Books
Books by our teachers
We are very pleased to be able to offer a range of books written by our Auckland teachers, Roshi Amala Wrightson and Sensei Richard von Sturmer. We also stock the Zen classic “The Three Pillars of Zen” by Roshi Philip Kapleau, founder of the Rochester Zen Center, plus some local publications on the history of Zen in Aotearoa New Zealand.
You can purchase the books at the Centre, or we are happy to mail them out to you. Contact info@aucklandzen.org.nz to arrange postage.
The Three
Pillars of Zen
In this classic work of spiritual guidance by Philip Kapleau, the founder of the Rochester Zen Center presents a comprehensive overview of Zen Buddhism. Exploring the three pillars of Zen—teaching, practice, and enlightenment—Roshi Philip Kapleau, the man who founded one of the oldest and most influential Zen centers in the United States, presents a personal account of his own experiences as a student and teacher, and in so doing gives readers invaluable advice on how to develop their own practices. A moving, eye-opening work, The Three Pillars of Zen is the definitive introduction to the history and discipline of Zen.
$35, plus $7 for postage
Finding Your Seat
Zen is a subject of fascination for many people, though few have received training in its actual practice. Finding Your Seat by Roshi Amala Wrightson and Kathryn Argetsinger presents the basics of that practice within the context of the Auckland Zen Centre in Aotearoa New Zealand. A valuable handbook for those setting out on the path, its guidance ranges from instructions for Zen meditation, to sitting postures, attending group sittings, beginning to work with a teacher, and taking part in sesshin (week-long intensive retreat). A trustworthy guide to an ancient and venerable tradition.
$30, plus $7 for postage
Walking with Rocks, Dreaming with Rivers
In 2020 Sensei Richard von Sturmer spent twelve months exploring the Waikato region, this book is the record of his discoveries, reveries and experiences. It is a travel journal to some of the lesser visited parts of the Waikato, guided at times to sacred locations by Ngāti Apakura and Ngāti Maniapoto descendent Dr Tom Roa, and by master carver Wiremu Puke. Through all his travels he finds moments of unexpected enchantment. Illustrated.
This beautiful object, this dream set down on paper, is travel writing regained, and put to rights. The first person invested in it is the reader. You are about to go on a journey. You are in good hands: great travel writing picks you up and swings you along like luggage.
—Steve Braunias
$38, plus $7 for postage
Resonating Distances
Resonating Distances is Sensei Richard von Sturmer’s most recent collection of poetry and prose. Richard-sensei is the co-founder of the Auckland Zen Centre.
Reading Resonating Distances is like turning a brilliantly facetted jewel in your hand while contemplating the refractions of light in its play upon the appearances and disappearances of mind in the always mutating world.
—Martin Edmond
$30, plus $7 for postage
Suchness: Zen
Poetry and Prose
Suchness: Zen Poetry and Prose presents a major collection of work spanning a decade in the life of Sensei Richard von Sturmer, co-founder of the Auckland Zen Centre. Haiku notebooks and imagistic poems underlying his Zen teachings produce striking poems of power and grace. Lyrically spare, they form meditations on the world and life. Also included are essays and prose poems further exemplifying the skill and craft of one of New Zealand’s leading poets.
$15, plus $7 for postage
A Network of
Dissolving Threads
A Network of Dissolving Threads is an early work of Sensei Richard von Sturmer, co-founder of the Auckland Zen Centre. It is about sparrows, and telephone boxes, and wind, and hedges, and death, and pine cones, and condensation, and cicadas, and love, and power-lines, and discarded pens, and railway tracks, and bones, and mistakes, and remembering, and rain, and late afternoons, and fantails, and foam, and shadows, and dust… and about a clarity of perception that casts light upon these elements as they appear and disappear. The book follows in the Japanese literary tradition of haibun.
$10, plus $7 for postage
Images from
the Center
Joseph Sorrentino presents a collection of fifty black and white images that document the Rochester Zen Center, one of the oldest Zen communities in the United States. Accompanying the images is a series of essays on Zen training by Sensei Richard von Sturmer. The essays explore such facets of Zen training as the teacher-student relationship, work-practice, and the role of ceremonies. Together, the images and text provide an intimate and comprehensive look as how Zen is practiced in the West.
$10, plus $7 for postage
AZC Tenth
Anniversary Book
Published to celebrate the Auckland Zen Centre’s tenth anniversary, this publication brings together history, autobiography, and reflections on Zen practice from 2004-2014. One key essay is a history of Zen practice in New Zealand, available as a separate PDF (see link below). Several essays feature the Rochester Zen Center in the USA (the parent centre of Auckland Zen Centre), while other essays are more autobiographical, covering the different paths the authors have taken to practising Zen at the Auckland Zen Centre. Essays of interest for research on Buddhism in New Zealand, the Pacific, and the USA.
SOLD OUT - but you can download a PDF of the “Prehistory of the Auckland Zen Centre” chapter here.
The Lotus Blooms
in Aotearoa
This commemorative booklet was published on the occasion of the New Zealand Buddhist Council's 10th anniversary and in conjunction with peace walks in Christchurch and Auckland. The walks were a way of expressing gratitude for the Buddhadharma, for being able to practise it freely in New Zealand, and for the many Dhamma/Dharma friendships which have grown out of the Buddhist Council’s activities over the past decade.
We are are a small volunteer organisation, and there is much more that we could do, but we have made a start on offering Buddhist communities in Aotearoa a way to connect with and support each other as we ‘hold the lotus to the rock’ in a new land.
The booklet is free but we invite you to make a donation to the New Zealand Buddhist Council.