The Light Inside the Dark: Zen, Soul, and the Spiritual Life

To accept Tarrant's invitation to search for ""the light inside the dark"" is to become swept up in a torrent of evocative and lyrical images which move seamlessly from the mythology of ancient Greece through the humorous asceticism of Zen masters to the passionate pain of modern psychotherapeutic patients. Tarrant, director of a Zen training group called the California Diamond Sangha, shows us how, through the Zen path, our souls can find insight and relief. Like Zen koans, Tarrant's stories of Zen students and his psychotherapy patients draw attention to questions we barely sense in ourselves. Tarrant's Haiku-like style relies on the juxtaposition of opposites, like light and dark, drawn from our day-to-day fears and joys, our nightly terrors and morning doubts, and the rich cultural myths of Eastern and Western religions. Tarrant's book is at once an intimate story of one man's struggle for meaning and a guide to the joys of the spiritual journey. (Sept.)