Ordinary Wonder: Zen Life and Practice by Charlotte Joko Beck


Ordinary Wonder: Zen Life and Practice
Title : Ordinary Wonder: Zen Life and Practice
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1611808774
ISBN-10 : 9781611808773
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : -
Publication : First published June 22, 2021

Quante volte ci è capitato di voler di fuggire da noi stessi, quante volte, cercando le risposte che ci mancavano, abbiamo guardato al di fuori di noi e quante altre ancora ci siamo trovati a gridare nel nostro cuore: “Perché sta succedendo proprio a me?”. Noi e l’esterno, noi e gli altri, noi e la vita che pare ci si stia accanendo ingiustamente contro: in questo profondo disagio siamo in azione sempre e solo noi. Senza saperlo né volerlo, siamo schierati contro noi stessi, combattiamo una guerra che ci divide tra quello che pensiamo di dover essere e quello che siamo. Giorno dopo giorno, sentiamo che lo iato tra le aspettative che nutriamo nei nostri confronti e la realtà dell’esperienza aumenta fino a diventare incolmabile, e restiamo vittime dei nostri stessi inganni, delle nostre strategie innate, che si sono formati sulla base di convinzioni che abbiamo sviluppato quando, ancora piccoli, cercavamo le attenzioni e l’amore dei nostri genitori. Soffriamo tanto, allora, e al tempo stesso siamo causa di sofferenza. Siamo tesi nel corpo e nella mente, abitati da un senso di inadeguatezza inarginabile. Credere che tutto questo sia vivere è la trappola delle trappole. Quello che non ci è chiaro è che porre fine a questa questo scontro, trovare la pace, è possibile. Ora, in questo preciso momento può nascere la gioia della resa. A rassicurarci di questo è Joko Beck, una delle più amate maestre zen contemporanee che ha dedicato la sua vita a liberare se stessa e gli altri esseri umani. In "Meraviglia quotidiana", la sua eredità ultima, troviamo l’ispirazione e l’aiuto necessari per capire il valore e l’importanza della pratica, nostra unica alleata per mettere fine a questa lotta. Joko interpreta e cala nel mondo occidentale l’insegnamento del buddhismo zen, guidandoci con dolcezza e comprensione nel compito più difficile: prestare attenzione alla nostra vita. Prefazione di Jan Chozen Bays. Introduzione e postfazione di Brenda Beck Hess.

Ordinary Wonder: Zen Life and Practice Reviews

  • Lindsay

    Another great book by Charlotte Joko Beck. She passed away a while ago but her daughter decided to put together a new book with recorded talks... I hope she will create many more books, to keep Joko's wisdom alive. I return to Joko's books almost every year, they have been a big influence in my life and reading her words somehow always calm me down. For me personally, the best zazen books out there.

  • Chris Scott

    Charlotte Joko Beck is one of my favorite Zen teachers and this posthumous collection of essays and speeches, along with her previous works Everyday Zen and Nothing Special, is essential reading for anyone looking to begin or deepen their Zen practice. She writes with clarity and candor about her years of hard-earned wisdom that avoids some of the flowery platitudes that plague a lot of contemporary Buddhist texts, I've found. I've learned a lot from her.

  • Gabrielle Jarrett

    Why do I love Ordinary Wonder so much? Perhaps it is the simplicity of how to feel better, how to sit in meditation, how to see my flaws, my growth, and the absolute wonder of my ordinariness. Beck is among the best of Zen Buddhist writings!

  • Hannah

    Ordinary Wonder makes lots of claims about human psyche and how the world works, but doesn't really offer any data to support these ideas. There's anecdotal stories which is the only form of evidence really given, but besides that it's mainly thoughts on how the world works.

  • David Morrow

    What a gift!

    As a student of Jokos from the late 1990s, how incredible to hear these new teachings after all these years.

  • Steve

    Practical, unpretentious dharma.
    I'd recommend her two classic books over this one (this is a collection of posthumous talks put together by her daughter).

