This book is made up of a collection of stories and inspirational pieces that I have used over the
years
during the sesshin talks that I give as well as at the last evening of sesshin.
It is a companion book to What more do you want? and Zen Questions : Zen
Answers. I have written them
in the hope that they,
as well as the articles that appear in this website, in addition to making up for my having to
curtail my participation
in the Center’s activities, will be of value to those who practice Zen but who do not have a
competent teacher.
15$
I Am, Therefore I Think
Our times cry out for a new worldview; at present, our conception of the world leaves us without
coherence,
meaning, purpose or value. In I am, therefore I think, the author, Dr. Albert Low, presents
a new
worldview
empowering us to act in ßa different, more constructive, less competitive and obsessed way.
I am, therefore I think shows how a new worldview would restore meaning and purpose and
help us on the way to a genuine spiritual life.
25$
What More Do You Want?
In this fascinating book, renowned Zen master Albert Low addresses questions his students have posed
about the practice of Zen,
such as: Why do we practice? How do we distinguish between true and false prac tice? What is awakening?
... and so many more.
Low also presents four teishos on a text or koan that enhance meditation practice on za zen
(seated meditation), on pain and suffering, and
on the very nature of Zen practice itself.
Finally, in an article originally published in 1975, Low shares an experience of satori, a glimpse into
Buddha nature. All readers, novice and longtime practitioners alike, will encounter in this book new
answers and new
questions to the what, why and how of Zen practice.
10$
What Am I?
What strange things the Prajnaparamita Hridaya says! A young Buddhist acolyte put his finger on this
strangeness when he complained to his teacher,
“I have an eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind, so why does the Prajnaparamita Hridaya say that I do
not?” His teacher admitted that he did not know, but said,
“I must send you to a Zen master; he will know.” If, however, one were to go to a Zen master with this
question he might well reply, “To answer that question you
must first know what was your face before your parents were born!” or, to put the question in a more
familiar form, “What am I?”
The sutra is possibly the most familiar of all the sutras and is chanted regularly in Zen temples and
monasteries, but for most it is opaque and impenetrable.
Dr Albert Low uses his vast experience, coming from years of practice and teaching, to guide the reader
through the difficult terrain of the Prajnaparamita Hridaya,
the Heart Sutra, using non-technical language, a variety of stories and many references to the Zen
koans. In this way he encourages the reader to use the mind in a new,
creative way.
$20.00
Conflict and Creativity at Work
The book gives original answers to the following questions:
1) Human beings are naturally creative; what does this mean and what is the connection between creativity
and conflict?
2) How are creativity and conflict expressed in work, and why is work necessary for our mental health?
3) How has the corporate system emerged out of human creativity?
4) How can the company organization promote creativity through the judicious use of conflict?
5) What exactly is meant by the expression ‘an ethical corporation?’
$35.00
Hakuin on Kensho:
the Four Ways of Knowing
Kensho is the experience of waking up to one's own true nature - of understanding oneself to be not
different from the Buddha-nature
that pervades all existence. The Japanese Zen master Hakuin (1689-1796) considered the kensho experience
to be absolutely essential.
In his autobiography he says: "Anyone who would call himself a member of the Zen family must first
achieve kensho-realization of the Buddha's way.
If a person who has not achieved kensho says he is a follower of Zen, he is an outrageous fraud, a
swindler pure and simple."
Hakuin's short text on kensho, "Four Ways of Knowing of an Awakened Person," is a little-known Zen
Classic. Albert Low has provided careful,
line-by-line commentary for the text that illuminates its profound wisdom and makes it an inspiration
for deeper spiritual practice.
$21.00
The Origin of Human Nature
The Origin of Human Nature offers an original and fertile way to integrate spiritual and
scientific views
of human evolution.
It offers a new and refreshing alternative to the way we think about our origins: random mutation
(mechanistic neo-Darwinism),
Genesis (God did it all personally), and Intelligent Design (God personally does what we can’t otherwise
account for).
The result is an invigorating perspective on how our best qualities – our capacity for love, our
appreciation of beauty,
our altruistic capability, our creativity and intelligence – have come into being and evolved.
How we think about our origin matters: if we think we are machines living among other machines, we will
act accordingly.
By showing evolution as a creative and intelligent process with its own inherent logic, The Origin
of
Human Nature resolves
the dilemma of how to have, at the same time, both truth and ethics. Instead of starting in an imagined
remote and uncertain
past and moving to the present, this book starts at the certain and immediate present and works back.
