Zen Vows for Daily Life

Zen Vows for Daily Life is a collection of gathas, vows in verse form for daily Buddhist practice, similar to prayers or affirmations. Reciting these poetic vows can help us be fully present in each moment and each activity of our lives. Robert Aitken offers ways through life's difficulties with insight and humor. These gathas serve as gentle reminders to return again and again to our highest aspirations, with acceptance, joy, and compassion. The book provides touchstones for daily practice that the reader will want to return to again and again.

"Each act in a Buddhist monastery--washing up, putting on clothes, entering the Buddha hall, sitting down for meditation, getting up from meditation--receives its own Dharma poem. Events on pilgrimage--encountering a tree, a river, a bridge, a dignitary, a mendicant--likewise offer entries into truth. My purpose in this book is similar: to show how ordinary occurrences in our modern lay lives are in fact the Buddha's own teachings--and also to show how we can involve ourselves accordingly in the practice of wisdom and compassion with family and friends, with everyone and everything."--Robert Aitken, from the Preface

"In Zen Vows for Daily Life ], poetry and meditation always go together. Poetry is comprised of images and music, and images make the practice easy. Robert Aitken Roshi is a poet who deeply appreciates practicing with these gathas. He offers us many beautiful verses, sterling examples of this practice, that we can use to reflect more deeply on what we are doing. I am grateful to Aitken Roshi for offering us this beautiful book."--from the Foreword by Thich Nhat Hanh