Human Cycles

Anton M. Somlai

"Our human lives mirror this blue planet's cyclical nature." -Tony Somlai, Human Cycles

Human Cycles is a collection of articles Master Teacher Anton Somlai wrote over 10 years for the Root & Branch, the monthly newsletter of the Original Root Zen Center in Racine, Wisconsin. The book is divided thematically by season beginning with new growth in spring, the full bloom of summer, the decay of autumn and the regenerative season of winter.

Here is an excerpt from the essay "Connect the Dots":

"If you know of one suffering person or being on this planet you are not separate from their suffering. You must respond. That is your true nature. If you do not respond, that suffering is now inside of you. That suffering has now become yours. However, if you help them attain their ability to help others, their energy, their true nature will also help you. You help, you receive help. You create suffering and you get suffering. Nature is wonderful in its ability to completely reflect whatever occurs. Your job is simple. Connect the dots."

$19.95 (includes shipping), 275 pages

Anton M. Somlai

"Many human beings on this planet are clueless as to why they have appeared. They seek personal comfort and believe this world was created to meet their needs.

The following are a collage of possibilities. You can use each one as a gate to deepen the questions about your purpose in life. Each section simply points to one more part of the map you may want to use in this journey. Some you will keep, some will be discarded, that will be your choice." -Anton Somlai, Finding Your Direction

Finding Your Direction is a collection of teachings designed to help you gain the tools to deeply at the actions of your life. The book offers a 49-day retreat. Anton Somlai draws on 40 years of Zen Buddhist practice to share spiritual insights in a direct language that cuts to the heart of what it means to be a human being. You are love. You can do something.

$12.95 

Be The Way

Anton M. Somlai

Be The Way, a new book by ORZC Abbot Tony Somlai, is now available through Dragon Mountain Press. Be The Way is a collection of teachings and stories that point to the way back home. The 161-page coil-bound book is divided into four sections: Pay Attention: See the Way; Acceptance: Receive the Way; Action: Practice the Way; and, Authentic: Be the Way.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction:

Be the Way is a guide to the way back home, where it all began. The words on these pages communicate what you already know, how to function as a loving and kind person. At ORZC we call that kind of person "authentic" because their direction is clear in helping others find freedom from suffering. An "authentic" person is no longer lost or confused because they are on a path of happiness.

Please read this book knowing full well that you have a choice between happiness or suffering. The decision is based on whether you believe life is empty and missing something or full and lacking nothing. The decision is yours. However, reflect on what life would look like if you no longer wanted or needed so much. Be the Way is a simple request to act like a Buddha: an authentic and caring person dedicating their life to the happiness of all beings.

Be the Way is available through Dragon Mountain Press. It is $17.95 (includes shipping and handling).

 

Peace Vigil

Living Without Hesitation

Anton M. Somlai

This personal collection of 108 peace paths, published by Dragon Mountain Press, is a guide to finding happiness now by connecting with peace energy in everyday life. Anton Somlai draws on 40 years of contemplative and community practices to offer readers an open-hearted way to connecting with their true nature. Each day includes teachings and "homework" for readers to put gained insights into action.

Peace Vigil offers a simple, direct approach to living without hesitation. While Dr. Somlai draws on his Zen Buddhist practice to offer insights into peace, the book itself was written for people of all faiths and backgrounds. Actually, it was written just for people seeking a peaceful life filled with happiness. 

Here's a sample: 

Day #4: Serene

 

Each moment

is the beginning

of a new life.

This is hope;

peaceful and serene.

 

To find peace is good karma.  To give peace is clear karma.  To be peace is serenity.

 

Violence is contagious when people are not thinking clearly.  Communities that deviate from loving-kindness are imprisoned in chaos and stress.  True happiness will never appear as long as others suffer.  Worse yet, this type of community will decay and eventually implode creating even greater misery.  In this moment you can do something to change the pain created by society.  Dedicate your life to extinguishing suffering.  Serenity appears when every moment focuses on the hope of peace.

