Dear Reader,
Please welcome today's guest author Stephen Mitchell.
About the Author: Stephen was born in Brooklyn in 1943, educated at Amherst, the Sorbonne and Yale, and de-educated through intensive Zen practice. He is married to Byron Katie.
Stephen Mitchell says his gift is to breathe new life into ancient classics. In The Way of Forgiveness, he offers us his riveting novelistic version of the Biblical tale in which Jacob's favorite son is sold into slavery and eventually becomes viceroy of Egypt. Tolstoy called it the most beautiful story in the world. What's new here is the lyrical, witty, vivid prose, informed by a wisdom that brings fresh insight to this foundational legend of betrayal and all-embracing forgiveness.
Please say hello and Happy Holidays to Stephen. Your email will be forwarded to him via his publisher.
Enter today's book giveaway. Stephen has 5 copies of his book, The Way of Forgiveness to give away to 5 lucky readers.
Welcome Stephen Mitchell...
The Swordmanship Exhibition
When I was a young, ardent Zen student, sent out to begin the Cambridge Zen Center, my teacher billeted on us a master of Zen swordsmanship. Two friends of mine set up an introductory exhibition for him at MIT, hired a large hall, and plastered Cambridge with posters.
Sunday comes around: the big day. The exhibition is set for noon. Its climax will be an amazing feat by the sword master: a student will lie supine on the floor with an apple on his bare stomach; a hundred yards away, the sword master, blindfolded, will run toward the student, roll across the floor in a few sword-flashing somersaults, bring the blade slashing down, slice the apple in two, halt the sword a millimeter before its edge touches the student's flesh, turn around, take off his blindfold, and bow to the audience, now in a frenzy of relief and admiration.
At ten o'clock someone discovers that a crucial element is missing: there's no apple in the house. Panic. Pandemonium. The sword master is yelling bloody murder. Zen students rush through the house like chickens at the shadow of a hawk. Furthermore, it's Sunday and the markets are closed. I, calm and confident, take control of the situation. I will drive to Somerville, where there's a fruit and vegetable stand that's open on Sunday. I don't have a car, so my house-mate Kevin lends me his.
As I drive, I am totally focused on my mission. I think only Apple, apple.
Uh-oh, a police siren. Is it me they're after? Why? The courteous policeman tells me I've been driving 30 mph in a 25-mph zone. He asks me for my registration. I open the glove compartment. There, right up front, sits a plastic bag of marijuana. The policeman asks me to take it out and give it to him. He sniffs it and looks at me as if he were a cartoon cat and I a cartoon mouse whose tail is caught under his paw. "Is this yours?" he says. I nod. I don't want to get Kevin in trouble.
The policeman hauls me off to jail. I am allowed one call. I call the Zen Center, explain where I am and why, and tell them to get someone else over to the fruit stand, pronto, bring an apple back to the sword master, then please come bail me out.
The exhibition takes place, complete with apple, to great enthusiasm.
Six months later, my record is purged with hyssop and washed whiter than snow.
-- Stephen Mitchell
Stephen has 5 copies of his book, The Way of Forgiveness to give away to 5 lucky book club readers, click here to enter.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
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