Bad Dog!: A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places
What would happen if, instead of bolting your doors against the intrusion of demons you invited them in?

Bad Dog! is a vivid testament to the unforeseen love, beauty, and redemption discovered in the most difficult times and places. It reads like a collection of closely linked short stories (think JD Salinger) but is in fact a work of literary nonfiction (think Robert Fulgham, or Augusten Burroughs). Bad Dog! will appeal to anyone who has fallen into dark places and wants to climb back into the light.

With quietly crafted poetic language of a quality rarely seen in spiritual books, Lin Jensen tells the stories of his remarkably difficult life: his tumultuous early years on a struggling Midwestern turkey farm, his failed marriage, and the search for meaning that led him eventually to become a Zen teacher. The raw and earthy lessons of Bad Dog! cut to the quick with an understated power, and the reader is left at the end of each chapter subtly transformed, able to reflect more deeply and more fruitfully on the struggles of our own lives. Lin Jensen's writing has rare poetic and literary merit.

Lin Jensen received the Best Nonfiction/Spiritual Book award from Today's Librarian for his previous book, Uncovering the Wisdom of the Heartmind. He has taught writing in various colleges and universities for over twenty years, and continues to teach Buddhist ethics and practices at Chico State University. He is the founding teacher and senior teacher emeritus of the Chico Zen Sangha, in Chico, California, where he lives with his wife.
"1112696756"
Bad Dog!: A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places
What would happen if, instead of bolting your doors against the intrusion of demons you invited them in?

Bad Dog! is a vivid testament to the unforeseen love, beauty, and redemption discovered in the most difficult times and places. It reads like a collection of closely linked short stories (think JD Salinger) but is in fact a work of literary nonfiction (think Robert Fulgham, or Augusten Burroughs). Bad Dog! will appeal to anyone who has fallen into dark places and wants to climb back into the light.

With quietly crafted poetic language of a quality rarely seen in spiritual books, Lin Jensen tells the stories of his remarkably difficult life: his tumultuous early years on a struggling Midwestern turkey farm, his failed marriage, and the search for meaning that led him eventually to become a Zen teacher. The raw and earthy lessons of Bad Dog! cut to the quick with an understated power, and the reader is left at the end of each chapter subtly transformed, able to reflect more deeply and more fruitfully on the struggles of our own lives. Lin Jensen's writing has rare poetic and literary merit.

Lin Jensen received the Best Nonfiction/Spiritual Book award from Today's Librarian for his previous book, Uncovering the Wisdom of the Heartmind. He has taught writing in various colleges and universities for over twenty years, and continues to teach Buddhist ethics and practices at Chico State University. He is the founding teacher and senior teacher emeritus of the Chico Zen Sangha, in Chico, California, where he lives with his wife.
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Bad Dog!: A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places

Bad Dog!: A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places

by Lin Jensen
Bad Dog!: A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places

Bad Dog!: A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places

by Lin Jensen

eBook

$11.99 

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Overview

What would happen if, instead of bolting your doors against the intrusion of demons you invited them in?

Bad Dog! is a vivid testament to the unforeseen love, beauty, and redemption discovered in the most difficult times and places. It reads like a collection of closely linked short stories (think JD Salinger) but is in fact a work of literary nonfiction (think Robert Fulgham, or Augusten Burroughs). Bad Dog! will appeal to anyone who has fallen into dark places and wants to climb back into the light.

With quietly crafted poetic language of a quality rarely seen in spiritual books, Lin Jensen tells the stories of his remarkably difficult life: his tumultuous early years on a struggling Midwestern turkey farm, his failed marriage, and the search for meaning that led him eventually to become a Zen teacher. The raw and earthy lessons of Bad Dog! cut to the quick with an understated power, and the reader is left at the end of each chapter subtly transformed, able to reflect more deeply and more fruitfully on the struggles of our own lives. Lin Jensen's writing has rare poetic and literary merit.

Lin Jensen received the Best Nonfiction/Spiritual Book award from Today's Librarian for his previous book, Uncovering the Wisdom of the Heartmind. He has taught writing in various colleges and universities for over twenty years, and continues to teach Buddhist ethics and practices at Chico State University. He is the founding teacher and senior teacher emeritus of the Chico Zen Sangha, in Chico, California, where he lives with his wife.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780861719082
Publisher: Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date: 05/01/2014
Sold by: SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format: eBook
Pages: 288
File size: 1 MB

About the Author

Lin Jensen is the critically acclaimed author of the memoir Bad Dog! A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places and Pavement: Reflections on Mercy, Activism, and Doing "Nothing" for Peace. His first book, Uncovering the Wisdom of the Heartmind, received the Best Nonfiction/Spiritual Book award from Today's Librarian. His prose that has been likened to Steinbeck, and his wonderfully poetic writing has made him one of the most beloved of modern Buddhist writers. He has taught writing in various colleges and universities for over twenty years, and continues to teach Buddhist ethics and practices at Chico State University. He is the founding teacher and senior emeritus teacher of the Chico Zen Sangha, in Chico, California, where he lives with his wife.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgmentsix
Dust and Feathers: An Introduction1
Bad Dog!8
The Duck Pen14
The Killing Shed20
Vestments28
The Catching Crate36
The Sweetness of Making Beds44
The Debeaking Machine50
The Egg Barn59
Venetian Blinds65
Lucy71
Harness78
Ditha83
The High Cost of Justice88
Hunch94
Esther Shepherd101
Rocks106
Too Much109
Daughter Crying on the Mountain119
Limit123
Paths131
Mother's Last Chess Game136
Margie's Room139
Peregrine Falcon Watch145
The Song Not Heard151
Real Estate153
Zen157
Empty Fields163
The Mind of the Mountain166
I Speak for My Father170
Shaking Down181
Window Birds184
Maintenance187
Noise192
Night Talk196
Bicycling198
Seeing205
Swallowing209
Harmony Creek214
Lifeguard219
Swimming Lessons222
The Bidwell Park Goats225
Things229
The Questioner233
Eclipse236
Not-My-Cat240
The Jury Room243
The Cry of a Fawn250
Gathering256
Redemption: An Epilogue263

What People are Saying About This

Ellen Birx

"A hauntingly honest reminder to open our hearts and fully appreciate life and death."
co-author of Waking Up Together

Keith Kachtick

"Compellingly beautiful... a reading experience that is both gut-wrenching and inspiring."
author of Hungry Ghost

Thomas Moore

"Simply the best book on the wisdom of living that I have seen in many years."
author of Care of the Soul

Christopher Moore

''Like something Steinbeck might have written had he been a Buddhist, and I can pay an author no higher compliment"
author of The Stupidest Angel

Stephen Batchelor

"An exquisite work of alarming lucidity"
author of Living with the Devil

Sylvia Boorstein

"Jensen demonstrates, through his own clarity, that seeing the world as it actually is means being fully alive."
author of Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist

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