Albert Low: 15 books

“Creating Consciousness: A Study of Consciousness, Creativity, Evolution, and Violence” is a spiritual & intellectual treasure from Zen Master Albert Low. Creating Consciousness is Low’s profound discussion of the philosophical, religious, and scientific problem of consciousness in relation...

Albert Low’s book shows how the religious impulse is expressed by two entirely different kinds of religions: religion as a set of beliefs centered on a unique, dynamic center such as Christ, Mohammed or Buddha, and religion as a quest. Dr Albert Low is the teacher at the Montreal Zen Center and an internationally acclaimed author.

Have you reached a point in your life where the old patterns and habits just don't work anymore? Perhaps it is just a discomfort that you feel, an itch you cannot scratch. Life just doesn't have that same zest it once did. You cannot find satisfaction no matter what you try. Or perhaps...

Albert Low, teacher and director at the Montreal Zen Center and dharma heir of Roshi Philip Kapleau, provides an engaging collection of talks, stories and commentaries on Zen. Though the entries range from dharma talks on koans to discussions on Buddhism and Christianity, they all address concrete concerns of our lives and reveal the author's profound insights.

All readers, both novice and longtime practitioners, will encounter in this book new answers, and new questions, to the what, why and how of Zen practice. We've all had moments in our lives when we've thought, "Something is missing. There must be more to life than this." It is this...

The basic message of all the Mahayana Buddhist sutras is awakening - what the Zen teacher Bassui called "seeing the wordless sutra." Zen and the Sutras is an accessible study of the major Mahayana sutras as manuals for the practice of Zen. Low’s insights and conclusions about spirituality...

Hakuin Zenji is one of Japan’s most celebrated Zen masters. Tradition tells us that he single-handedly revived Rinzai Zen in Japan. He was an artist, calligrapher and writer, as well as being a Zen master. He said that writing is verbal prajna and his writings are vigorous, courageous, and always...

Science has consistently rejected subjective data in science. Undoubtedly the main reason for this is that most scientists consider it to be unreliable and difficult to verify. Our immediate experience is, indeed, often incomplete, distorted, or simply false. Another important reason for rejecting...

Because words can no more hold the truth than a net can hold water, we use koans. Koans are sayings, or doings, of Zen masters, the patriarchs and Buddha. Take for example the koan: The Sound of One Hand clapping. In its entirety it reads: “You know the sound of two hands clapping. What is the sound...

A koan is a saying by a Zen master, the most famous being "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Seemingly incomprehensible, a koan is actually an invitation to think in a new way, a tool to startle the consciousness into enlightenment. Drawing on the views of diverse thinkers from Buddha,...

Kensho is the Zen experience of waking up to one’s own true nature—of understanding oneself to be not different from the Buddha-nature that pervades all existence. The Japanese Zen Master Hakuin (1689–1769) considered the experience to be essential. In his autobiography he says: "Anyone...

Zen is essentially a practice and not a dogma; no amount of theory or discussion will ever take the place of a few minutes of practice. Among the many books about Zen, there are few that explain simply, to the interested beginner, how to do Zen-how to just sit down and begin to work toward fulfillment...

The world faces a crisis. Band-aids and patchwork technical solutions are not enough to get us through. Overpopulation, global warming, the clash of cultures and an unsteady financial climate are just some of the causes. We do not face technical, economic or social problems: We face dilemmas, and...

Charles Darwin has now taken his place as one of the great scientific innovators of all time and has changed for ever the way we see ourselves, and our place in the universe. Even those who hold to the biblical account of creation and see Darwin’s theory as a profound error can no longer take for...