  • Damian

    P23: “I notice in my own practice the one thing that slowly slowly slowly diminishes is any desire to fix anyone else. …they’re just fine being the way they are. …this transforms a person”

    P71: “we’re often feeling something in advance of the situation actually happening. This keeps us from being aware or noticing the situation we’re in at this moment. …people won’t be impressed with us. All these feeling arise… and we haven’t even reached the front door.

    P72: Aspiration gives us diligence and discipline. It’s different than ambition, which is about trying to get somewhere. ambition is motivated by our core belief that there is something wrong with us that can be fixed if we can get to a certain place. Ambition says “I will open the door, and I know what’s on the other side, and I’ll take it.” Aspiration is more like “when the door opens, I will be there.”

    P87: harmony: when we can experience that mess without being ensnared by it.

    P89: I was really mad …wanted to say a few cutting words…I was right. …I had no choice. I had to go over and put my arms around her. As opposed to creating a miserable situation we created s wonderful one. The desire to be right is so powerful. Years of sitting does not guarantee happiness but the depth of experience may give you those few seconds … that can in the moment help us make the choice we most want.


    P96: we live as if we have a little judge that’s sitting inside of us. Now we’re not living our life; we’re just trying to get it all fixed so it suits the judge. This concoction in our head runs our life”



    P99: western thought often proceeds as if the body has no intelligence”.

    P100: main thing from effective practices- you get more and more disappointed with all the things you thought were going to make you happy. These things are fine but our attachment to them loosens.


    P119: our anger is often about the feeling that something is assaulting some part of the world that I think is mine- my body my world my time.
    P120: other people don’t have the types of problems. It’s not fair. Life is neither fair nor unfair. It’s the way it is.



    P132. A complaint is a recording of how we feel about the world not suiting us. We dress up our complaints: correcting other people. Agreeing with other complainers. Complaining about complainers.

    P153: self confidence comes when you know that after drawing back a few times and trying to avoid it, you’ll settle in. You can digest it. And when you have this resilience it radiates out.

    P162: whenever he walked down the hall he did nothing but just feel the soles of his feet. He put his attention on walking with no thoughts of the operation coming up. Practicing like this is more efficient. the most inefficient thing is to be doing one thing while spinning your head about something else.

    P187: the biggest error in the world is thinking we ever know what another person is truly like. Very few people know what they’re truly like, themselves.

  • Mary

    The Title Says It All

    Joko speaks of the importance of identifying your core belief, which is always negative, and sitting daily in meditation in order to gradually, so gradually, replace its dominance and letting your true self emerge into dominance. I enjoyed her emphasis that the process is quiet and gentle and takes a lifetime. I’m also grateful that she says the “enlightenment is not a thing” to be acquired.

  • Taina

    Charlotte Joko Beck on (tai oli) minun Zen-suosikki. Täsmällistä, terävää, tärkeää, ilman turhaa kaapuilevaa hämärämystiikkaa. Tämän teoksen kokosi hänen tyttärensä äitinsä vanhoista puheista ja opetuksista. Ehkä siitä johtuen kirjassa oli aika paljon toistoa ja se verotti lukukokemusta jonkun verran. Silti teki hyvää palata vielä kerran Joko Beckin virkistävien sanojen maailmaan.

  • Chris

    This book would get 5 stars just for the quality of the discussions about it with a book group over the last few months. Adds so much to the text. So yes I enjoyed the book immensely, and the book group added a lot to that enjoyment. Hard to separate the text and the discussions about the text. So I suggest the book and a book group you enjoy!

  • William

    I love reading Charlotte Joko Beck's writings on Zen. She does such a great job cutting through the bullshit. It's a shame she only wrote three books in her lifetime. They're well worth it if you're interested in Zen as a concept but you don't want to learn about it from a guy with a long beard.

  • Barbara

    A book to which I’ll return often for guidance along the way.

  • Jampa

    Straightforward, simple, and insightful. I love her other books as well and highly recommend. It struck me how skillful she was in expressing the dharma without coded or tribal language.

  • Morgana

    Beautiful, inspiring, clear. Reading her words lessens the pain of life just a little bit.