The Key: And the Name of the Key Is Willingness

"Acceptance" is a lofty goal and yet a difficult one to achieve, especially when one's life has been fraught with challenges. Sometimes words like "fair" creep into thinking and push acceptance out of the picture, yet in doing so robs one of her chance for serenity. My Twelve Step sponsor suggested this as a first stepping stone toward a spiritual awakening, but it took years of beating my head against the brick wall of "should" before I had the willingness to let go and just accept in the way this book suggests. I have a hard head, so it took nearly ten years and a lot of painful life lessons to find that acceptance, and I sometimes wonder if I would have found it at all had it not been for the gentle, loving message in this book. It tells me things, reinforces that which I learned elsewhere, helps guide me along the path toward lasting inner peace. I reread The Key from time to time, and I continue to find new layers to its message. Everything I experienced, realized and accepted since the previous reading has never failed to reveal some new, more clarified meaning than before. Like any spiritual experience of the educational variety, it keeps growing over time.

Very simple, direct and practical way to approach life. If you are new to this kind of thinking, this book does an excellent job of discussing the issues and challenging you to rethink where you are.

I offer these words in loving-kindness as the words and pictures in this awesome book are offered to you.In 1991, Tich Nhat Hanh's simple statement, "Understanding and love are not two things, but just one," in "Peace is Every Step," put on me the middle way. The awesome, life changing wisdom in this little book has kept me there. Lovingly scribbled and illustrated (thanks so much June!) on the pages of this treasure is a practical approach to realizing the "Now What, But How" Compassion that is Zen. If you do not read anything else by Cheri Huber, read "The Key." If you find you love, "The Key," as I did, be sure to read "That Which You Are Seeking Is Causing You to Seek."

This book along with That Which You are Seeking became this first step of a wonderful life changing journey to acceptance of what is. I continue to re-read it and share it.

There are many zen books, and most of them are very hard for Americans to grasp because they are tied to Japanese, Indian, or Chinese cultural ideas, and are full of footnotes and "commentary" on what the author meant. They're harder to read than textbooks, which is ironic because zen is a simple concept. Cheri Huber has written a set of books so graspable and sublime that you will find yourself having the "aha!" reaction on almost every page. The text is simple enough that even a gradeschooler could understand it, and it's handwritten with hand-drawn illustrations to make it that much friendlier. True, there are no names, dates, or titles in this book, just the essential ideas. But don't let the simplicity fool you -- this is the real stuff. One can read this book a hundred times, and each time go "aha!" at some new level of understanding, or application of the ideas, or just at one's own progress with the ideas. This is the first book in the series, and many people think it's the best, because it is the simplest and most general. If you're going to get any of Cheri's books, get this one.