Nothing Special

Book excerpt: The Zen master and author of Everyday Zen shares the simple, essential wisdom of embracing the ordinary in life. Zen is life itself, nothing added. But for many of us, pursuing a spiritual path involves fantasies about our future lives—fantasies that separate us from ourselves and leave us anxious to achieve a resolution that is constantly receding just past the horizon of reality. In Nothing Special, Charlotte Joko Beck reveals how living in the knowledge that “things are always just as they are” is not the counsel of despair but an invitation to joy. Author of the Zen classic, Everyday Zen, Charlotte Joko Beck now shows readers how to awaken to daily life and discover the ideal in the everyday, finding riches in our feelings, relationships, and work. Nothing Special offers the rare and delightful experience of learning in the authentic Buddhist tradition with a wonderfully contemporary Western master.