Zen Soup: Tasty Morsels of Wisdom from Great Minds East & West

This book is all quotations from Seneca & Sun-Tzu to William Blake & Noel Coward and many more. This is one of my favorite books and I recommend it to anyone.

Laurence G. Boldt has put together a first class selection of quotes from a wide range of famous men and women, each of them known for some kind of exceptional human achievement. As Boldt says, "the diversity of the sources highlights the timeless and universal nature of these principles", so there are many Westerners quoted aswell as more traditional Zen Eastern sources.The book is divided into 25 different sections, each of them covering a quality associated with the Zen tradition e.g. Be Here Now, Beginner's Mind, Responsibility, Compassion, Joy, Discipline, The Game Of Life, Selfless Service, Letting Go, Everyday Zen. There is a brief introduction to each quality, then a selection of associated quotes. Many readers of self-development books and spiritual ideas will be familiar with some of these sayings, but as befits the Zen emphasis, the quality and depth of these quotes really makes an impact. Some of the people quoted several times are Krishnamurti, Confucius, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Lao-Tzu, Goethe, Carl Jung, Albert Camus and texts from every major religion.

Zen and Meditation are one and the same. Wisdom brightens and opens our lives. When I first read the book I was un-aware of the impact the book would have on my soul and vision of my life. I just loved the advice and wisdom gained through gulping and digesting the stuff.