10 Inspiring Zen Books for Creative Living and Well-Being
What comes to mind when you think of zen? Meditation and enlightenment? What about creative thinking? There are many zen lessons for the creative mind. Here are 10 inspiring zen books for creative living and well-being.
Zen refers to a quality of mind. With practices like meditation and koans, you could say zen is about creative thinking. Harnessing the power of the mind to be more present, focused, and understand one’s true nature for better self-expression. Learning the powerful lessons from zen and connected philosophies like Taoism is a great way to support the creative mind and life.
Shunryu Suzuki was a Sōtō Zen monk and teacher who helped popularize Zen Buddhism in the United States. His book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind is one of the most beloved zen books and helpful books for the creative mind.
“In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s, there are few.”
Seldom do books have as powerful and insightful of an opening line as this zen book. The beginner’s mind, also known as a growth mindset, is one of the most important teachings in zen. It carries many benefits not just for creatives but anyone looking to be more productive and happy in their day-to-day life.
In the forty years since its original publication, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind has become one of the great modern spiritual classics, much beloved, much reread, and much recommended as the best first book to read on Zen.
Creative Lessons
- “If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything. It is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind, there are few.”
- “Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.”
- “Enjoy your problems.”
Being Zen by Ezra Bayda is a straightforward guide to understanding zen teachings to overcome the turmoil of daily life and live an awakened life. The creative life isn’t without it’s challenges. Experiences like fear, anxiety, anger, and other forms of suffering can hurt creativity and well-being.
While many books aspire to bring meditation and zen teachings into everyday experience, Ezra Bayda’s Being Zen provides practical ways to do it, introducing techniques that enable the reader to foster qualities essential to continued spiritual awakening.
Topics include how to cultivate:
- Perseverance: staying with anger, fear, and other distressing emotions.
- Stillness: abiding with chaotic experiences without becoming overwhelmed.
- Clarity: seeing through the conditioned beliefs and fears that “run” us.
- Direct experience: encountering the physical reality of the present moment—even when that moment is exactly where we don’t want to be.
Creative Lessons
- “Experiencing, rather than trying to have special experiences, is where real freedom lies.”
- “To know that we don’t know, yet to keep practicing, is the way we learn to go deeper.”
- “In surrendering to our deepest fears, we put ourselves in touch with the fundamental awareness of just being—the true ground that is always available to us.”
Zen: The Art of Simple Living by Shunmyo Masuno is a bestselling zen guide to simplifying your life. Drawing on centuries of wisdom, renowned Zen Buddhist priest Shunmyo Masuno applies the essence of Zen to modern life in clear, practical, easy lessons–one a day for 100 days.
Learn how to find happiness not by seeking out extraordinary experiences but by making small changes to what you do, how you think, how you interact with others, and how you appreciate the present moment. With each task, you will open yourself up to a renewed sense of peace and inner calm.
Discover How
- Lining up your shoes after you take them off can bring order to your life.
- Putting down your fork after every bite can help you feel more grateful for what you have.
- Spending time barefoot can strengthen your body.
- Planting a flower and watching it grow can teach you to embrace change.
- Going outside to watch the sunset can make every day feel celebratory.
Creative Lessons
- “Those who do not pay attention to their footsteps cannot know themselves and cannot know where their life is going.”
- “A day without working is a day without eating.”
- “Do not cling to your belief in what is and always should be. Practice nonattachment.”
The Unfettered Mind by Takuan Sōhō is a classic samurai-era text that fused Japanese swordsmanship with Zen philosophy and creative living.
Takuan Sōhō was a Japanese Buddhist prelate during the Sengoku and early Edo Periods of Japanese history. He was a major figure in the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism and was known for his calligraphy, painting, gardening, poetry, tea ceremony, and even cooking. He is even credited for the invention of the takuan pickled radish. A great example of the zen art of creative living.
Although The Unfettered Mind is a book of advice on swordsmanship and the cultivation of the right mind and intention, the zen lessons apply to everyone interested in learning more about zen philosophy.
Creative Lessons
- “It is the very mind itself That leads the mind astray; Of the mind, Do not be mindless.”
- “The mind must always be in the state of ‘flowing,’ for when it stops anywhere, that means the flow is interrupted, and it is this interruption that is injurious to the well-being of the mind.”
- “Zen is to have the heart and soul of a little child.”
The Gateless Gate: The Classic Book of Zen Koans by Koun Yamada is one of the greatest collections of stories to teach zen. Compiled and translated with the Western reader in mind, this zen book includes Koan Yamada’s clear and penetrating comments on each case and extra materials to understand zen practices and insights into the teachers.
