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The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life | 
 enlarge | Author: John Daido Loori
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $9.56
You Save: $7.39 (44%)
New (29) Used (11) from $9.56
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 27105
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 7.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0345466330
Dewey Decimal Number: 294
EAN: 9780345466334
ASIN: 0345466330
Publication Date: May 31, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20080904214033T
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Product Description
For many of us, the return of Zen conjures up images of rock gardens and gently flowing waterfalls. We think of mindfulness and meditation, immersion in a state of being where meaning is found through simplicity. Zen lore has been absorbed by Western practitioners and pop culture alike, yet there is a specific area of this ancient tradition that hasn’t been fully explored in the West. Now, in The Zen of Creativity, American Zen master John Daido Loori presents a book that taps the principles of the Zen arts and aesthetic as a means to unlock creativity and find freedom in the various dimensions of our existence. Loori dissolves the barriers between art and spirituality, opening up the possibility of meeting life with spontaneity, grace, and peace.
Zen Buddhism is steeped in the arts. In spiritual ways, calligraphy, poetry, painting, the tea ceremony, and flower arranging can point us toward our essential, boundless nature. Brilliantly interpreting the teachings of the artless arts, Loori illuminates various elements that awaken our creativity, among them still point, the center of each moment that focuses on the tranquility within; simplicity, in which the creative process is uncluttered and unlimited, like a cloudless sky; spontaneity, a way to navigate through life without preconceptions, with a freshness in which everything becomes new; mystery, a sense of trust in the unknown; creative feedback, the systematic use of an audience to receive noncritical input about our art; art koans, exercises based on paradoxical questions that can be resolved only through artistic expression. Loori shows how these elements interpenetrate and function not only in art, but in all our endeavors.
Beautifully illustrated and punctuated with poems and reflections from Loori’s own spiritual journey, The Zen of Creativity presents a multilayered, bottomless source of insight into our creativity. Appealing equally to spiritual seekers, artists, and veteran Buddhist practitioners, this book is perfect for those wishing to discover new means of self-awareness and expression—and to restore equanimity and freedom amid the vicissitudes of our lives.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Spirituality and creativity July 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Zen of Creativity is not only an artist's guide to enhance your creativity. It is also a journey into the Zen philosophy with the guidance of a great master. In reading the book you will be encouraged to find the reason why you take a camera and choose to shoot a certain subject. After reading the book you will probably start looking inside yourself before releasing the shutter.
Many Thanks for this Wondrous Gift July 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have just finished this book, but I know I will read it again and again. Highly recommended for all artists and, in particular, those of us who struggle with the "why" of creative work. No definite answers here, instead a very generous discussion and exploration of the journey.
Inspiring Creativity June 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Zen of Creativity by John Daido Loori is a wonderful expression of how art can be created by developing empty mind. The artist joins with the object so there is no duality and where something sacred and magical is created. This is a well written book with Loori taking the time to detail his own experiences that help enlighten the subject for the reader and is one of the best texts on dharma art I've read.
Zen Buddism and Creativity May 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a wonderful book, and I highly recommend it to artists and writers who would like to be exposed to Zen Buddist methods of approaching creativity, as interpreted by an American Zen Master.
And if you really want to stretch your creative mind; add Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit: Learn It And Use It For Life, and Stephen Nachmanovitch's Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art.
These three books, in my humble opinion, make up the definitive library on developing one's creativity.
Enlightening Blend of Subjects May 9, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is filled with excellent points that, especially with any Buddhist or Zen background, truly hit home. It gets at issues and the substance surrounding both creativity and the practice of Zen from multiple angles including the artless arts of Zazen, the author's own story, the stories of others, religious examples, and normal explanations. If one doesn't cause some sort of understanding in you the next will, not about the concepts but about the processes that are their essence.
This book would be worth reading again, because at a different part of life the message that you need to hear will have changed, but it, or its seed, may still reside within the pages.
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