That consciousness,
creativity, and intelligence exist is certain. The question is: how can these have evolved?
Dr Albert Low has made a study of human nature throughout his life. To write this book he draws on his
prolonged meditations on creativity
and the human condition, his years of providing psychological and spiritual counseling, and a
wide-ranging knowledge of Western psychology,
philosophy, and science.
30.00$
Creating Consciousness
"It is heartening indeed to come across a writer who thinks at the center of things so
unremittingly, so courageously, as Albert Low.
All of Low's books have teased away at the same fundamental issues, biting at them from different
angles like a dog with a bone.
Here he brings his understanding to a new clarity and directness - Creating Consciousness seems to
be a kind of culmination,
and it is written with warmth, wit and in so far as it is possible in such a subject,
simplicity." - Jonathan Harvey
Creating Consciousness is a spiritual & intellectual treasure from Zen Master Albert Low. Low's main
thesis, drawn deeply from the wisdom of Zen and decades of his own meditation, is that each individual
is a divided reality. The fact that we are one and yet divided, at the center and the periphery, leads
to Low's discussion of ambiguity, creativity, & violence as integral to human existence.
$30.00
The Butterfly's Dream
"I dreamt I was a butterfly. Now I am not sure if I am a man dreaming I was a butterfly
or a butterfly dreaming I am a man"
- Chuang Tzu
The quotation from Chuang Tzu is a picturesque illustration of the basic contradiction with which we all
have to struggle to find
peace of mind. The Butterfly's Dream, a lucid treatise on the spirituality of Zen, shows this struggle
to be the source that makes
a spiritual life both necessary and possible.
The author uses the words of Descartes, "I think, therefore I am," as a springboard to a deeper pool of
wisdom to be found in Zen Buddhism.
He not only reveals the roots of Zen spirituality but also explores the origin of suffering, its
consequences and the way beyond suffering.
Written with clarity, he uses Christian, Sufi and Hindu sources as well as Zen Buddhist. By doing so, he
explains Zen in Western terms,
making it accessible both in theory and in practice.
$20.00
The World A Gateway :
Commentaries on the Mumonkan
The Mumonkan , or Gateless Barrier, is the most widely used collection of koans in Zen
practice. For
centuries,
monks, nuns, and lay people have struggled with these koans as a means of attaining enlightenment.
As director of the Montreal Zen Center, Albert Low has helped others work through
these koans.
In this book he provides contemporary and lively commentaries which serve to make the
Mumonkan available
to all readers
and relevant to their everyday lives. He draws upon his own many years of practice, half of which has
been
spent as a teacher,
to show how the Mumonkan can be a gateway to spiritual life.
$22.00
To know Yourself
Albert Low provides in this book an engaging collection of talks, stories and articles on Zen. Though the
entries range from dharma talks on
koans to discussions on Buddhism and Christianity, they all address concrete concerns of our lives and
reveal the author's profound insights.
Iron Cow of Zen
A koan is a saying by a Zen master, the most famous being "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
Seemingly incomprehensible,
a koan is actually an invitation to think in a new way, a tool to startle the consciousness into
enlightenment.
Drawing on the views of diverse thinkers from Buddha, to T.S. Eliot to explain the essential concepts of
Zen Buddhism, this book is thought provoking reading.
Zen and the Sutras
The basic message of all the Mahayana Buddhist sutras is awakening – what the consummate Zen teacher
Bassui called "seeing the wordless sutra."
Zen and the Sutras is an accessible study of the major Mahayana sutras as manuals for the practice of
Zen. Albert Low discusses first the
roots of koans in the sutras and the Prajnaparamita tradition that continues to nourish Zen. He then
explores individually the Prajnaparamita
Hridaya and the Diamond, Vimalakirti, Lankavatara, and Surangama sutras, relating them all the while to
the koans and practice of contemplating
and "solving" them. Low’s insights and conclusions about spirituality and humanity will both illuminate
and inspire, in the way of Zen, in the
search for spiritual awakening.
$22.00
Zen and Creative Management
This book is a must for managers whose objectives are to improve conditions in the workplace and to
increase
productivity. It offers all managers a wide range of innovative ways to anyalyze long-term priorities
and day-to-day
operations, and suggests methods to implement change.
"I think Albert Low has written an orginal and important book on management. It combines Western
and Eastern modes of
thought to construct an intensely practical and flexible approach to the solution of managerial
problems." - Elliot Jaques
"I know of no other book that so capably reconciles the seemingly disparate worldsof industry and
Zen, or that speaks with the authority of this one.
