Zen and the Art of Falling in Love
by Brenda Shoshanna, Ph.D.

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster

Pub Date:  Spring 2003 (Valentine's Day)

Format:  Hardcover and Trade Paperback

VIDEO:
If the below video embed doesn't appear, click here to view the video:

Buy it on Amazon

Publicity
* featured in Cosmopolitan in March, 2003
* reviewed in Tricycle in March, 2003
* featured in Body and Soul in Spring, 2003

Endorsements
"Dr. Shoshanna's words are wonderful!"
--Marianne Williamson

"If you are looking for a way to have happiness and still live in this world, you have come to the right book. Rarely do eloquent prose, gems of quotes, simple wisdom, and practical exercises come in one book: Zen Miracles offers all of these and more. Whatever your spiritual orientation, this is a book you will refer to for years to come."
--Lee Jampolsky, Ph.D.
author of Healing Together, Healing the Addictive Mind, and The Art of Trust

"This wonderful book brings East and West – and ancient and modern worlds – together and provides profound wisdom and guidance for anyone struggling with stress, anxiety, anger, fear or loneliness. Beautifully written, funny, warm and filled with unusual, wonderful exercises. A real miracle."
--Rabbi Gary Moskowitz
Director of the Institute for Violence Prevention

"A healing journey into the inner conflicts and contradictions that separate spirit from self."
--Armand DiMele
the DiMele Center for Psychotherapy

"Dr. Brenda Shoshanna is a versatile, creative, warm and truly excellent teacher."
--Rabbi Joseph Gelberman
founder of the Interfaith Seminary and Director of the All Faith Seminary

"Zen Miracles is a book that is invaluable for anyone seeking to bring a profound, yet genuinely joyous experience to life. Brenda Shoshanna explores the spiritual and therapeutic aspects of Zen practice in a way that is acceptable to anyone no matter what their faith, philosophy or religious beliefs. With her warm and compassionate style she exhibits the unique ability to explain even the most difficult ideas in understandable terms. Her approach is readily accessible and applicable to even the most mundane of activities. This book is a must for anyone seeking the secrets for attaining a balanced life and true peace of mind."
--Lewis Harrison
Director of the Academy of Natural Healing

"Zen Miracles is an inviting and inspiring message for those looking for a more simple and powerful way to enhance their lives and for those who want to integrate a practical way of peace in today's distorted and increasingly violent world."
--Bob Goff
NY Naturally

Reviews
"This is relationship, samurai style, as we are systematically led along the path from "becoming available" to "meeting the beloved."...Shoshanna studied with the zen masters Soen Nakagawa Roshi and Eido Shimano Roshi; the rigor of traditional monastic training shines through the spare language and format.  Aspects of Zen training that can be controversial or confounding are presented matter-of-factly....The reader can just follow the "Steppingstones to Love" in each chapter--small actions that, like consistent meditation practice, lead incrementally to awareness.  For those with love issues--isn't that most of us, at one time or another?--Shoshanna holds out the redemptive possibilities of practice."
--Tricycle Magazine

"To find love, take off your shoes, sit on a cushion and do nothing, advises the author of Zen Miracles. These and 10 other Zen-based practices, Shoshanna says, will help prepare you to receive love, and, eventually, to build lasting, meaningful relationships. Each Zen instruction is like "a metaphor for our entire lives": consciously taking off our shoes teaches us about mindfulness; sitting quietly on a cushion allows us to get to know ourselves and our patterns of behavior; doing nothing helps us learn to let go of our need to control things and people. Shoshanna goes on to explain how other practices, from cooking to "struggling with your koan," also help us find our way to being in love, "our natural state." For readers seeking hands-on, practical advice for romantic rejuvenation, Shoshanna's guide may feel as weightless as the smoke rising from the nearest incense burner: there are no chapters on the Zen method to approaching that office crush, or dating someone who already has children, for example. But readers searching for broader meaning will revel in her ability to weave together the basic tenets of relationship psychology with the self-realization techniques of Zen practice. Nor is Shoshanna's advice limited to affairs of the heart; much of her counsel-to be open, loving and full of faith-feels relevant to all aspects of life."
--Publishers Weekly

"The wonderful, ancient practice of Zen is actually the practice of falling in love," says Shoshanna in this how-to guide. Lesson One: Take off your shoes. "Day by day, build a relationship with your shoes. Value and care for them. See how they feel the next morning when you put them on again." It's a matter of zendo, she explains, "we must first open up and let go of that which we cling to."
--The Ottawa Citizen, February 9, 2003 Sunday Edition

