Zen Odyssey:
The Story of
Sokei-an, Ruth Fuller Sasaki,
and the Birth of Zen in America
Explore two lives—and a relationship—that profoundly shaped American Zen.
Ruth Fuller Sasaki and Sokei-an Shigetsu Sasaki: two pioneers of Zen in the West. Ruth was an American with a privileged life, even during the height of the Great Depression, before she went to Japan and met D. T. Suzuki. Sokei-an was one of the first Zen priests to come to America; he brought the gift of the Dharma to the United States but in 1942 was put in an internment camp. One made his way to the West and the other would find her way to the East, but together they created the First Zen Institute of America and helped birth a new generation of Zen practitioners: among them, Alan Watts, Gary Snyder, and Burton Watson. They were married less than a year before Sokei-an died, but Ruth would go on to helm trailblazing translations in his honor and to become the first foreigner to be the priest of a Rinzai Zen temple in Japan.
With lyrical prose, authors Steven Zahavi Schwartz and Janica Anderson bring Ruth and Sokei-an to life. Two dozen intimate photographs photos show us two people who aren’t mere historical figures, but flesh and blood people, walking their paths.
“A fascinating literary biography.”
—Rev. Joan Jiko Halifax, abbot of Upaya Zen Center
and author of Standing at the Edge and Being with Dying
“Powerful and fine.”
—Peter Coyote, actor, author, and Zen priest
“An incredibly intimate love story between Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Sokei-an, and Zen. A must-read for those interested in the development of Zen in the West, koan practice in the Rinzai tradition, and the struggles of women balancing practice and life—for those who might, like Ruth, wear earrings for a formal Zen ceremony. This book also reads like a Who’s Who in Zen, featuring Gary Snyder, Alan Watts, Shibayama Zenkei, D. T. Suzuki, and a host of others. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Grace Schireson, author of Zen Women
"A fine book and a good read as well. It was a pleasure for me to see this story presented accurately and with insight into Zen."
—Michael Hotz, president, First Zen Institute of America
The Boy Who Cried Wolf's
Art of Sight
“A stunning work, dazzling in its stinging exactitude, marvelous in its zinging intelligence, mobility and light touch. Solomon Black’s surprising and lovely book nimbly rises above the heaviness of the world, showing that his own gravity holds the key to lightness.”
—Laird Hunt, author of Neverhome and
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award–winning Kind One
“A terrific, truly unique and compelling document! An enlightenment story for the dark ages of the 21st century, The Boy Who Cried Wolf’s Art of Sight is incredibly sure of itself as it twists and pokes its way into inventing an intuitive, experimental form that stretches all over but always lands in the right place. Close to music in the poetic, rhythmic sense of its visual images, this is a gripping and fully realized update of an ancient story, with a sure-footed sense of unity that never loses its way. Very impressive.”
—Sean Murphy,
author of One Bird One Stone: 108 American Zen Stories
What really happened to the Boy Who Cried Wolf? Was he disemboweled by savage animals and left to die from his wounds? Or did he survive insult and injury to find a better and longer life? The Boy Who Cried Wolf’s Art of Sight: On the Origin of the Speechless, Solomon Black’s radical revision of the familiar folktale, casts him as a visionary, a prophet who foretells impending disaster about to be visited on his home village in an unnamed country. Unheeded by family and neighbors, the boy flees as paramilitary militias descend on the village in a murderous rampage. This fiercely imagined graphic novel follows the ambiguous hero to an anonymous city and beyond, as he reinvents himself, consorts with street-dwellers and smugglers, and becomes a Buddhist monk who eventually finds enlightenment in a considered act of self-immolation.
Far from a simply linear account of a dubious hero from a well-known fable, this densely packed and intensely vivid volume—a documentary film in book form, with ravishing photographic images—weaves in the ancient myth of Orpheus in the Underworld, the biblical tale of Ishmael and Isaac, Zen koans, fragments of Psalms, extracts from Talmud and poet Philip Whalen, references to Kafka and Peter and the Wolf, and submerged re-translations of Rumi. On top of all this are numerous accounts of self-immolation, spanning from the ancient Greek Cynic philosopher Peregrinus and mythical Chinese renunciate Ning Fengzi, to the more recent and better-known Vietnamese monk Thich Quang-Duc and five mostly forgotten Americans who burned themselves protesting the Vietnam War, to well over a hundred contemporary Tibetans who have died from self-burning in protest against the Chinese occupation and oppression of Tibet.
As it draws on old stories and modern atrocities to trace the Boy Who Cried Wolf’s life after the events in that famous morality tale, with twists and turns every step of the way, this dark and grave comic book is also a dream-telling, a vision journey, a religious tract of sorrow and awakening, with flashes of humor and grace and unexpected lightness, and startling images pulling everything together.
Seeking Engagement:
The Art of Richard Kamler
Edited by Steven Zahavi Schwartz
“Art is our one true global language. It knows no nation. It favors no race. It acknowledges no class. It speaks to our need to heal, reveal, and transform. It transcends our ordinary lives and lets us imagine what is possible. It creates a dialogue between individuals, and communication between communities. It allows us to see and to listen to each other.”
—Richard Kamler,
as quoted by Vice President Joe Biden in
his opening remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C.
Richard Kamler has for decades sought and found engagement in the deepest and most human sense. His work for peace, especially in prisons, provides a powerful model for the growing ranks of “citizen artists.” More power to him, and to them.
—Lucy R. Lippard,
author of Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object
Imagine a parallel universe in which an artist is a genuine public intellectual, an art installation is as urgent and meaningful as congressional legislation, and a college art course as relevant as the daily news. This is the universe of Richard Kamler. The more of us join him there the better.
—Lawrence Rinder,
Director of the Berkeley Art Museum
I have known Richards Kamler’s work for many years and have been astonished by the power and force of meaning of it, especially his prison series. Richard Kamler is a truly innovative artist who is dedicated to the use of art as an agent for social change.
—Peter Selz,
founder of the Berkeley Art Museum,
former curator at the
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Kamler’s art pulls viewers onto a common ground where former adversaries find themselves inspired to change policies and laws, transform institutions and lives, and give dignity to grief, forgiveness, and second chances. His work in our jails changed the way we saw each other, and encouraged new programs that thrive to this day.
—Michael Marcum, ex-con,
and Assistant Sheriff of San Francisco