Upside-Down Zen: Finding the Marvelous in the Ordinary

by Susan Murphy, John Tarrant (Foreword)

Upside-Down Zen invites readers to explore the vivid spirit of Zen Buddhism in fresh ways. Recalling, in another vein, the warm, lyrical style of Lin Jensen’s Bad Dog!, author Susan Murphy offers a multifaceted take on the spiritual, grounded in the everyday. She uses her skills as storyteller, filmmaker, and poet to uncover the connections between Zen and Western cinema, as well as between Zen and traditions as diverse as Australian aboriginal beliefs and Jewish folktales. In the process, she finds spirituality where it has always belonged — wherever life is happening. Murphy helps readers make sense of Zen koans, the often oversimplified and misunderstood teaching stories of the tradition, and highlights their wisdom for any reader on the spiritual path. A strong new voice in Western Buddhism, Murphy speaks for the many “unrecorded” women of Zen while bringing a lively, literate approach to a sometimes daunting genre.

Genres: Spirituality, Zen, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 13, 2006

Reviews

[Ben Hourigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this one in hard times. An old friend of mine, who I had not seen in years, was dying; I was under enough stress that I considered a full year off overseas, to write; and I was on the verge of realizing I had to leave yet another girlfriend.

It was this old friend who helped pull me back closer to Zen after several years away from my sangha and my practice. We were both students of Susan Murphy's, and it seemed time to read this at last.

So I didn't read it from beginning to end, but picked out the chapters that spoke to me at the time, then filled in the gaps. I started with "Accept all offers," and sitting with it in my lunchtime café, I cried. Life called me, then, to lose. My friend would die (I would die!); my career may change; I might walk away from every chance at love in my whole life, if I was happy with none of them. But you have to walk into this; if you reject it, you lose everything.

Upside Down Zen is different from many Zen books you may have encountered. It is hardly at all a manual for meditation, much as it speaks of the importance of zazen. Susan, like her fellow roshis in the Diamond Sangha tradition, is a lay teacher: she has other work, a family—she is a householder. She is also a great teacher of the koan path, which pursues insight into the great matter of life, death, and the essential nature that we all share, through contemplation of stories that point directly at the truth, and draw us into greater intimacy with all things.

Perhaps it is just because of the time at which I read it, but this book strikes me as especially valuable because it encourages readers to use their troubles as a door to enlightenment. In this vision, nothing is ever wasted or out of place. It is a book for those who want to live the Zen way, and also, because of that, for anyone who wants to be more authentic and more truly alive and aware.

[Harley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep, rich, and poetic, and much of it way over my head. But I discovered that going back and re-reading something that made me go "Huh?" was rewarding, and it is on my new shelf, the "to-read-again" shelf. I took notes like mad, because so many things spoke to me and I wanted to hang on to them. Very un-Buddhist of me. The author is an Australian zen teacher, in the lineage of Robert Aitkin, and introduces many koans as she goes along. She also has an interest in finding the connections between zen the ancient teachings of aboriginal culture.

[Judy Kuhn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first book I read on Zen Buddhism and Zen koans, and it was a revelation -- a creative, imaginative and delightfully un-stuffy way to deal with life's problems that seems to speak to me. There are lots of people writing about Buddhism and Zen Buddhism these days, and many of them are brilliant, but I especially like a group of "down-under" thinkers from Australia and thereabouts that includes Susan Murphy and John Tarrant.

[Justin Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars because - perfection is a myth and Way demands something more! I enjoyed the book the more I committed to reading it at a stretch rather than dipping in now and then. Aboriginal, Jewish, Australian, artistic, maternal and family threads tied this book together, and each page offered poetry to me as I read - it's so rare to be able to talk about a book like this one from a place which is not all about literature and reviewing. When a book is more than a book. I learned a lot and I was touched by the insights shared by the author and hope her words spread to more willing readers.

http://zenopencircle.org.au/about/ros...

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very very dense. You need a whole day to read one paragraph....but that's what's so great about it!

[Wren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murphy incorporates a lot of narratives -- her own and others -- as she uses a Buddhist framework to respond to a variety of life's challenges. A gentle book with great depth.