That Is Not Your Mind!

What does it mean to experience freedom in and through one's sensory life? In Seeing Freedom, Zen teacher Robert Rosenbaum explores this question by taking readers on a step-by-step journey through the Shurangama Sutra. This classic Zen sutra is known for its emphasis on practicing with the senses (sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, and the Buddhist sixth sense" of mind or cognition), as well as its teachings on the necessity of basic ethical commitments, like not killing or stealing, to support the development of one's meditation practice and insight. Rosenbaum interweaves passages from the sutra with contemporary insights from neuroscience and psychology, illustrating the usefulness of the text with anecdotes from his life and his forty years of teaching experience. In addition to learning about a sutra that played an important role in the creation of Chinese Chan and Japanese Zen Buddhism, readers are guided through meditations and other practices derived from the sutra's teachings"--