Upside-Down Zen: Finding the Marvelous in the Ordinary

Susan Murphy is a most talented writer. Every paragraph I am struck hard by the WAY she writes. She captures life exactly in only a few choice words. Here’s one example, chosen at random, but you can pull one from any paragraph on every page in the book, “to try to use the mind to cut off the mind is like trying to wash water away with water”. Unlike another reviewer I in no way found this pretentious; she is very deferential to her teachers and the traditions she continues. Her aim here is to be a bridge - between East and West, past and PRESENT. Though she has studied some serious stuff, she presents it in an easy accessible way, which is great for many new to Zen that don’t want it to be just functional breathing instructions or cryptic questions without answers. A good writer helps you find Zen within you, around you at any time, revealing the ordinary in the extraordinary. She does that with ease and beauty that I find a precious gift. I only need a passage or two each night for a reset. Thank you Susan!!!

Of all of the many books I have in my liberty, this is the one I'd grab if the house was on fire ... I'll go further ... Among the thousands of books I've read over the past 50+ years, this book is the one that I value beyond all others ... The lessons in this book are both difficult and easy ... They offer a life time of wisdom, guidance and inspiration ... Zen can be hard to get into but Susan Murphy takes you by the hand and with a compassionate heart flowing with poetic insights she opens your mind, your senses, your spirit and your entire being to the Zen of life

This book is very down to earth, but also helps one psychologically to reintegrate an extremely beneficial mindset. This book took me a long time to read, which was great, because I could imbibe half a chapter and then bask in the glow of a more eternal mindset. It's a practice in itself. Like Campbell and Watts, Murphy has a way of generating resonance with the subtle blissful feelings at the heart of reintegration and harmony with existence, which in the end, may be the most important thing. Let go of your life as an answer and become a question with Suzan.

I don't know quite why I bought this book. I thought it would be too fluffy for my taste. But I was wrong. Even though it is gently written, it covers all the basics of Zen practise. And I love her imagery: "The tiger fears the human's kindness". What a wonderful way to invite us to step outside our own perspective and see the world with fresh eyes.

I'm reading this book VERY carefully, like you would eat caviar with a very small spoon. Not more than a page a day, sometimes not even that.This is the richest book on Zen that I ever laid my hands on (and yes, I got a few shelves full).Insightful, tender, clear sighted, poetic.Highest recommendations!

I came to this one in hard times. An old friend of mine, who I had not seen in years, was dying; I was under enough stress that I considered a full year off overseas, to write; and I was on the verge of realizing I had to leave yet another girlfriend.It was this old friend who helped pull me back closer to Zen after several years away from my sangha and my practice. We were both students of Susan Murphy's, and it seemed time to read this at last.So I didn't read it from beginning to end, but picked out the chapters that spoke to me at the time, then filled in the gaps. I started with "Accept all offers," and sitting with it in my lunchtime café, I cried. Life called me, then, to lose. My friend would die (I would die!); my career may change; I might walk away from every chance at love in my whole life, if I was happy with none of them. But you have to walk *into* this; if you reject it, you lose everything.Upside-down Zen is different from many Zen books you may have encountered. It is hardly at all a manual for meditation, much as it speaks of the importance of zazen. Susan, like her fellow roshis in the Diamond Sangha tradition to which she belongs, is a lay teacher: she has other work, a family--she is a householder. She is also a great teacher of the koan path, which pursues insight into the great matter of life, death, and the essential nature that we all share, through contemplation of stories that point directly at the truth, and draw us into greater intimacy with all things.Perhaps it is just because of the time at which I read it, but this book strikes me as especially valuable because it encourages readers to use their troubles as a door to enlightenment. In this vision, nothing is ever wasted or out of place. It is a book for those who want to live the Zen way, and also, because of that, for anyone who wants to be more authentic and more truly alive and aware.

One of the most difficult aspects of learning about Zen is finding clear and quality writing. By its very definition, any word put on the page in explanation of these concepts is "clarity" and "truth" in the eyes of someone. But not me. I thought the ideas were presented in a mushy, overlapping way and left me continually feeling like I just read this paragraph two pages ago. Enough already. Just breathe in, breathe out.

Wonderful stories. A good resource for teaching.

I enjoy reading "Upside-Down Zen" mainly because Susan Murphy pulls me into the Zen Experience. That is the effect it has on me, and I am not a Zen Adept. Of course, you won't become enlightened simply by reading this book. But you will very likely begin to feel peaceful and calm. And you may come to realize the awakened mind is not that far away from you at any time.However, if you are looking for a beginner's Zen tutorial, this is not the book. Susan does discuss the breath in some detail. But you won’t find sketches of practitioners sitting with their backs aligned and so on. There are other books that cover those topics.Susan Murphy has a descriptive way of teaching Zen. She puts the instructions to practicing zazen in the Appendix on page 231. It is almost an afterthought and it is only two and a half pages long.Susan has a different purpose than most Zen Masters. She is trying to awaken our aspiration for Zen awakening. She gives us a taste of freedom and hopes that will be enough to inspire us to practice and come to realize the real thing.I like to read a section, put the book down, and absorb Susan’s descriptive prose, or is it poetry?I highly recommend “Upside-Down Zen.”

A very engaging read, the author finding zen wisdom in folk tales, literature, cinema and Aboriginal spirituality.

A very human and ripe book, fascinating reading.