Nothing Holy about It

When Bodhidharma, the legendary first ancestor of Zen, was asked about the main principle of his holy teaching, he’s said to have replied: “A vast emptiness—with nothing holy about it!” A millennium-and-a-half later, Tim Burkett finds that the answer still applies: you don’t need to go looking for something holy—buddha nature is right here in front of you. The concise summary of Zen teaching he presents in this book is expressed precisely in terms of what he found right in front of him: beginning with the delightful non-holiness he experienced in the presence of his original teacher, Shunyru Suzuki, and continuing through a lifetime of further teaching experiences.

TIM BURKETT, PhD, is Guiding Teacher of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is also a licensed psychologist and director of a large mental health agency. He was a student of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and later of Dainin Katagiri Roshi, in whose lineage he is a dharma heir.