Zen in the Vernacular

Foreword by Lewis Richmond

PART I
What the Buddha Taught

Introduction: Orientation

1 The Four Noble Truths: Dukkha

2 The Four Noble Truths: Samudaya

3 The Four Noble Truths: Nirodha

4 The Four Noble Truths: Marga, the Eightfold Path

5 Marga Part II

6 An Introduction to the Precepts

7 The Precepts

Part II
Things as It Is Introduction: Infusing the Ordinary

8 What Is This Thing We Call the Self?

9 Form and Ceremony

10 Emptiness and the Heart Sutra

11 Enlightenment: Seeing the Unseen

12 Believing in Nothing

13 The Three Treasures: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha

14 The Role of Faith in Buddhist Practice

15 On Time: Host and Guest

16 Fuketsu’s Speck of Dust

PART III
Engaged with Vernacular Zen Introduction: Flashing in the Dark

17 On Anxiety

18 On Busyness

19 Wild Body, Wild Mind

20 Misunderstanding Emptiness

21 Values Not Embodied in Behavior Do Not Exist

22 Karma

23 On Loss: Issa’s “And Yet . . .”

24 Contradictions

25 Buddhist Anarchism

Acknowledgments

Annotated

Bibliography of Further Reading

Peter Coyote is an award-winning actor, narrator, and teacher. Recognized for his narration work, he narrated the PBS series The Pacific Century, winning an Emmy Award, as well as eleven Ken Burns documentaries, including The Roosevelts, for which he won a second Emmy. A Zen student since 1974, in 2011 he was ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest and in 2015 received “transmission” from his teacher, making him an independent Zen teacher. The author of Sleeping Where I Fall, The Rainman’s Third Cure, and Tongue of a Crow as well as The Lone Ranger and Tonto Meet Buddha, he lives in northern California.

“This stimulating book is a truly American take on life, politics and social issues through the lens of a contemporary interpretation of Zen Buddhism. If that is your interest, this book is for you. Don't miss it.” David Brazier, Dharma teacher at Global Sangha

“An actor, narrator, and long-term seeker, Peter Coyote elucidates the essentials of Zen in his naked voice. His wide-ranging insights on social action with wholesome values and intention, woven into his biographical anecdotes, is captivating.” Kazuaki Tanahashi, author of Painting Peace: Art in a Time of Global Crisis

“Zen in the Vernacular wonderfully points out and elucidates how Buddhism is always awakening in new language, language which can speak directly to us and from our own lips, as we discover how our narrative weaves its way through the countless narratives of our world: intimately connected, yet often at odds. How will we navigate our way? How can ‘things as it is’ inform and clarify our narrative along with the world’s? Let’s listen to what Coyote has to say.” Edward Espe Brown, author of The Complete Tassajara Cookbook, The Tassajara Bread Book,and No Recipe: Cooking as Spiritual Practice

“In Zen in the Vernacular, Peter Coyote brings us along on his Zen path and with concise language shares his unique understanding of Buddhism, birth and death, mind and body, and daily life. In engaging with things as it is, he delves into the social and political issues that he’s passionately concerned with. In these chapters, based on a series of talks he gave during the pandemic, Coyote speaks with remarkable intelligence and compassion about how to awaken to truth far greater than our small mind while not turning away from the suffering and turmoil that surrounds us. All the while his fire is fueled and peace of mind maintained through Zen practice and meditation and an unwavering commitment to all beings.” David Chadwick, author of Crooked Cucumber and early student of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

