ZEN PARADOX: NO KNOWING

About the Book

In these contemporary poems I have “looked anew”,as the Japanese word “mitre” implies , with a “beginner’s mind” that inquisitively turns the rice bowl upside down. What we see there will be surprising, humorous and insightful and as the good tenzo says, “food for thought”. There are numerous references based on the sacred scriptures of Zen Buddhisn and the Tao and they are placed strategically and in different contexts within the poems to offer the opportunity for a“renewed enlightenment” and interest in reading the poetic genius of Dogen and the other masters of Buddhism.

About the Author

Lawrence I. Janssen is a registered architect and artist who reside in South Florida. His architectural projects include a palace in Saudi Arabia for a sheik. He has received numerous design awards and his portrait of Thomas Merton is displayed in the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. His poetry has been published in the Merton Seasonal. The poems in this volume are the result of his study of Thomas Merton and the Christian, Zen and Taoist traditions.