Autumn Light - by Edwina Norton (Paperback)

About the Book

Autumn Light: My Fifty Years in Zen is an artfully told memoir of one woman's lived experience of Zen Buddhism as it took root in America. The author weaves Zen teachings and practices into her personal story, recounting how they guided her through life's challenges into a peaceful old age.

Book Synopsis

Autumn Light: My Fifty Years in Zen is an artfully told memoir of one woman's lived experience of Zen Buddhism as it took root in America. The author weaves Zen teachings and practices into her personal story, recounting how they guided her through life's challenges into a peaceful old age.

Review Quotes

Norton's spiritual biography stands out for its realism, subtlety, and depth. With the perspective of eight decades on the planet and her work with several generations of Zen teachers over the last four, Norton shows us how to enter into a deep relationship with our lives and conditioning and come out the other side with wisdom and grace. This journey is neither easy nor simple, but it's inspiringly, and challengingly, real. Highly recommended for all of us as we become ready to engage in the real work of growing up.

Over many years of Zen practice I have come to feel that Buddhist enlightenment is nothing more or less than being a normal functioning person, capable of living a full human life right to the end. It turns out that this simple normal thing is actually rare; and that it takes some doing. In Autumn Light: My Fifty Years in Zen, Edie Norton, Zen priest, shows us her long life of enduring what time and the world will do to you, and how, through the simple process of paying honest attention to what happens, while maintaining the disciplined practice of sitting in the silence of the purely present moment, an ordinary person can come to great wisdom and compassion. Especially moving is Edie's detailed description (by far the longest part of her story, though it occupies only three months of her life) of her monastic training period at Tassajara Zen monastery, a place I know very well; it is the best and most thorough description of what happens there that I have ever read. I am so moved by this book. I know you will be too. Thank you, Edie!

About the Author

Edwina Norton is a painter, published poet, and peace activist. She holds B.A. and M.A. degrees, taught English in community college, and had a long career in organizational development. Now an ordained Zen priest, she mentors Zen students in the Red Cedar Zen Community.