Thank You and Ok!: An American Zen Failure in Japan [First Shambhala ed.] 1590304705, 9781590304709

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“Written with a fine edge of crazy wisdom detail, this book is a treasure-house of insight and humor. It’s so accessible—Chadwick really knows how to invite the reader in.” —^Joan Halifax, author of The Fruitful Darkness “Totally delightful—fantastic couch potato Zen. Chadwick saves you the trouble of going to Japan by making all the mistakes for you.” —^Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart “I love this book!” —Ken Wilber, author of Grace and Grit “The famous ‘punk monk’ has given a sense of Zen, a sense of Japan, and a sense of himself as seeker and wanderer which is sweet, full of good information, and . . . funky. Thank you and okay!” —Herbert Gold, author of Bohemia “The results of Chadwick’s cultural collision with Japan are funny, insightful, and revelatory.” —Peter Coyote, actor and writer “I loved this book—touching, funny, knowing—I couldn’t put it down.” —Robert Whiting, author of You Gotta Have Wa

A R K A N A

THANK YOU AND OK!

David Chadwick, a Texas-raised wanderer, college dropout, bum¬ bling social activist and hobbyhorse musician, began his formal Zen study under Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in 1966 at the age of twenty-one. Many years later, Suzuki’s successor, Zentatsu Richard Baker Roshi, shaking his head, said of Chadwick: “Years of ex¬ pensive Zen training gone to waste.” In 1988 friends and sup¬ porters underwrote Chadwick’s journey to Japan so he could begin an open-ended period of voluntary exile and remedial education. In Japan he practiced more Zen, got married, studied Japanese language and culture, and taught English. With his wife Elin and toddler Clay, Chadwick now lives in Northern California, where he reads, writes, walks, sits and studies.

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