Sally Scoville
I first encountered Zen when I found Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind Beginner’s in an English bookstore in Paris in the late seventies.
On returning to the U.S. I went directly to San Francisco Zen Center to study. My path eventually led to Sonoma Mountain Zen Center, where I met Jakusho Kwong-roshi and began practicing with him. He has been my teacher ever since.
I was a chef for most of my life, and my previous editorial experience is limited: Editor of high school newspaper; copyeditor of architecture books published in England and for local writers; translator/editor of two French cookbooks, not published in the U.S.
Whatever skill I have I owe to two excellent English teachers at school, and to Fowler’s Modern English Usage and the Chicago Manual of Style.
Books, Courses & Podcasts
Mind Sky
“In Zen meditation, anything that comes in your mind will eventually leave, because nothing is permanent. A thought is like a cloud moving across the blue sky. Nothing can disturb that all-encompassing vastness. This is the Dharma.”
In a collection of talks and anecdotes, Jakusho Kwong-roshi, a Dharma successor of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, presents his approach to Buddhist teaching. Containing photos of Kwong-roshi with his teachers, as well as a selection of his vibrant calligraphy, Mind Sky explores the profound beauty of Zen history and practice, nature, and the philosophy of the ancient Zen master Eihei Dōgen.
With an elegant simplicity, Kwong-roshi shows how Zen is experiential rather than intellectual. And with persistent practice, realization is already yours.