Healing Breath: Zen for Christians and Buddhists in a Wounded World

by Ruben L.F. Habito

Healing our wounded Earth is not unrelated to healing our own personal wounds. The pains of the Earth and those of the individuals making up our Earth community cannot be separated. Thus the healing of our individual lives can become the basis of the healing of Earth. This book sheds light on Zen as a spiritual path that leads to healing - in the personal, social, and ecological dimensions of our being. If you are seeking a form of spiritual practice that addresses all three of these dimensions or simply seeking to deepen your understanding of the Zen path, it is written for you. If instead of fragmentation, disorientation, and vacuity, you seek wholeness, groundedness, and integrity in your life, it is written for you. Perhaps you, too, have come to realize that our global community is in a sad state of affairs, that we need to radically change how we live and relate to one another and to the Earth. You may already be engaged in some form of social or ecological action addressing these issues-and you may feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task. If you've been tempted to pessimism or have thrown up your hands in despair when your best efforts don't seem to make a dent, this book is for you, Healing Breath offers a way to integrate a spiritual path with active, socio-ecological engagement as the ground.

This book also addresses another set of can a Christian genuinely practice Zen? How is Zen practice compatible with a Christian faith commitment? To fully engage in a Zen practice, what kind of belief system is presupposed or required? How can spiritual practice in an Eastern tradition inform Christian life and understanding?

In the process of describing the Zen way of life, Healing Breath will consider various Christian expressions, symbols, and practices - not as an apologetic for that belief system, but to show how they, too, point to the transformative and healing perspectives and experiences provided by Zen.

Genres: Spirituality, Buddhism, Christianity, Religion, Philosophy

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

associate dean for academic affairs and
professor of world religions and spirit

Reviews

[Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruben Habito is one of my favourite Zen teachers. A former Jesuit priest, now a lay theologian and zen teacher , he embodies a spirituality nourished by both Christianity and Buddhism. This is an excellent book, that diagnoses the malaise in the heart of our culture as a sense of separation : from each other, from our own bodies, from nature. It points to the quiet, patient practice of zen meditation : sitting quietly, attending to the breath, just being, as a viable and powerful source of healing that shows us that separation is a delusion. The last chapter , on recovery, is brilliant and I’ll be re reading again.

[Jim Kuenzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wish I could like this book more, but it just got infuriating. What starts as a practical guide to Zen practice and the ties with the Christian faith—and how it can help heal a wounded earth—plummets into a morass of New Age gobbledygook and made up words. This is pleonasm at its finest.

I have to wonder what the purpose of this book actually is, because of its an invitation and and introduction, it’s an invitation few would want to accept.

[Larry Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Healing Breath by Ruben L.F. Habito is a clear and compelling description of Zen practice, which is written from a Christian perspective by a former Jesuit priest. In the book, Habito suggests that Christian beliefs are compatible with Zen practices.

[Belle Meade School]

294.3444

[David Guy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruben Habito is the one writer who writes about Christianity and Zen equally well, because he's a former Jesuit who lived in Japan for years. Parts of this book seem theoretical to me, and other parts seem quite down to earth and helpful. He sometimes sees breath and spirit as one and the same, and that makes for some interesting reading of scriptures.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had the pleasure of being in a Global Healing seminar with Dr. Habito, and his breath has transparency throughout this whole book. Loved it.