The Zen of Recovery
The Zen of Recovery was the first book to offer a viable Eastern wisdom based recovery alternative to the patriarchal and God-based methods of many 12-step programs. Many thousands have found its methods and message to be successful in their own steps to recovery. The Zen of Recovery is used by many 12-step study groups as a weekly guide and manual and has become a classic in its field. The Zen of Recovery recently entered the digital age with its release as a Kindle electronic book and Audible audiobook.
You don't have to be Buddhist to appreciate the healing power of The Zen of Recovery. The book makes Zen available to all seeking to improve the quality of their spiritual and everyday life. It also includes practical instructions on how to meditate and put the book into action. Its message will help readers live more profoundly "one day at a time."
German edition also available
Mit Zen zur geistigen Freiheit
Spirituelle und therapeutische Techniken zur Überwindung von Abhängigkeiten
Mel Ash, Zen-Meister und trockener Alkoholiker, stellt in diesem Buch einen außergewöhnlichen Ansatz vor, der Betroffenen hilft, sich nachhaltig von Süchten und Abhängigkeiten zu befreien: mit der fernöstlichen Praxis des Zen und dem Konzept der Anonymen Alkoholiker. Anschaulich und leicht verständlich beschreibt er, wie es gelingt, mit ehrlichem Blick das eigene Tun zu bewerten, sich die persönlichen Probleme bewusst zu machen und schließlich den Weg zur geistigen Freiheit zu gehen.
Beat Spirit
Beat Spirit exposes the truth that life doesn't have to feel standardized, patented, predictable, interminable or robotic for today's new Beats. Readers will howl with Ginsberg and take off on the road with Kerouac, as they discover new frontiers of thought and spirit with Beat Spirit. It kick-starts the rebellious, non-conformist and fiercely independent streak that lives within everyone.
From Library Journal "As Ash (Shaving the Inside of Your Skull, Putnam, 1997) makes clear, this book is not a history of the Beats but a unique, "interactive" self-help book aimed at Generation Xers who find themselves drawn to the philosophical and spiritual principles that inform Beat literature and art. Ash examines works by various authors, including Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs; analyzes the values promulgated therein; and then assigns the reader exercises based on those values. Exercises range from "getting naked" to doing genealogical research to writing a suicide note. Ash's aesthetic analysis is generally on target, and the bibliographies he includes are useful. However, a "how to become a Beat" manual seems somewhat paradoxical given the Beat Generation's celebration of originality and spontaneity. The workbook format makes this publication more appropriate for bookstores than libraries." - William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Shaving the Inside of Your Skull
Zen monks traditionally shave their heads as a symbol of their renunciation of the world. But author Mel Ash points out that it's not enough to shave the outside. Why not shave the inside as well? This is one wild and crazy book. Ash gives us "razors" to use that are really creative homework assignments to help us shave all the beliefs, isms, and self-limitations that hold us back. Topics for enlightenment include picking your nose in your car, tracing your tree of belief, and finding your secret name — and that's just on one page!
Chinese edition also available
Shaving the Inside of Your Skull
Chinese edition & Mandarin translation.
Below is the synopsis of "Skull" from the Chinese site using Babel Fish.: You care about the others to say very much what person oneself is? You thought what person genuine own are? What person are we? What person may turn?
This book gives the reader "the shaving cutter", actually is one kind of self- guidance process. We in this process, the test, seek, the inspection "we should be" that person, "the others want us to do" that person, but also has "us to think oneself is" that person, thus breaks our limitation, develops our potential. Penetrates each question, each practice, each risk, each new experience, although all is a half step, but in steps to on the original appearance road, you certainly can have the crucial transformation:
you no longer penetrate others' judgment to look at the world.
you cannot everything be that severe, nervousness, the entire person changes has the vitality.
in works with the method in, changes has the elasticity, has the creativity.
Moreover, extremely more importantly, you will be able because has worked loose the bedding bag jail head, the heart freely, oneself will wield the space also more widened! Purchase a copy of the Chinese edition . . .