Complete Guide to Buddhist America

You're visiting New York and you'd like to sit with a local meditation group? No problem. New to Saskatoon and looking for Buddhist companions? No problem. Searching for a retreat center as far away as you can get from home? No problem. Just crack open The Complete Guide to Buddhist America and you're halfway to your destination. Don Morreale has managed to compile a database of over a thousand Buddhist meditation centers throughout the United States and Canada, including for each a capsule description, address, phone, e- mail, lineage, spiritual head, date established, facilities, publications, meditation program, and retreats offered. And it is more than just a yellow pages of American Buddhism. Morreale has gathered together numerous essays by masters and by regular practitioners to get their take on this specific Zen center or that particular sangha. In fact, these pieces are so full of personal insight that they are worth the price of the book, themselves. Add on the half- page summaries of organizations like DharmaNet International, Zen Hospice Project, and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, and you've got a priceless encyclopedia of American Zen. --Brian Bruya