Dennis Genpo Merzel - Spitting Out the Bones: A Zen Masters 45 Year Journey

A terrific book! I cant think of a more important challenge the world faces right now than how to bring the wisdom of the great spiritual traditions into the modern and post-modern world. Its one of the most urgent and far-reaching things we have to do, and this is a major step in that direction.

Ken Wilber, author of Integral Spirituality

A vivid and inspiring reminder that growth and transformation on a large-scale or global level are inseparable from honest and sometimes painful reckoning of our flaws and failings on a personal level.

Jack Canfield, coauthor of The Success Principles

This book offers much hard-earned and valuable wisdom. His love of Zen and his maturity has transformed Zen into a practice of the heart.

Jack Kornfield, author of Bringing Home the Dharma

A very important contribution to the convergence of deep spiritual practice and contemporary Western psychology, and a deeply honest, self-revealing account of a Western Zen teachers journey. As both a therapist and a Zen teacher, I highly recommend this book to anyone on the spiritual path, to therapists, and to all those interested in expanding their understanding of themselves and their lives.

Zen Master Nicolee Jikyo McMahon, Marriage and Family Therapist

Theres a lot of meat and marrow here, as well as things which might stick in ones throat. Ruination can be a true friend with benefits, as this candid story reveals. We who are imperfect can certainly sympathize and even identify with Genpo Roshis story and inner journey. If you want a deep slice of American Zen life, from a teachers point of view, with all its ups and downs, twists and turns beyond over-idealized images read this book.

Lama Surya Das, author of Awakening the Buddha Within

Like that lotus rising out of muddy water, the development of a Zen teacher is not an easy task, and as Genpo Roshis book shows, the times of descending the mountain can be those of greatest self-discovery. We can be grateful that he has persevered and written this honest and generous account of his journey. I think it conveys the true spirit not only of his journey, but of his teachers, my husband Maezumi Roshi, and of the Path we are all traveling in our own ways.

Martha Ekyo Maezumi, Artist and widow of Taizan Maezumi Roshi

Absolutely riveting! Genpo Roshi is a master storyteller and a master teacher and this book is alive with his vitality. Its message, and his journey, are both timely and universal. Traditional religions, and their leaders, must now learn to help people go through their own personal transformational processes. Many new paths are opening many different journeys are becoming possible. Dennis Genpo Roshi has shown us his journey. Those who read this book can use his story to help them find their own paths.

Hal & Sidra Stone, Creators of Voice Dialogue (from the Foreword)

Most of what has been written in the West about Zen Buddhism focuses on climbing the path to enlightenment and standing on top of the mountain. However, what distinguishes Mahayana Buddhism from other spiritual traditions is that it stresses losing it all, coming down empty-handed from the peak of enlightenment back to the smelly swamps of everyday human life, as a crucial part of the spiritual process. This inspiring personal account of ascending and descending the mountain is one of the best books I have ever read about the struggle to become what Mahayana Buddhism calls a bodhisattva, a true human being.

Maurice Shonen Knegtel, Sensei, author of The Last Word of Zen

This book reads like a series of intimate fireside chats with a Zen teacher who is recounting what he has learned over 45 years of dedicated Zen practice. It skillfully weaves element of that process as well as traditional Zen koans. Unfolding a broad range of topics, including the complexities of the student-teacher, Big Mind and Abhidharma, and the future spiritual evolution of the human species.

Zen Master Jan Chozen Bays, author of The Vow-Powered Life

Spitting Out the Bones

A Zen Masters 45 Year Journey

ALSO BY D. GENPO MERZEL

The Fool Who Thought He Was God

Big Mind Big Heart: Finding Your Way

The Path of the Human Being: Zen Teachings on the Bodhisattva Way

24/7 Dharma: Impermanence, No-Self, Nirvana

Beyond Sanity and Madness: The Way of Zen Master Dogen

The Eye Never Sleeps: Striking to the Heart of Zen

A ZEN MASTERS 45 YEAR JOURNEY

D. GENPO MERZEL

FOREWORD BY HAL & SIDRA STONE

Book and cover design: Mark Esterman

Cover calligraphy (enso): Martha Ekyo Maezumi

Copyright 2016 by Dennis Genpo Merzel

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher.

For information contact:

BIG MIND PUBLISHING

32 WEST 200 SOUTH, #429

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 84101

www.bigmind.org

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016940640

ISBN 978-0-9771423-9-2 (pbk.)

Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

I dedicate this book to my great master Taizan Maezumi Roshi, who devoted his life to swallowing the whole fish and spitting out the bones in order that the Buddha-Dharma could take root here in the West.

I wish to thank first and foremost Mark Esterman Sensei for all the brilliant work, thoughtfulness and love he has put into this book. It literally would not be this book without him. I would also like to thank Charlotte Juul for her love and support, which have contributed so much to bringing me where I am today, and for helping me face some of my most deeply rooted patterns, which I would have loved to avoid. I am deeply grateful to my former wife, Stephanie Young Merzel for her love, courage and strength these past twenty years.

I also wish to thank my assistant Mary Ellen Sloan for her devotion and love and her amazing job keeping everything running so I could focus much of my time these past five years writing this book; Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone for being my mentors through this very challenging time; and Nicolee Jikyo McMahon Roshi for her help fine-tuning the manuscript as well her friendship the past thirty-five years.

There are a number of close friends and students to whom I wish to express my love and gratitude: Kamie Buddemeier, Paul Thielking, John Quigley, Joseph Hakim, Rob Velek, and Ivis Montenegro, among others who have been there consistently for me these past five years while I have taken time away from my teaching to focus on my own growth and development, and the writing of this book.

I would also like to express my appreciation and gratitude to the sixty-six Zen teachers who by taking what must have been a difficult stance, asking me to take a leave of absence from teaching Zen, helped me make a leap. I doubt that I would have done it without their ruthless compassion.

Lastly to Fillette Merzel for being my emotional support doggie and serving to relax and not judge me.

Deep bows of gratitude.

When Genpo Roshi asked us to write a preface for his new book, it seemed as though it might require a good deal of effort. We are no longer young and, at this time of our lives, not only do we have many requests of this kind, but the focus required for writing is not as easy to come by as it was in the old days. Much to our delight, the reality was very different from our expectations. We both found this tale of Genpo Roshis forty-five year journey absolutely riveting! He is a master storyteller and a master teacher and this book is alive with his vitality.