The Language of Zen: 108 Japanese Words for Inner Clarity

"The 108 words ahead are not definitions. Each is a doorway."

― From the Preface

For more than a thousand years, Japan has shaped a quiet vocabulary for the inner life ― words that point at what cannot be said outright, yet quietly rearrange how the next ordinary moment is seen.

Across nine chapters and 108 carefully chosen words, this bilingual volume opens those doorways one by one. Each entry presents the original kanji, its reading, an English rendering, and a parallel Japanese passage ― accompanied by a sumi-e ink composition that speaks where the language alone cannot.

What you will find inside
The foundations of the Way (道) and the heart-mind (心)
Impermanence and the passing of all things (無常)
The four pillars of Zen aesthetics: 侘 (wabi) ・ 寂 (sabi) ・ 間 (ma) ・ 幽玄 (yūgen)
The inner mind: 無心 (mushin) ・ 不動心 (fudōshin) ・ 平常心 (heijōshin)
Compassion and the threads of connection
The practice of daily life
Kōan paradoxes that point past words
The natural world as teacher
The ground of awakening itself

Read one entry. Set the book down. Let the next ordinary moment look slightly different. That is the work the words are pointing toward.

About the Author

ー縁ーEnishiー (Enishi) is a Japanese writer working at the meeting points between everyday life and the long Zen tradition, in both Japanese and English.

Specifications
276 pages, 8.5 × 11 inches
Bilingual: English and Japanese with original kanji
108 original sumi-e ink illustrations
Premium full-color print