This book is a profoundly wise book that needs to be read by managers, executives, and manual workers
alike." - Phillip Kapleau, Roshi
$13.50
Invitation To Practice Zen
republished as "Zen Meditation, plain and simple"
Many good books about the rich literature and philosophy of Zen can be found on bookstore shelves. But
there are no books that explain simply,
to the interested beginner, how to do Zen - how to sit down and begin to work toward fulfillment of the
promises of Zen. This book answers this need.
Its author makes no glib claims or airy promises. He admits that the way of Zen is not an easy one to
follow. But for those willing to undertake the work,
he offers concise, easy-to-understand, step-by-step instructions on how to incorporate Zen into your
daily life - how to establish a regular program
of practice that will make availabe the wisdom and insight to be gained from the discipline of Zen.
$20.00
Hakuin's Chant in Praise of Zazen
Hakuin Zenji is one of Japan’s most celebrated Zen masters. Tradition tells us that he single-handedly
revived Rinzai Zen in Japan. He was an artist, calligrapher and writer, as well as being a Zen master.
The Chant in Praise of Zazen is justifiably one of his best-known works and Zen master
Albert Low offers
us here a penetrating commentary on this beautiful and very inspiring writing.
$7.00
eBooks
List of Albert Low's eBooks
John Low has published some of Albert Low's books as ebooks.
The ebooks will also be listed on Barnes & Nobel, Amazon, Kobo, and Sony ebook stores. Right now
they are up only on
Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Click on the link after the description of the ebook to buy and download
this ebook from Amazon.
If you have any questions about these ebooks John would be please to help you at : john_low@shaw.ca
I am, Therefore I think
Our times cry out for a new worldview; at present, our conception of the world leaves us without
coherence,
meaning, purpose or value. In I am, therefore I think, the author, Dr. Albert Low,
presents a new
worldview
empowering us to act in a different, more constructive, less competitive and obsessed way.
Ebook $9.95 US - Paragon House Publishing
Creating Consciousness
Creating Consciousness is a spiritual & intellectual treasure from Zen Master Albert Low. Low's main
thesis,
drawn deeply from the wisdom of Zen and decades of his own meditation, is that each individual is a
divided
reality. The fact that we are one and yet divided, at the center and the periphery, leads to Low's
discussion
of ambiguity, creativity, & violence as integral to human existence.
Ebook Price: $4.99 USD
What Am I? The Heart Sutra for Everyone
The most familiar of all the sutras, the Heart Sutra, is chanted regularly in Zen monasteries.
Albert Low uses his vast experience, coming from years of practice and teaching, to guide the
reader through the difficult terrain of the Sutra using non-technical language, many stories
and references to Zen koans. He encourages the reader to use the mind in a new creative to see
the Sutra's message.
Ebook Price: $4.99 USD
Christian Love Buddhist Wisdom:
Religion as the quest for transcendence
Albert Low’s book rejects the simplistic views of Richard Dawkins and shows how the religious impulse
is expressed by
two entirely different kinds of religions: religion as a set of beliefs centered on a unique,
dynamic center
such as Christ, Mohammed or Buddha, and religion as a quest. Dr Albert Low is the teacher at the
Montreal Zen
Center and an internationally acclaimed author.
Ebook Price: $4.99 USD
Zen and the Sutras
The basic message of all the Mahayana Buddhist sutras is awakening - what the Zen teacher Bassui
called
"seeing the wordless sutra." Zen and the Sutras is an accessible study of the major Mahayana sutras
as
manuals for the practice of Zen. Low’s insights and conclusions about spirituality and humanity will
both illuminate and inspire, in the way of Zen, in the search for spiritual awakening.
Ebook Price: $4.88 USD
Zen: Talks, Stories and Commentaries
Albert Low, teacher and director of the Montreal Zen Center and dharma heir of Roshi Philip Kapleau,
here provides an engaging collection of talks, stories and commentaries on Zen. Though the entries
range
from dharma talks on koans to discussions on Buddhism and Christianity, they all address concrete
concerns
of our lives and reveal the author's profound insights.
Ebook Price: $4.88 USD
The Iron Cow of Zen
A koan is a saying by a Zen master, the most famous being "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
Seemingly incomprehensible, a koan is actually an invitation to think in a new way, a tool to
startle
the consciousness into enlightenment. Drawing on the views of diverse thinkers from Buddha, to T.S.
