Seen by many as a contemporary classic, Janwillem van de Wetering’s small and admirable memoir records the experiences of a young Dutch studentlater a widely celebrated mystery writerwho spent a year and a half as a novice monk in a Japanese Zen Buddhist monastery. As Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, author ofCutting Through Spiritual Materialism, has written,The Empty Mirror“should be very encouraging for other Western seekers.”

It is the first book in a trilogy that continues withA Glimpse of NothingnessandAfterzen.