Healing Zen: Buddist Wisdom on Compassion, Caring and Caregiving, - For Yourself and Others

On my second read of this book, after 5 years of sitting zen meditation, I have even more appreciation for this book than on the first read. Sensei Birx weaves stories of her nursing experience with koans from ancient zen masters and also simple explanations of the most profound ideas in zen. This book is for zen students and healers in general. The book has sections on Daily Practice: Wholeness, presence, breathing, confidence, discipline, simplicity, being ordinary; and a section on Changes that Come Through Healing: Not Knowing, Emptiness, Just This, Non duality, Suffering, Balance, Freshness (and many others); and last the section on Compassionate Action of reaching out with healing hands: touching, cleaning, seeing, working, eating, laughing, crying, intimacy, service, freedom (and others). This book is powerful in its direct teaching of zen and healing.

Zen is Compassion, Healing, Spiritual, and Ordinary 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 be profound 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

As a psychotherapist and student of Zen, I found this book clear and informative.So often we read esoteric spiritual teachings that don't speak to our daily struggles.This book does and you don't have to be into Zen to use what it offers.Anyone can take something from it.The insights Zen koans have to offer,which can be confusing to understand are articulated clearly and plainly. Birx takes what could be very complex ideas and lays them out for us to use with whatever we are dealing with in our life. Zen practice is a profound method for waking up to our life, and Ellen Birx shows us the way with insight. I recommend this book to health professionals and spiritual seekers alike.

This book allows the reader to see the world through the eyes of a compassionate Zen teacher and to share in her healing response to what she sees, "...that the other is myself". This book is filled with love and caring by a person who has dedicated her life to the gentle healing of the human body and the patient liberation of the human mind. Ellen shares many stories from her life as a wife, mother, grandmother, nurse, and nursing professor. These stories help to clarify Zen teachings encountered in Zen koans and poetry. Ellen's teachings are down-to-earth and practical. As Roshi Bernie Glassman writes, "The third tenet of the Zen Peacemaker Order is 'Healing ourselves and others'. In Healing Zen, Ellen Birx has given us the 'how' of this tenet. The book is a huge gift to us all and especially to those in the helping professions." Ellen's Buddhist name is 'Jikai' which means "Ocean of Compassion". While reading this book you will find yourself swimming in an ocean of compassion.

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 fundamental healing unity which lies at the heart of Buddhist 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.