Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind: The Zen Journal And Letters Of An Irish Woman In Japan: The Zen Journals and Letters of an Irish Woman in Japan - Softcover

O’Halloran, Maura ‘Soshin’

4.3

369 ratings by Goodreads

9780722537855: Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind: The Zen Journal And Letters Of An Irish Woman In Japan: The Zen Journals and Letters of an Irish Woman in Japan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0722537859 ISBN 13: 9780722537855

Publisher: Thorsons, 1998

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New edition of the entrancing story of a young Irish woman who spends 3 years studying Zen in a remote temple in Japan. This is collection of her journal and letters home during that time.

At the age of 24, Maura O’Halloran travelled to Japan, where she began to study Zen, first in an old temple tucked away in the back streets of Tokyo, then in a remote temple in Northern Japan. One thousand days later she received her dharma transmission. Planning to establish a Zen centre in Ireland, she was travelling back when she was tragically killed in a road accident. She was 27 years old. She is now venerated as a Buddhist saint.

This collection of letters and journals, with its lively, sharp and amusing observations, eloquently brings to life the rigours, hardships and ultimate joy of the life of a Zen Buddhist

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Review:

‘This book unfolds as a grand adventure, as O’Halloran explores an unfamiliar country and unknown regions of the soul’
New York Times

‘This account, in journal entries and letters home, should become a classic in the Zen literature involving Westerners’
Library Journal

From the Back Cover:

'PURE HEART, ENLIGHTENED MIND' Maura 'Soshin' O'Halloran
The Zen Journal and Letters of an Irish Woman in Japan

A statue stands in the grounds of a monastery in Northern Japan of a 27 – year old Irish woman who became a Zen monk and is now venerated as a Buddhist saint.

Maura 'Soshin' O'Halloran went to Japan at the age of 24, where she began to study in an old temple tucked away in the back streets of Tokyo. From there she moved to a remote temple in Northern Japan and started her formal Zen training. One thousand days later she received the dharma transmission of her Roshi. Six months later, while returning to Ireland, she met her tragic death in a road accident.

'PURE HEART, ENLIGHTENED MIND' is a collection of Maura's journals and letters home during the three year period of her training. They serve as a powerful record of one women's journey to her destiny. Through her lively, humorous and sharp observation, Maura eloquently describes the rigours, hardships and ultimate joys of Zen training and temple life. Through her writing she reveals as endless sense of compassion that will deeply touch everyone who reads this book.

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