Zen Baby

""Zen means meditation, babies mean Zen,"" charges Adler (the author of Zen Dog and a self-identified ""soul coach""). It's hard not to find a book whose essence embraces babies in all their Zen-like innocence (and in all their cutest poses) appealing; after all, babies can tug at the heartstrings with the merest smile or coo. But there's little that this small publication offers beyond sweet pictures of strangers' babies. While Coughlin's photos of tykes in endearing poses are charming, the maxims that accompany them (one per picture) are familiar and unenlightening. (There's Yogi Berra's ""In baseball, you don't know nothing,"" juxtaposed with Master Baek's ""See everyone as a Buddha."") Claiming that adults reap infinitely more from babies than vice versa, the introduction strays dangerously close to condescending psychobabble with observations such as ""Not only do they hold our world in their hands, but they are also gracious enough to share their world with us."" As an impulse buy, this will likely be a hit (especially as a gift for the new mother), but those searching for substance should look elsewhere.