Original Mind: The Practice of Zen in the West

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki-roshi has, since its publication in 1970, sold more than a million copies worldwide. Richard Baker-roshi, one of Suzuki-roshi's disciples, was instrumental in putting that book together and was equally instrumental in establishing the practice of Zen in America and in the West. Baker-roshi, the first one of three Americans to achieve the level of enlightened master, brings more than forty years of experience to a new book on establishing and maintaining a Zen practice in the West. Original Mind translates the wisdom of the great masters into a contemporary setting, and Baker-roshi is one of the few people alive qualified to do it.

Author Biography: Richard Baker-roshi, Harvard educated, and one of only three dharma heirs to Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, cofounded in 1966 the internationally renowned Tassajara. He also conceived and designed the world-renowned Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, as well as Green Gulch Farm and Practice Center in Marin. Baker-roshi was the first American Abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, and he held his post for twelve years. He is currently head teacher of Dharma Sangha in the United States and Europe, as well as Abbot of Crestone Mountain Zen Center in Colorado and the Buddhist Study Center in the Black Forest in Germany. Original Mind is his long-awaited first book.