Healing Zen: Awakening Life Wholeness Compassion While Caring for Yourself Others

Ellen Birx has written an inspiring, wise and loving book. In HEALING ZEN she shows us how to realize, in all areas of our lives, the basic healing unity which lies at the heart of Zen practice. Ellen's uniquely compassionate voice fills each page as she shares moving stories from her life as a nurse, educator, and Zen teacher. Those new to Zen and seasoned practitioners alike will be able to appreciate this wonderful, practical addition to the growing literature devoted to healing and Zen.

I feel deeply touched and inspired by Ellen Birx' book Healing Zen. It is a book about the art of caring and healing ourselves and others,spirituality, Zen meditation, and everyday ordinary life. Being a Zen student for many years as well as being raised in the traditional Confucian Chinese household, I feel touched by how Ellen Birx wrote about Zen in the same spirit as some of the ancient Chinese Ch'an masters. While our ancestors taught that carrying water and chopping woods were spiritual, Ellen says to wash the sick and do our jobs with presence and compassion. She beautifully demonstrated how living life in its simplicity, ordinariness, and richness can also beprofound and transcending. At the same time the lofty concepts of spirituality and Zen are made simple, understandable, and easy to relate to our everyday ordinary life. I especially like her unique way of demonstrating how the simple act of Zen meditation, sitting still in silence and being one with our breath, embodies all that is healing and spiritual. I highly recommend this book to everyone, especially to those who are in any type of healing profession. It is easy to read and practical. Healing Zen is a wonderful and inspiring book that brings healing and spirituality to everyday life. Rose Sung Ramsay Palos Verdes, CA

Healing Zen is both a blessing and a joy to read. As Ellen unfolds her many "real life" stories about when people, living ordinary lives are presented with, (as some may say) unfortunate circumstances, through pain and despair they find a way to cope. It's at these precious times that transformation is made possible. If we live each day with our eyes wide open, and Zen leads the way to accomplish that, we can seize those moments and begin the healing process. Ellen shows how life presents us with opportunities to learn, grow, and be healed.The style of writing is simply elegant; therefore her message comes across with great ease. It's as if you were sitting with Ellen, having a cup of tea, listening to her talk about situations that we can all relate to in some way. We've all been faced with serious illness in our own families or with friends.Healing Zen will wake up your heart and inspire your mind.

I am a member of the New River (Va.) Zen Community which was founded by Ellen Birx and her husband Charles, both highly-qualified Zen teachers, and so I read Ellen's book with real interest and enthusiasm. I believe this book fills a gap in Buddhist literature--I am not aware of any other book which combines "Zen" with "healing" so directly, even though Buddhism has always been a very healing philosophy. Ellen's examples, drawn from years of practical experience as a teacher of nursing, combined with vivid stories from the lore of Zen, bring home the message of healing ourselves and others in a vivid and appealing way. We all "know" that we need to care for one another, but what we "know" and what we do are often different things. This book helps us do the work of physical healing and, as well, to do and to find the emotional healing that must accompany the physical healing. Ellen's uncommon sense serves as a gentle prod to us, and her book's emphasis on the importance of meditation (aided by a how-to appendix)helps us get started. Health-care professionals will find it fascinating; so should those of us who are trying to achieve healing in families and friendships (i,e., just about everybody).