Blowing Zen
Regular price
€32.50
An uplifting story of the quest for an authentic life, and an insightful travel memoir exploring Japan, India, and the UK . Living in London, Ray Brooks, an outwardly successful but dissolute young man, is troubled by despair and lack of meaning. He travels to Tokyo to find himself, and fortuitously discovers the shakuhachi, an extremely difficult, ancient Japanese bamboo flute. He dedicates himself to mastering it, and his story becomes a passionate example of living in the present.
Ray Brooks, a British musician, composer, writer and teacher, is internationally known in the world of shakuhachi music. He has studied with Japanese shakuhachi masters, learned to play a variety of wind instruments (such as the Balinese Suling flute), mastered circular breathing under the tutelage of Tibetan monks, and studied tabla with an Indian master. He has held small solo shakuhachi concerts in Zen temples throughout Japan and has performed with Akikazu Nakamura, Japan's premier flute player. Ray has been interviewed by NHK television in Japan and various radio stations in Canada and Europe. He gives workshops in breath work, speaks about the effect of Zen on his life, and performs concerts at Zen centers, Buddhist gatherings, universities, music academies, and spiritual centers throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and Canada. His most recent CD, entitled Hollow Bell, on the New Albion label, includes all the pieces of music mentioned in Blowing Zen. An avid traveler, Ray has journeyed throughout the Far East, walked the world's highest valley in the Himalayas, and trekked through the mountains of Northern India and Nepal. He now lives in Victoria, B.C. with his wife, Dianne.