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Two Evenings with
Norman Fischer

Conflict

A reading and celebration of Norman Fischer's new book of poetry
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Laurel Forum, Karpen Hall
UNC Asheville

God, Sin, Pain, Song & Jewish Meditation: A Talk

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 7:00 pm
Wilma M. Sherrill Center, Mountain View Room
SHE 417, UNC Asheville

Both Programs are Free and Open to the Public

Norman Fischer is a poet and Zen Buddhist priest. For many years he has taught at the San Francisco Zen Center, the oldest and largest of the new Buddhist organizations in the West, where he served as Co-abbot from 1995-2000. He is presently a Senior Dharma Teacher there as well as the founder and spiritual director of the Everyday Zen Foundation, an organization dedicated to adapting Zen Buddhist teachings to Western culture.

Among his many books are Taking Our Places: the Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up; Sailing Home: Using Homer’s Odyssey to Navigate Life's Perils and Pitfalls, Opening to You: Zen-inspired Translations of the Psalms, and numerous books of poetry, including Precisely the Point Being Made, Slowly but Dearly, and I Was Blown Back. He is also the author of Jerusalem Moonlight, a prose memoir about Judaism and Buddhism.

Norman Fischer has been particularly interested in the application of Zen to issues of Western culture and everyday life in the world. His Zen essays on topics ranging from racism to monasticism to romance appear frequently in Tricycle, Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma and have been included in every issue so far of the annual Best Buddhist Writing. In addition to his regular work at Zen Center, and with Everyday Zen, he has taught extensively, with his old friend, the late Rabbi Alan Lew, on the relationship between Buddhist and Jewish practice.  He is the co-founder, with Rabbi Lew, Makor Or Jewish Meditation Center in San Francisco.
Of his talk God, Sin, Pain, Song, and Jewish Meditation, Norman Fischer writes, “in our time religion needs to be re-thought.  The practice of silent meditation is a good basis for this re-thinking, because silence creates a larger inner space than doctrine or belief can fill.  Under the influence of silence, how would we understand God, sin, and prayer in Jewish terms?

Conflict, Norman Fischer’s recently published book-length poem, is an exploration of conflict in all its forms—conflict built into the mind and the nature of thought; conflict within the self; conflict between friends, lovers, communities, nations; war; torture.

Norman Fischer: Teachings on Judaism and Jewish Meditation

Norman  Fischer: Books and Poetry

Upcoming Events

Johnny Cash in the Holy Land: Christian Zionism and American Popular Culture; a talk by Shalom Goldman
Monday, March 12, 2012 at 7:30 pm