The Deepest Peace

A beautiful glimpse into the daily practice of a modern contemplative, The Deepest Peace reveals moments of stunning clarity from the eyes of a Zen priest. Through silence, stillness, and practice, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel transmits how it is possible to cultivate and experience peace.

While there is suffering in the world and in each of us, there is also the possibility and the experience of peace. As Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, a Zen priest who has written at length on race, gender, sexual orientation, and homelessness, writes in the introduction: “I have testified many times of my suffering. Before I die, I must speak of peace.” The Deepest Peace is a poetic, lyrical ode to the ways contemplative practice illuminates daily life. It is at once a window into Zenju’s personal practice, and an invitation to begin our own.

“Reading this book is a profound meditation in itself. Exquisitely crafted and perfectly paced—you will feel your whole being calming down, responding with layered grace to the rich gifts offered here.”
—Naomi Shihab Nye, Young People’s Poet Laureate

“Solitude, silence, the warmth and chill of the earth, the ancientness of time held in the arms of the ancestors … such is the atmosphere of Zenju Earthlyn Manuel’s new book. Neither memoir, nor dharma teachings, nor poetry, but a lyric mixture of all of these and more, Zenju’s soothing words will bring you to tears. How much have we suffered together. How perfect it all is when we are willing to hold it in the deepest parts of our heart.”
—Norman Fischer, author of The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path