“This large book full of wisdom provides an updated and nuanced presentation of basic Buddhist teaching. Peter shares personal stories from the depths of Zen communities and from a range of friends: Governor Jerry Brown to American Zen pioneer Gary Snyder to a Mohawk poet and artist working as a logger in the Northwest. Peter employs his wide experience to envision Zen practice and life anew for modern contexts, something American Zen folks now work to express this worthy ancient tradition for contemporary application. Peter’s vernacular Zen, stripped of exotic trappings, is an important contribution to this project. Peter gets down into the weeds. He faces loss and grief with open dignity amid our present afflictions of the pandemic and climate fires as well as in poignant situations of personal loss. But perhaps his greatest gift to an American vernacular Zen is his affirmation that Buddhism is not about ‘spiritual bypass’ or mere self-help programs, turning away from the challenges of societal oppression. Rather, Zen is a practice of universal awakening. Returning to his early inspirations from Gary Snyder, Peter Coyote expresses how a modern Zen can offer support and some settledness to engage with systemic suffering.” Taigen Dan Leighton, author of Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Buddhist Zen Master Hongzhi

“This is a wondrous and generous book. Peter Coyote honorably follows D. T. Suzuki and Paul Reps, who both sought two generations ago to introduce Zen Buddhism to a curious United States. Coyote goes a step further, contextualizing the practice from within American life and culture, deftly reconciling contradictions, challenging the solipsistic to look inward. A thunderous ovation from my one hand!” Ken Burns, filmmaker

“This book is written by someone who has had a deeply rich life. It is full of anecdotes from that life, told with humor and clarity, that serve as metaphors for teaching Buddha’s dharma. It acknowledges and confirms a path for non-monastics—lay people immersed in daily life. It shows us how we can organize everyday life as the practice of liberation. This is a deeply compassionate book, joyously written by an accomplished storyteller. This book will help the West envision what Buddhism could look like 300+ years from now. Enjoy.” Soshin Teah Strozer, founding teacher at the Brooklyn Zen Center

BUDDHISM/MEDITATION

“In the best tradition of ‘encouraging words,’ Peter Coyote’s generous, ambitious, highly personal, and provocative new book seeks nothing less than a reframing of what it means to be a Buddhist practitioner in the challenging conditions of the world today.”
–GAETANO KAZUO MAIDA, executive director of the Buddhist Film Festival Foundation and a founding director of Tricycle

“Coyote speaks with remarkable intelligence and compassion about how to awaken to truth . . . while not turning away from the suffering and turmoil that surrounds us.”
–DAVID CHADWICK, author of Crooked Cucumber and student of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

During the nearly 3,000 years since the Buddha lived, his teachings have spread widely around the globe. In each culture where Buddhism was introduced, the Buddha’s teachings have been pruned and modified to harmonize with local customs, laws, and cultures. We can refer to these modifications as “gift wrapping,” translating the gifts of Buddha’s teachings in ways sensible to particular cultures in particular times. This gift-wrapping explains why Indian, Tibetan, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, and Indonesian Buddhism have significant differences.

In this engaging guide to Zen Buddhism, award-winning actor, narrator, and Zen Buddhist priest Peter Coyote helps us peer beneath the Japanese gift-wrapping of Zen teachings to reveal the fundamental teachings of the Buddha and show how they can be applied to contemporary daily life. Based on a series of dharma talks he gave during the pandemic, he reminds us that the mental/physical states achieved by Buddhist practice are universal human states that can help us navigate our way in the world.

Exploring Buddha’s core teachings, the author shares his own secular and accessible interpretations of the Four Noble Truths, the Three Treasures, and the Eightfold Path within the context of his lineage and the teachings of his teacher and the teachers before him. By examining “things as it is” through the Buddhist lens, he reveals the practical and useful applications of Buddhist philosophy, and he shows how Zen offers a creative problem-solving mechanism and moral guide ideal for the stresses and problems of everyday life and our individual and collective efforts to create positive change.

PETER COYOTE is an award-winning actor, narrator, and teacher. Recognized for his narration work, he narrated the PBS series The Pacific Century, winning an Emmy Award, as well as eleven Ken Burns documentaries, including The Roosevelts, for which he won a second Emmy. A Zen student since 1974, in 2011 he was ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest and in 2015 received “transmission” from his teacher, making him an independent Zen teacher. The author of Sleeping Where I Fall, The Rainman’s Third Cure, and Tongue of a Crow as well as The Lone Ranger and Tonto Meet Buddha, he lives in northern California.