The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery. This item is unavailable.The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery

Seen by many as a contemporary classic, Janwillem van de Wetering's small and admirable memoir records the experiences of a young Dutch student--later a widely celebrated mystery writer--who spent a year and a half as a novice monk in a Japanese Zen Buddhist monastery. As Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, author of Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, has written, The Empty Mirror "should be very encouraging for other Western seekers."

It is the first book in a trilogy that continues with A Glimpse of Nothingness and Afterzen.

Janwillem van de Wetering (1931-2008) lived with his wife on the Maine Coast for twenty years, but before that he lived literally all over the world --Holland, South Africa, London, Japan, South America. He is the author of a successful mystery series, as well as a trilogy detailing his experiences in a Buddhist Monastery: The Empty Mirror, A Glimpse of Nothingness, and Afterzen.