Zen in the Age of Anxiety

Wisdom for Navigating Our Modern Lives

By: Tim Burkett, Wanda Isle - editor

Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Carol Monda

Zen wisdom for identifying the causes of mental and emotional anxiety epidemic in today's world and for finding the path to a peaceful heart in the midst of them--a path that leads directly though the center of the anxiety we're trying to escape.

Wrestling with fear doesn't have to be a negative experience. This book offers an approach to life that unlocks a new way of thinking and being in the world, one that leads directly through the center of the anxieties we seek to avoid.

Written in the style of an owner's manual, a guide to being human, Burkett focuses on areas of pain and anxiety as they tend to manifest for modern people: feelings of unworthiness, and issues surrounding sex, money, failure, and even death. Providing wisdom from Zen (channeled through his many experiences as a psychotherapist) and using language and metaphors from popular culture, he takes anxiety and teaches us to turn those fears into the building blocks of a fulfilling life.

Bring Balance to an Unbalanced Culture

Have you ever felt disenchanted with the seemingly skewed priorities in some cultures? What has happened to caring and enjoying family and friends in a wholesome, loving capacity? Why all the negative news and fighting among politicians? This book provides perspectives on life that may help one achieve a bit more balance and appreciation of what truly matters as well as thought processes and tools to achieve greater contentment.

Some good parts

There were some great parts especially in the early chapters. He lost me when he started talking about the constitution? But I am now a little more interested in meditation, than I was before.

Odd tangents

The book starts of strong dissecting modern American society and interpreting it through the teaching is Suzuki Roshi and others. Some of the tangents in the middle of the book are odd and engaged with too long. The narrator lacked inflection making it difficult to listen to.