"There's some good, solid advice here that just might help the lovelorn break some of their destructive patterns and connect the dots as to why true love is always passing them by."
--St. Petersburg Times, February 13, 2003

"Falling in love doesn't mean being blind or entering into fantasy," says Brenda Shoshanna, author of Zen and the Art of Falling in Love. "It means waking up out of darkened dreams to finally see the beauty that surrounds us." Sounds good."
--Chicago Sun Times, February 7, 2003

"Will help prepare you to receive love and eventually build lasting, meaningful relationships."
--The Bookseller (McNally Robinson)

[for Zen Miracles]

"It's virtually axiomatic now that America has its own brand of Zen Buddhism, and the author of this skilled volume proves the point. Shoshanna is a Hasidic Jew who has been both practicing zazen and maintaining a psychotherapy practice for more than 25 years. Here she weaves a fine tapestry out of these splendid, assorted threads. Five sections ("Getting Started," "Cravings and Compulsions," "Letting Go," Dissolving the False Self" and "Zen, God and Enlightenment") use traditional Buddhist and contemporary American stories and quotes and lucid prose to invite anyone and everyone down Zen's calming, clarifying garden path. These forms are supplemented by both provocative koans and "Zen in Action" exercises at the conclusion of each of the 18 short chapters. The last chapter, "Zen and God," might well have been placed first, since it elucidates the neutrality of Zen that can make it completely compatible with other institutionalized or personalized beliefs. This book has less to do with the mechanics of sitting and more to do with the realities of integrating Zen practice into real life. Shoshanna extends an empty and richly filled hand, offering both the sublime and the practical, which are one and the same in the Zen world. This is a highly recommended volume for beginners and new practitioners who are coming to the truth that "to find the answers to your life questions, you must look within. Nothing less will do. Nothing more is needed."'(Apr.) Forecast: Shoshanna is the "relationships expert" on ivillage.com, which should help with the strategic marketing of this title.
--Publishers Weekly

Dr. Shoshanna challenges us to let go of fantasies, expectations, fears and anticipation so we can be fully present to life. Her wisdom is genuine and deeply considered. Her book is well worth reading.
--Spiritual Parenting


Full Description
          ZEN AND THE ART OF FALLING IN LOVE will be the first and only book to deal specifically with Zen practice as it is applied to the ability to fall in love and stay that way, and the first book to contrast the Zen approach to love with the usual psychological approaches.
          Zen and love are incredibly compatible, and the wonderful, ancient practice of Zen is actually the practice of falling in love. ZEN AND THE ART OF FALLING IN LOVE will offer a paradigm shift, a completely different way of looking at love. Based on 13 steps, each chapter will be structured around a different step in Zen practice.
          Providing contrast will be the psychological approach to relationships and to love. Readers will learn new means of dealing with the usual trouble spots in relationships, such as miscommunication, lies, betrayal, jealousy, insecurity, boredom, feelings of worthlessness, loss and disappointment. As readers look at these issues through the eyes of Zen practice, they will receive life-changing perspectives. Each chapter will conclude with unique processes for practicing these principles in everyday life. Poems, Zen stories, quotes by the Masters, experiences of other Zen students, anecdotes and examples will be dispersed throughout.
          If the sales of other books in this genre are any indication (IF THE BUDDHA DATED—over 100,000 copies sold), ZEN AND THE ART OF FALLING IN LOVE will find a huge, waiting audience.

About the Author
          Dr. Brenda Shoshanna, Ph.D., is in a unique position to write this book. She is one of the few people who is both a long term Zen practitioner and teacher (over 28 years), and also a psychologist specializing in relationships (in private practice for over 24 years, and the Relationship Expert on iVillage.com). She is author of many books, including ZEN MIRACLES (John Wiley, 2002), WHY MEN LEAVE (Putnam/Perigee, 1998) (profiled in Cosmopolitan and Mademoiselle and on ABC-TV and NBC-TV), WHAT HE CAN'T TELL YOU (AND NEEDS TO SAY) (Putnam/Perigee, 2001). Her books have been translated into French, Polish, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Bulgarian. She appears frequently on national television (ABC-TV, NBC-TV, CBS-TV), in national print (Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle), and in major venues online (iVillage.com, Barnes & Noble University).

World Rights:  Contact Lukeman

Dramatic Rights:  Contact Lukeman