Butterflies on a Sea Wind: Beginning Zen

This short book delineates the authors attempts to practice Zen and particularly how effective she is at this on varied retreats. Toward the end of the book she begins to realize that the rest of her life can be put in perspective but that full-time Zen practice is virtually impossible. The interesting part is when and where she does clear her mind and find inner peacefulness. Zen of Watering Your Garden

This book chronicles Anne Rudloe's beginning experiences at Zen retreats. Whatever our religious practice, our mind can "chatter like monkeys" and become irritated at our assessment of own progress. The book is particularly superb in its honesty at dealing with life "in the real world" ...with an aging grandma, nearby coastal development, and just her own irritations at life. I've had the pleasure of taking a coastal class from Dr. Rudloe, and bird watching in the same natural areas she visits (Fiddlers Point, St. Joe Bay, Appalachicola National Forest), and appreciated the peace that comes to her in these areas. The writing may be best in describing her connection to these areas. As a writer about Zen, she has the paradoxical task of writing about illuminating experiences that the masters would probably say, should not be so scrutinized. Some of these paragraphs, seems a little saccharin, but in the context of this book are needed.

What a wonderful, gentle book! I thought this was a superb example of "living Zen," the kind of Zen book that is half didactic and half personal autobiography. Anne Rudloe invites us into her home to see her struggle with her 90-year-old, cranky grandmother and her sons (named Cypress and Sky). I thought Ms. Rudloe did a superb job of showing us how difficult it is to apply Zen practice when our nearest and dearest drive us insane. But her moments with her sons outdoors watching deer or the stars or the sunset were magical. I thought the pivotal center point of the book was on p. 80 where she describes having just listened to "Stars and Stripes Forever" with her boys while watching a heron. She concludes: "In that moonlight, in that moment, Zen, the finger that points to the moon, was nonexistent." Wow.I loved the book and appreciated the many words of wisdom and teaching that Ms. Rudloe graced us with. My only teensy complaint is that towards the end of the book, she spent too much time lecturing at us, and not enough time injecting that personal, human, story-telling touch. I think she had so much to say about Zen that she sacrificed our attention span for her goal of getting it all said. I really hate to be critical in any way whatsoever, but might I suggest that if she had taken her own words about Zen disappearing, she might have given us the chance to figure it out for ourselves by yet another story or angle on her life. Too many words muddy the waters.But overall, a superb book!!!!