Mass Review: Zen and the Art of Actualizing Fiction

On Wednesday, December 7, in the Paradise Room of the Smith College Conference Center, Ruth Ozeki gave a lecture titled “The Book of Form and Emptiness: Zen and the Art of Actualizing Fiction.” Provost Michael Thurston introduced the speaker, and his remarks follow here, as does Ruth Ozeki’s sabbatical report.

December 23, 2022
Mass Review | Michael Thurston and Ruth Ozeki
Zen and the Art of Actualizing Fiction

Putting Pen to Palm Leaf: Buddhism and Literature Series

Drawing on her own novels, her Zen practice and Buddhist texts, Ozeki will discuss some of the ways in which autobiographical narrative fiction might function as praxis—a way of observing, interrogating and deconstructing the “self” to perform, or act out, core Zen teachings of no-self, emptiness and depended co-arising.

Uploaded by Smith College Buddhist Studies on 2018-11-15.