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The Ten Commandments tell us how to behave, but they don’t say much about the inner awareness from which outer behavior springs. Do the right thing, of course– but better yet, find your inner light and doing the right thing becomes as natural as breathing. THE ZEN COMMANDMENTS offers ten powerful nudges toward that light.Drawing on sources from Zen stories and the Bible to jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, from American movies to Tibetan meditative techniques, Dean Sluyter steers clear of dogma and emphasizes what works– a sort of spiritual street smarts. He shows that the state of boundless freedom and happiness isn’t something distant or exotic, but is right here, while you’re stuck in traffic or taking out the trash. And revisiting the Ten Commandments, he shows how on a deeper level they offer some surprising enlightenment wisdom of their own.“The book is extremely well written and joyously entertaining.”—Publishers Weekly “With sparkling clarity and wit, Sluyter’s ten suggestions lay out the practical essentials of the path. My suggestion is: listen to this guy.”—Lama Surya Das, author of Awakening the Buddha Within “Dean Sluyter clearly presents simple but profound ways to live one’s life consciously and skillfully. He teaches that the source of universal truth not only rests in the heart of every one of us, but is the essence of what ultimately brings us true happiness and freedom. This is a wonderful book with rich wisdom and deep insight.”—Rabbi David Cooper, author of God Is a Verb “No matter what your religion (or lack of it), this book shows how to live the kind of life people ache for. It turns out to be pretty simple.”—Jane Cavolina, co-author of Growing Up CatholicEditorial ReviewsAmazon.com ReviewIn Dean Sluyter’s clever The Zen Commandments, the author lays down 10 guidelines for living a more present life and experiencing moment-to-moment awareness. Some of his “commandments” are Zen interpretations of the 10 laws Moses brought down from Mount Sinai; others have nothing to do with the prophet’s inscribed tablets. In one example, Sluyter takes the Fourth Commandment–Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy–and gives it a Zen twist:The whole idea of Sabbath is a temporary withdrawal from limited worldly activities in order to connect to the limitlessness that some people call God. Here … we’re learning to be in a state of utter rest seven days a week, 60 seconds a minute, transcending and silently witnessing all physical and mental activities, even while performing them.”Through the moment-to-moment awareness that Zen demands, we constantly stay in touch with God, or the Infinite (or whatever individuals choose to call it), Sluyter reminds us. Other Zen commandments are more contemporary and have nothing to do with biblical precepts. Perhaps one of his most useful guidelines is his enjoinder to “Notice the Moment”:On our journey through life, we think of the time we spent walking down the hall from Office A to Office B as intermission, dead time, mere connective tissue. But there is no intermission. The show never stops. Every moment is the only moment.Sluyter sprinkles his chapters with eclectic quotes from Bob Dylan, Indian gurus, Miles Davis, Franz Kafka, even Bill Clinton. This is a lively book and one that will almost certainly give you pause in your day, whether it’s to simply stop and take a breath while rushing through your morning routine, or to notice the roadside flowers while stalled in rush-hour traffic. –Demian McLeanFrom Publishers WeeklyMeditation teacher Sluyter (Why the Chicken Crossed the Road and Other Hidden Enlightenment Teachings) draws 10 life “suggestions” from the world’s religions, scriptures, philosophers, literature and popular culture (in his words, “any tradition that promotes compassionate outer behavior and enlightened inner awareness”). Sluyter’s suggestions involve acting with kindness, noticing the moment, keeping things simple, blessing others and remaining devoted. His sources include Jesus and the Dalai Lama, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Bob Dylan, Monty Python and Ramana Maharshi, the Wizard of Oz and the Prajnaparamita Sutra. The strength of this eclecticism is that the book is extremely well written and joyously entertaining; its weakness is that in finding the commonalties among so many different perspectives, Sluyter omits much of the background that makes those perspectives uniquely true. This approach may be downright jarring to someone who regards a particular belief system seriously. Sluyter’s point–that we often make life too complex when we really need to just relax and be–is a simple one, as are pithy maxims such as “No Appointment, No Disappointment.” For those who find simplicity hard to attain, his chapters also include exercises in meditation. The book enthusiastically suggests that readers experiment and adhere to anything that works for them “as if your life depended on it,” because, according to Sluyter, it actually does.File Size: 1417 KBPrint Length: 212 pagesPublisher: TarcherPerigee (March 19, 2001)http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Commandments-Suggestions-Inner-Fre…