Gary Snyder and Nelson Foster discuss "Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn"

Diesel, A Bookstore in Larkspur welcomes poet Gary Snyder and Zen teacher Nelson Foster to present and discuss Zen master Hakuin Zenji’s newly translated works, Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn, on Sunday, November 16th at 3pm.

Hakuin Ekaku Zenji (1686-1769) was one of the greatest Zen masters ever to live. Originator of the famous koan “What is the sound of a single hand?” he is credited with reviving the Rinzai sect of Zen in Japan, and today all masters of that sect trace their lineage back to him. Through his numerous descendants, his influence is now felt worldwide, with his “Song of Zazen” chanted daily in temples around the globe. This collection gathers together an enormous number and variety of pieces--commentaries, memorials, poems, koans, teisho (lectures), letters, and more.

Gary Snyder won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975, and was a finalist for The National Book Award in 1992 and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2006. He won the Bollingen Prize in poetry, the Kirsch Lifetime Achievement Award, the John Hay Award, and most recently the Wallace Stevens Prize in 2012. He has lived in his homestead in the Sierra foothills of the Sierra Nevada since 1970.

Nelson Foster has studied Zen for 25 years and teaches it, as a layman, at Diamond Sangha centers in California and Hawaii.