Orient - by David Hinton (Paperback)

About the Book

"Orient combines personal experience with Tao/Ch'an philosophical thinking in two parts: exploring Ch'an mind as empty and mirror-deep and as unborn and moving with wu-wei spontaneity"--

Book Synopsis

Join renowned author David Hinton on two walks into the wild beauty and archaeological ruins of the desert Southwest, where he maps the edges of consciousness and our place in the Cosmos.

Walks in the desert and journeys through Ch'an (Zen) enlightenment. Meditations on the nature of perception and on the nature of ruins. Topographies of mind and of space-time. Poetry and prose. This talismanic book is all of these and more.

In this poetic odyssey of nature writing that blurs the line between observer and landscape, Hinton's project is nothing less than to map our place in the cosmos and awaken to our interconnectedness with the wild spontaneity of the natural world. It is the culmination of Hinton's philosophical adventure, deeply informed by his nearly forty years of translating and contemplating China's ancient poets, Taoist sages, and Ch'an masters. Like Henry David Thoreau and other great literary walkers, Hinton joins philosophical meditations with a keen eye for the slightest of nature's details. In following these walks, we journey into wondrous and even ecstatic clarities about the nature of mind and existence itself.

Review Quotes

Praise for Orient

"Enchanting. . . . This mesmerizes."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A poetic thesis of [Hinton's] 40 years immersed in Chinese philosophy [and] a metaphysical travel guide to stepping outside Western beliefs."
--Seven Days

"Unique and insightful. . . . A book that could have been written only by someone like Hinton, whose decades immersed in the poetry, philosophy, and literature of Chan have afforded a unique perspective and understanding. Reading Orient feels like walking alongside the author on his journey."
--Buddhadharma

Praise for David Hinton

"Hinton is after . . . depth and boundlessness."
--The New York Review of Books

"A national treasure . . . Hinton cracks open the cosmos and takes you into the depths of the mind."
--Lion's Roar

About the Author

DAVID HINTON has published numerous books of poetry and
essays and many translations of ancient Chinese poetry and philosophy--all informed by an abiding interest in deep ecological thinking. This widely acclaimed work has earned Hinton a Guggenheim Fellowship, numerous fellowships from NEA and NEH, and both of the major awards given for poetry translation in the United States: the Landon Translation Award (Academy of American Poets) and the PEN American Translation Award. Most recently, Hinton received a lifetime achievement award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.