| Rethinking the Role of Thought in Zen — A Groundbreaking Book Arrives Spring 2026 Zen Master Yueh Shan & Thinking’s Bad Rap: A Practitioner’s Guide by Rev. Seiso Paul Cooper, Ph.D. |
| PRE-ORDER NOW!In just 100 days, THINKING’S BAD RAP! will be released by Hohm Press—and it’s already stirring conversation among Zen teachers, students, and practitioners alike. For decades, Zen has been mischaracterized as a war on thought. But what if that view is not only inaccurate, but spiritually harmful? In this bold and practical guide, Soto Zen priest and teacher Seiso Paul Cooper reclaims the dignity of thinking within meditation practice. Drawing on the cryptic encounter of Chinese master Yueh Shan and the radical non-dualism of Eihei Dōgen, THINKING’S BAD RAP! clears a path for practitioners to embrace shikantaza (just sitting) without battling the mind. You’ll learn: Why “no-thought” is a myth—and what Dōgen actually taught; How to sit with thoughts instead of trying to stop them; How clarity, freedom, and realization emerge when we stop making thinking the enemy. Whether you’re a longtime Zen student or new to practice, this book offers a fresh, freeing perspective on meditation, mind, and awakening. Advance review copies are now available. Booksellers and sanghas can pre-order now for Spring 2026 delivery. Let your sangha know: the countdown has begun. Seiso Paul Cooper is an ordained Soto Zen priest and transmitted teacher in the lineage of Dainin Katagiri, and currently leads the Barre Zen Meditation Center in Vermont. We hope this work supports your Dharma practice. Please contact us if you or your sangha may be interested in sharing the book or receiving an advance copy for review. READ MORE Seiso Cooper’s new book on “thinking’s bad rap” offers a scholarly corrective to what the Rinzai master Hakuin saw as the “do-nothing” school, as well as to the “think-nothing” tendency in some teachings, which Cooper exposes as the intellectual equivalent of puritanical tendencies to eradicate physical urges: purifying mind instead of purifying body. There are even those who misinterpret Kodo Sawaki’s saying that “all the sutras and commentaries are only a footnote to zazen” as encouraging us to “read nothing.” Cooper gives us the “exclude nothing” alternative—for he gets us thinking while encouraging us to get to nonthinking—in the spirit of Dogen’s non-dualistic practice-realization, shikantaza.~ Richard Reishin Collins, author of No Fear Zen,” Seiso invites us to enter the vital center of the teaching, of Shikantaza; and for those who practice and study the Way, I strongly recommend them to read and study this deep and important work. Beyond the word, beyond the mind. ~Philippe Rei Ryu Coupey, ~ Author, In the Belly of the Dragon. PRE-ORDER NOW! |
Barre Zen Meditation Center Kokyoji, (Eternal Mirror Temple) 