. For any reader who has a wish to hear the type of material presented by a good teacher of Zen, these selections provide one way to enter that world. In the case of those who know all about Zen, it will be a refreshing review, delightful to read with its particular flavor. “

— Lewis Lancaster, professor of East Asian languages, University of California, Berkeley

“A lovely, lucid book.
Spring-cleaned Zen—no dust here.”

—Peter Coyote, Zen priest, actor, narrator, author of Sleeping Where I Fall