Norman Fischer Will Speak About his New Book, Sailing Home
Published July 3rd, 2008
Next Wednesday, July 9th, Senior Zen Buddhist Priest, dharma teacher, and poet, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, will be speaking on his new book, Sailing Home: Using the Wisdom of Homer’s Odyssey to Navigate Life’s Perils and Pitfalls. The event will begin at 7:00 pm Wednesday evening at Brooklyn Zen Center. Due to the event, both zazen and the precepts group will be canceled.
For those who wish to buy copies and get them signed, books will be available for purchase at the event. I encourage you to join us to hear Norman speak and together explore Homer’s Odyssey from the perspective of practice. Dana (donation for the teaching) as an expression of our gratitude for Norman’s teaching is also encouraged and appreciated.
About the Author: During almost 30 years at San Francisco Zen Center, Norman held many senior positions, including abbot and director. Norman currently heads theEveryday Zen Foundation and offers teaching to many sanghas across the country. Among his numerous publications, Norman has written nine volumes of poetry as well as Opening to You: A Zen-inspired Translation of the Psalms andTaking our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up, which is based on his work mentoring young people.
About Sailing Home: Norman Fischer deftly incorporates Buddhist, Judaic, Christian, and popular thought, as well as his own unique and sympathetic understanding of life, in his reinterpretation of Odysseus’s familiar wanderings as lessons that everyone can use. With meditations that yield personal revelations, illuminating anecdotes from Fischer and his students’ lives, and stories from many wisdom traditions, Sailing Home shows the way to greater purpose in readers’ own lives. People will learn a new way to view their path, when to wait and when to act, when to speak their mind and when to exercise discretion, how to draw on their innate strength and distinguish between truth and deception, and how to deal with aging and changing relationships. Sailing Home provides the courage people need to renew bonds with loved ones and to make the latter portion of their lives a heartfelt time of spirit and love.
“We all sail across the wine-dark sea, and Sailing Home gives humane, wise instruction for our voyage. In these pages, zen master and poet Norman Fischer, beloved for his forthright honesty and kind heart, guides us to understand our own Odyssey, our own hard-earned, vulnerable, mysterious life journey, with genuine compassion and newfound understanding.”—Jack Kornfield, author of The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology and A Path with Heart
“It is not so easy to come home to yourself, although it may be the most important journey any of us will ever take. This profoundly inspiring book reminds us of why the cultivation of awareness and kindness are so necessary and so difficult. By exploring this archetypal story that lies at the very root of Western Civilization, and tying it to the travails of our personal lives and to a very human understanding of Zen and Buddhist meditation from decades of practice and teaching, Norman Fischer brings it all to life, and us as well, so that we can remember what muses are best listened to, especially when we are so easily captivated by false dreams of security and attainment.” —Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Coming to Our Senses and Arriving at Your Own Door
“I would not have thought a modern Zen master meditating on Homer’s Odyssey was a promising notion. Wrong! Sailing Home is both delightful and insightful. Reflecting on the wanderings of the wily Odysseus in light of the wisdom of the Zen tradition turns out to be surprisingly relevant to the modern heroic journey. Norman Fischer is skilled in exploring the metaphors in this story and making what was once the central narrative of Greek culture come alive for modern readers.” —Sam Keen, author of Sightings and Fire in the Belly
“Norman Fischer is a wise guide and wonderful companion, who teaches us the essentials: that knowing when to set sail is an art in itself, and that our destinations will appear on the horizon when we are ready to see them.” —Priscilla Warner, co-author of The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew—Three Women Search for Understanding
“This book reminds us that the great literature of the world and the great religions of the world share something in common. They each reveal us to ourselves. They invite us to discover our transcendent destiny and the path we must travel in order to realize it. What Fischer does is specifically focus on the actual experience of our life as an Odyssey or journey toward our unknown fulfillment. He bears witness that what we discover is that our transcendent fulfillment is welling up in the ground beneath our feet. The very way we’re trying to get there is manifesting what we’re seeking.” —James Finley, author of Merton’s Palace of Nowhere and The Contemplative Heart
