Robert Aitken

Miniatures of a Zen Master

For more than four decades, Robert Aitken Roshi has taught thousands of people the Buddhist practice of Zen meditation, and has led hundreds through their practice of the study of traditional koans. He has authored more than a dozen books, including a celebrated appreciation of Basho's haiku; volumes of commentary on sacred texts; works on ethics, daily life, and social action; and one of the best–loved introductions to Zen Buddhism, Taking the Path of Zen. After a long and remarkable life—he will be 91 years old when this collection is published—Aitken Roshi offers a collection of 266 short texts. Some are clearly parables; others are simple stories, quotations, memories, and commentaries. Resembling Benjamin Franklin's Almanac or the epigrams of Chamfort as much as it does work from ancient sages, this collection of "miniatures" distills a life devoted to teaching and awareness. Any person living a considered life, whether secular humanist or religious seeker, will find this a book of rich inspiration.

The Morning Star

New and Selected Zen Writings

Having practiced zazen for more than half a century, Robert Aitken sits today as the senior American Roshi, a teacher of broad reputation and consequence, who numbers as his own teachers and associates some of the legendary figures of Japanese and American Buddhism. His serendipitous beginning as a Buddhist resulted from being a civilian prisoner of the Japanese in the Second World War, where he found R. R. Blythe, the great haiku master, and D.T. Suzuki, the most important and popular chronicler of Zen in English, as fellow detainees. After the war he returned to Japan on several occasions to study in traditional monastic settings. He has been a leader of the contemporary move to establish Zen Buddhism in the West and was a founding member of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.



With material never before collected in book form, The Morning Star includes writings from his first book, A Zen Wave, and from eight collections of essays and poems published over the last three decades. The introduction to this volume offers Robert Aitken's latest presentation of Zen practice, addressing the Great Matter from a historical and personal perspective.

Original Dwelling Place

Zen Buddhist Essays

In this collection of twenty-three essays, Robert Aitken retraces the origins of American Zen Buddhism and provides readings of influential texts.

Reflecting on death, on marriage, and on Zen practice, Aitken always points out the path to pleasure in the everyday dewdrop world. There is a fine art to presenting complex ideas with simplicity and insight in a manner that both shepherds and inspires. Robert Aitken's Original Dwelling Place: Zen Buddhist Essays succeeds in doing just this, offering twenty-three essays from Americas senior Zen roshi and author of the bestselling, groundbreaking primer Taking the Path of Zen.

Just as Taking the Path of Zen is the definitive handbook for Zen practice, the essays gathered in Original Dwelling Place are essential for the light they shed on Aitken Roshi's own journey and the effect he has had on American Zen Buddhism. Gathered here are essays about the Zen texts Aitken has studied with avidity and close attention throughout the years; texts that were early and lasting influences.

The River of Heaven

The Haiku of Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki

“In this, his final work, American senior Zen Roshi Robert Aitken lovingly ties together two threads, Zen practice and haiku.” —Spirituality & Health

Known to many as the study of quiet stillness and introspection, Zen Buddhism distinguishes itself through brilliant flashes of insight and its terseness of expression. In River of Heaven these concepts and pillars lend themselves to an exploration of Haiku, one of the most delicate and interpretive poetic forms in the world. The haiku verse form, with its rigid structure and organic description is a superb means of studying Zen modes of thought because its seventeen syllables impose a limitation that confines the poet to vital experience. In Haiku as in Buddhism, the silences are as expressive as the words.

In this volume, American Senior Zen Roshi Robert Aitken gives new insight into Haiku by poetic masters Basho, Issa, Buson, and Shiki. In presenting themes from Haiku and from Zen literature, Aitken illuminates the relationship between the two. Readers are certain to find this an invaluable and enjoyable experience for the remarkable revelation it offers.

“I am grateful for Robert Aitken’s enthusiastic sharing of poems in The River of Heaven, together with his rich personal and cultural perspectives. It is a book where the author joyfully calls each of us as readers to share in the transcendent joys of haiku.” —Juxtapositions

“Aitken mines the meanings in these brief gems about nature, impermanence, travel, awareness, silence, beauty, being present, the turn of the seasons, and much more.” —Spirituality & Practice