It’s Okay Not to Look for the Meaning of Life: A Zen Monk’s Guide to Living Stress-Free One Day at a Time

Zen monk Jikisai Minami takes the things we are supposed to strive for and turns them on their head. The 35 short, thought-provoking essays in this book are divided into four chapters about our sense of self, our hopes and dreams, our personal relationships and how to face death. Each essay begins with a deliberately controversial point of view to help us look at life’s problems through fresh eyes. Each chapter features a number of short, thought-provoking essays providing fresh perspectives on familiar problems that can change your life.

Jikisai Minami is a Zen monk and chief priest of the Reisenji Temple in Fukui Prefecture and head of the Osorezan Bodaiji Temple in Aomori Prefecture. After graduating from Waseda University in Tokyo, he worked at a department store, then in 1984 decided to become a priest. In that year, he entered Eiheiji, the head temple of the Soto sect of Buddhism, where he spent two decades training. After managing the Shishikurin Sanga training dojo for young priests he began writing books discussing his relationship with Buddhism and his views on life. It’s Okay Not to Look for the Meaning of Life is his most popular work to date, and the first to be translated into English.