 

MOMENT: Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind.  There you have it.  These are the tools that lead to peace and serenity.  What have you done with these tools today?  Take out a piece of paper and identify how you can use each tool for peace tomorrow.  Now your future is hopeful.  Do this every day for the rest of the peace vigil and taste the serenity that comes from moments of hope.

Peace Vigil, from Dragon Mountain Press, takes readers on a 108-day journey toward a life of peace. You are swimming in peace energy, you just have to attain what is inherently yours. The beautiful thing about peace is its simplicity, as Dr. Somlai demonstrates throughout Peace Vigil. Take a walk and observe nature, call a friend, make a list of loving-kindness actions you can do today or hold a "peace picnic." They are everyday actions that lead to joy.

Peace is simple, but in our stressed out, day-to-day lives we can all use help in taking a breath and reconnecting with our peaceful nature. Peace Vigil is a written meditation that serves as a map back to serenity. Ready to try a new way to ease suffering and find happiness? Commit today to starting your peace vigil. 

Praise for Anton Somlai's Peace Vigil 

There’s a maxim for writing good history that goes something like: “go there, do it, write it.” Anton Somlai, author, master teacher and onetime Abbot of the Original Root Zen Center in Racine, Wisconsin, has applied a similar approach to his new book of guided meditative practices for living the path of peace, Peace Vigil.

Anton has “gone there,” that is, he has examined carefully and lived deeply into the heart that seeks the path of peace. He has “done it,” that is, he has practiced what he preaches, and now shares with us over a hundred “exercises” for bringing loving-kindness more fully into the world.

I have long appreciated the Buddhist tradition’s emphasis on practice, and Dr. Somlai has not only brought that home but vivified it three fold. I appreciate especially his focus on “clarity,” which has come over time to be a synonym for me in my own Judaic-Christian vocabulary for “grace.” Whenever something is seen clearly, seen with great clarity, there is a “grace” that envelops that event, that moment, those people, and a newer harmony is created in the world, between one's inner world and the outer, natural world.

For the sharp reminder to “pay attention,” for the insight that “helping others” is the root of peace and an agent of healing, I am grateful. And for the mention of joy and playfulness, surely an essential ingredient in any mud pie of peace we try to form for the tea party in the garden after the spring rain.

-The Rev’d. Travis Talmadge Du Priest, a retired Episcopal priest, taught humanities and creative writing at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin


Peace Vigil comes out at a time when readers are literally flooded with choices, many of great quality to learn how to achieve peace to self and others, to enhance spirituality and apply it and also to achieve meditative experiences. The author has written five previous books. A Zen Buddhist Master Teacher of renown, a humanist who devotes his self to the inner problems and peaceful inner life of all of us average and even well acquainted with this subject, people, and adds special interests such as those suffering with illness of all sorts (he is the Associate Director of The Center for Aids Intervention and Research of the Medical College of Wisconsin where he is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine). I know of no one who puts together a comparable compendium of 108 peace vigils, each succinct and covering all we need from Hope To Purpose and gives Peace Vigil boosters as he concludes the 108 vigils.

This lovely and intelligent approach to our lives and all other " wars " in others induces a true peace almost immediately that we begin to read it. The format on each page for each vigil starts with a number of lines about that teaching, a Teisho,then a one line teaching of powerful advice, then an explanation of it all and of what is so remarkable about this great book practical Homework assignments with specific and doable tasks that will bring genuine meaning and results from each particular vigil. The format , is unusual, usable and compelling . So we learn from an empathic , spiritual teacher possibly the most useful means of conducting a Vigil that has as its direction what we all need - PEACE

-Harry Prosen is Professor and Chair Emeritus of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine of the Medical College of Wisconsin and former head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. He is a past President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Master Teacher Tony Somlai's most recent book, Peace Vigil, does many things well.  But what I found most helpful were his 108 "homework" assignments (one for each day of a 108-day retreat). Even if all you do is one assignment, with honest intentionality, you will become closer to the person you were meant to be. Not only will you benefit -- the world around you will too. Which, as Dr. Somlai shows so well, amounts to the same thing!