One of the best exercises to learn from zen is koans. A koan is a riddle, story, dialogue, question, or statement which is used to provoke creative thinking and discover greater truths about the world and yourself. Meditating on these koans is a great way to open the mind and train creativity.
To get you started with koans, here are 5 zen koans to open your mind and inspire creative thinking.
Creative Lessons
- “If anyone thinks that the one’s insight exceeds the other’s, he has no eyes.”
- “Before the first step is taken, the goal is reached. Before the tongue is moved, the speech is finished. More than brilliant intuition is needed To find the origin of the right road.”
- “In spring, hundreds of flowers; in autumn, a harvest moon; In summer, a refreshing breeze; in winter, snow will accompany you. If useless things do not hang in your mind, Any season is a good season for you.”
Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, and the Truth About Reality by Brad Warner isn’t your typical zen book. When most people think of zen books, they might imagine them filled with riddles and poetic prose. However, zen teachings are usually guided by simplicity, and you don’t get more simple and plain zen, with no BS than what you find in Hardcore Zen.
Brad Warner, a young punk who grew up to be a Zen master, spares no one. This bold new approach to the “Why?” of Zen Buddhism is as strongly grounded in the tradition of Zen as it is utterly revolutionary. Warner’s voice is hilarious, and he calls on the wisdom of everyone from punk and pop culture icons to the Buddha himself to make sure his points come through loud and clear.
As it prods readers to question everything, Hardcore Zen is both an approach and a departure, leaving behind the soft and lyrical for the gritty and stark perspective of a new generation.
Creative Lessons
- “Do as well as you possibly can. That’s Buddhist morality.”
- “Rather than face what really is, we prefer to retreat and compare what we’re living through with the way we think it oughta be. Suffering comes from the comparison between the two.”
- “Suffering occurs when your ideas about how things ought to be don’t match how they really are. Stop for a second and look at this in your life right now. It’s important.”
Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Pirsig is a penetrating examination of how we live and how to live better told through creative travel on a motorcycle road trip between a father and son.
This narration of a summer motorcycle trip becomes a personal and philosophical odyssey into fundamental questions on how to live. The narrator’s relationship with his son leads to a powerful self-reckoning; the craft of motorcycle maintenance leads to an austerely beautiful process for reconciling science, religion, and humanism. Resonant with the confusions of existence, this classic is a touching and transcendent book of life.
Creative Lessons
- “The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.”
- “You look at where you’re going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you’ve been and a pattern seems to emerge.”
- “Sometimes it’s a little better to travel than to arrive.”
Everyday Zen by Charlotte J. Beck is a warm, engaging, uniquely American approach to using Zen to deal with the problems of daily living and even the creative lifestyle. Covering issues and sharing wisdom about love, relationships, work, fear, ambition, and suffering. Everyday Zen shows us how to live each moment to the fullest and shows the relevance of Zen to every aspect of life.
Creative Lessons
- “If we can accept things just the way they are, we’re not going to be greatly upset by anything.”
- “The best way to let go is to notice the thoughts as they come up and to acknowledge them.”
- “Practice is not a trimming on your life. Practice is the foundation. If that’s not there nothing else will be there.”
The Way of Zen by Alan Watts has been called the definitive introduction to Zen Buddhism. Alan Watts was an English philosopher, writer, and speaker known for interpreting and popularizing Indian and Chinese traditions of Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu philosophy for a Western audience.
In this zen book, he explains the principles and practices of this ancient philosophy, from the origins and history to the principles and practices. The second half of the book also includes Zen and the arts section that details how Zen has influenced artwork and poetry in China and Japan.
Creative Lessons
- “In walking, just walk. In sitting, just sit. Above all, don’t wobble.”
- “This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”
- “A scholar tries to learn something every day; a student of Buddhism tries to unlearn something daily.”
Zen and the Art of Happiness by Chris Prentiss is about learning the gentle wisdom of zen to learn how to think and feel so that what you think and feel creates happiness and vibrancy in your life rather than depression.
Challenges in life are unavoidable, but we can learn how to respond in healthy ways with the teachings of zen. Learn how to nurture a more mindful happiness in our daily life.
Creative Lessons
- “Who you allow into the circle of your life will make the difference in the quality of your life.”
- “The best way for you to get that new experience is to change your response to what happens.”
- “The more you engage in any type of emotion or behavior, the greater your desire for it will become.”
Zach is an international writer, photographer, filmmaker, martial artist, and creator of Creative Enso, the Zen art of creative living. His goal is to empower and inspire creatives to live healthier, happier, and more creative lifestyles.
