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Opening to Oneness

A Practical and Philosophical Guide to the Zen Precepts

by Nancy Mujo Baker

Narrator Kathleen Li

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Length 6 hours 17 minutes

Language English

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Summary
About the author
About the narrator

In Opening to Oneness, Zen teacher Nancy Baker offers a detailed path of practice for Zen students planning to take the precepts and for anyone, Buddhist or non-Buddhist, interested in deepening their personal study of ethical living. She reveals that there are three levels of each precept: a literal level (don't kill, not even a bug), a relative level that takes moral ambiguity into account (what if it's a malaria-spreading mosquito?), and an ultimate level—the paradoxical level of nonduality, in which the precepts are naturally expressed from a state of oneness.

Full of nuance, intelligence, and compassion, the first half of the book addresses the ten grave precepts mostly from the relative level, including instructions for how to practice these precepts individually and in pairs or groups. The second half of the book takes a deep dive into looking at the precepts from the ultimate perspective, largely through an exploration of the writings of Dogen, the thirteenth-century religious genius who founded the Soto Zen school.

At once comprehensive and innovative, Opening to Oneness will take its place alongside classics like The Mind of Clover, The Heart of Being, and Being Upright as a cherished guide to Zen Buddhist ethics.

Religion Science & Technology Philosophy

Nancy Mujo Baker is the founding teacher of the No Traces Sangha in the lineage of Maezumi Roshi's White Plum Asanga. A Dharma successor to Bernie Glassman, she is among the first fully empowered lay Soto Zen teachers. She is professor emerita of philosophy at Sarah Lawrence College, where she taught for more than forty years. She lives in New York City.

Kathleen Li is an Asian American narrator whose parents are from Taiwan. She has a warm, engaging, and empathetic voice that lends itself equally to YA, fantasy, historical fiction, and self-help audiobooks, as well as to other genres. She has also voiced characters in several audio dramas, including Doctor Who: The Voice of Reason, Seminar, and Pod to Pluto. Kathleen lives in Austin, Texas, where she sometimes slips into a Texas twang. When she's not in her booth narrating, you can find her learning to play violin, doing water aerobics, or cheering on her son's high school marching band.