Eliot
to explain the essential concepts of Zen Buddhism, this book is thought provoking reading.
Ebook Price: $4.88 USD
Living With Yourself: A voyage of discovery
In this book Albert Low invites you to put into practice the benefits of Zen. He uses the words of
Descartes,
"I think, therefore I am," as a springboard to a deeper pool of wisdom to be found in Zen Buddhism.
Written with clarity, he uses Christian, Sufi and Hindu sources as well as Zen Buddhist. By so
doing,
he explains Zen in Western terms, making it accessible both in theory and in practice.
Ebook Price: $3.95 USD
Hakuin’s Chant in Praise of Zazen
Hakuin Zenji is one of Japan’s most celebrated Zen masters. Tradition tells us that he
single-handedly
revived Rinzai Zen in Japan. He was an artist, calligrapher and writer, as well as being a Zen
master.
He said that writing is verbal prajna and his writings are vigorous, courageous, and always to the
point.
The Chant in Praise of Zazen, Zazen Wasan, is justifiably one of his best-known works.
Ebook Price: $0.99 USD
Working with Koans
Because words can no more hold the truth than a net can hold water, we use koans. Koans are sayings,
or doings, of Zen masters, the patriarchs and Buddha. Take for example the koan: The Sound of One
Hand
clapping. It reads: “You know the sound of two hands clapping. What is the sound of one hand
clapping?
” The obvious, intellectual answer is, No sound at all! But then what is this No sound?
Ebook Price: $0.99 USD
iTeishos
A teisho is a talk given by the master during a sesshin (retreat). It is inspired by his awakening,
his understanding and his life experience. Its purpose is neither to entertain nor to inform.
It is directed to our burning wish to “know”. In order for a teisho to be well received, it must
be listened to with the same attention as the attention with which it is given.
Teishos are an important feature of the practice at the Centre. Since it is not always possible to
attend all the sesshins, teishos have been recorded so that a greater number of members may listen
to them.
Copyright: reminder
These teishos are copyrighted material. The copyright is held by the Low family. Teishos may not be copied, re-sold or given to other people. Any questions you may have should be referred to jeanmlow@gmail.com. Thank you for respecting this copyright reminder.
To download an iTeisho, you must first have a “User name” and a “Password”. These can be obtained by
contacting
centre.zen.montreal@gmail.com. Once you have been provided with
a user name and password,
you will be able to access all iTeishos currently on-line without charge, but only if you are a
member of the Montreal Zen Center.
To download, click with the right button of the mouse on the title of the teisho you wish to save or
if you are using a Macintosh
with a single button mouse, use click-option. A dialogue box will open with a series of options.
Select "Save As" or "Save link"
on a Macintosh. After selecting your option, another dialogue box will open asking you to enter your
User Name and Password.
Once you have entered your User Name and Password, click OK, after which the Save As file dialogue
box of your computer will
open and you can now select in which file you wish to keep the iTeisho, then click Save. The file
will start to download on to your computer.
Once the download is complete, you can copy the teisho onto a CD or listen to it on your computer.
It is possible to listen to an iTeisho without downloading it but
we recommend that you download and save the iTeisho to your computer for future listening. N.B.
For security reasons,
passwords will be changed every two months, so you will have to ask for a password on a regular
basis. Please do not hesitate to
contact centre.zen.montreal@gmail.com if you have further questions.
Since 2020, Dharma words have been introduced during our one-day sittings. They’ve also found their way into our online retreats during the COVID-19 pandemic and are now part and parcel of our retreats on days when there is no teacher invited by the Montreal Zen Centre.
These words of support allowed members of the Montreal Zen Centre community to communicate and support each other during the confinement. In the end, these words stuck. Dharma words are like a piece of bread we would share with fellow travellers. Here, this shared bread is made up of words and exchanges. May it nourish our practice and sustain our efforts along the way.
Zen Gong is the review that was published by the Montreal Zen Centre from 1992 to 2010.
It is made up of texts drawn from the Zen tradition but also from other spiritual traditions,
of testimonials and articles written by Albert Low and by members of the Centre.
This publication aimed to encourage and nourish reflections about the practice by those devoted to
it.
As the Center includes French and English-speaking members, articles appear in both languages.
To see the content summary or to see and/or download a PDF version of the Zen Gong, please click on
the appropriate Volume number below.
If you do not have a version of Adobe Reader, you can download a copy at this address:
free download.
As some Zen Gong files are quite large, it would be well-advised to save the documents on your
computer for further reference.
