... when I was in a place of spiritual searching. This book is essentially a travelogue of one man's spiritual quest, and is fascinating as much for it's insight into the various cultures encountered as it is for it's ecumenical perspective on religion and spiritual practice.

As Franck enters into dialogue with a spiritual teacher representative of a particular culture, he shares with you his drawings of everyday life, statues, and expansive city vistas of the various locales. His drawing are excellent, sometimes sparse, sometimes rough and coarse, but always revelatory and honest. I love this book as much for the drawings as anything else.

This book will be helpful if you are an open minded spiritual seeker, maybe even a little lost along the way, as you search for spiritual truth in this world. Dogmatics and fundamentalists of any religion, better to leave this one alone.

This is one of those rare recent books that you can say is truly medicine for the soul- without being trite. This is a powerful spiritual book, yet it is not without humor, tolerance of other traditions, and guts. The guts come in with the liberal criticism of modern greed, materialism, nihilism and the status quo. Franck especially has no patience for what he calls pseudo-spirituality, which can be recognised by sentimentality, proselytising, fanaticism, holier-than-thou delusions, spiritual tourism, and unconcern for the suffering and injustice inflicted on the great majority of other people in the world.

Franck points out that true spirituality is based on first hand experience. This means that it is equally valid whether it is approached from Christian, Taoist, Buddhist, Jewish, or Sufi perspectives. This is not not spiritual tourism , it is recognising the Transcendent in all true paths. This is the basis of a vital, transcultural, transreligious spirituality.

The author served as a doctor with Albert Schweitzer's staff in Africa- and it truly shows.

Frederick Franck has the rare gift of honesty in communication, telling stories from simple to amazing to give us the tale of the sculpture, art and music filled sanctuary he created out of an abandoned mill and garbage dump. Filled with beautiful pictures, this is a quiet gem of a book that I highly recommend as a sign of hope in these difficult times.

After September 11th Franck kept Pacem in Terris open everyday for prayer and meditation, and always flew a flag representing all peoples, refusing to give in to the stance of one nation against another. He has always stood for the true human.

At the age of 93 years (making him one of the oldest living active authors of our time) Frederick Franck's intimate, closely observed drawings and descriptions of the everyday citizens, as well as the private and public places of Venice, are superbly showcased in Seeing Venice: An Eye In Love. An engaging travelogue, illustrated with 94 unique, black-and-white drawings and sketches, this compendium of memorable and vivid impressions of the city's beauty and its people's daily lives fill comprise an enchanting journey for the reader -- and one of the best ways to experience the emotions, vitality, and ambiance of Venice short of actually being there in person!

This book starts out by showing reader a technique of removing philosophical sunglass a typical person usually have when they look at objects. Then it wanders to signify it by relating it to something big, difficult to understand/not clearly stated, and appeal to feeling.
For example, 1. Trying to make mysterious,something that is quoted here and there from Eastern philosophies, some of philosophers quoted are not even related to zen philosophy,
2. Using Pope, Archbishop, big religious figures,
3. Describe nonerotic aspects of drawing nudity
This book is filled with many interesting sketches, pretty easy to read, is educational if you have never thought about aspects of seeing.
I would recommend this book to people who focus too narrowly in their professions.

This book is about developing the artist mode of seeing. By drawing what you see you will see better and then be able to draw it better which will allow you to absorb the whole of nature by paying attention to its small details too. The book is an eye opener- Author- Creative Painting For The Young Artist

Where has this book been? I started drawing and painting a few years back and have bought lots of books, but none like this! I don't think of myself as a Zen person or a mystic, but this book really speaks to me. The drawings are beautiful, but go beyond a superficial beauty. Even if one is not interested in drawing, there is lots in this book to recommend it. It is not just a book about seeing and drawing, it is a book about truly living.

This book is one of the few that has had a profound impact on my life, and one of the very, very few which will always have a place on my bookshelf. I go back to this delightful book again and again when I need to be inspired and refreshed.

"Zen Seeing / Zen Drawing" is neither a primer nor a thorough discourse on either zen or drawing technique, and thank goodness - the last thing we need is more "talking" about zen or "how to's" about art. This book, plain and simple, is about the experience of SEEING, truly seeing, not just with ones eyes, but with all of ones senses, ones heart and ones spirit.

If you have always wanted to draw but somehow never have, then this book may be just what you need to get started, especially if you have any inclination towards things "zen" or spiritual.

This book changed my life. I can now "see". As a begining art student, I was having difficulty "seeing". I read this book 3 times in a row when I first got it. It changed the way I look at everything. People, places, life. Such a passion for life, drawing and humanity comes through Frederick Franck's drawings and words. Frederick Franck is an amazing conduit. I'm grateful he wrote this book. Highly, highly recommended.

No, it's not a book about Zen or drawing, but it is an ispiration for both. This book inspires the reader to see the world for the first time, not just look at things for the sake of avoiding them while driving. Franck's style is not bombastic, but his entusiasm for drawing, for life, and for awareness shows through every word he writes.

Franck's "Zen and Zen Classics" is his editing of the writings of R. H. Blyth on Ch'an/Zen, which are otherwise out of print. It is a great book, specially since it contains the only in-print works of Blyth, who, Franck says, is the indispensible interpreter of Zen for the western mind, and that Blyth is the ever-open eye. This is a great book, and can lead to even greater ones by Blyth---if onlt they would print more.

This book impoverishes Frederick Franck's work. It's seems to be a pluralistic work which main purpose is to convey what does it be to be human. Sadly, what the book shows us is that to be human is to be spiritual or a sort of enlightenment being. There is no place to heterodoxies or alternative ontologies in this literal world. For instance, you will not find words which can present a lesbian humankind, or atheist o radical secular human being. You just have to unveil the very essence of yourself, and just be. Multiplicity is narrowed in a only universal face, a christian-buddha face. There are some contributions which are interesting and inspirational. The best are Frederick Franck itself, Cornel West, Thomas Berry. Others are so poor that to be human is to becoming a colombian indian or a new human according to other side of the genes, its invisible moral, in other words, the gen-ethics as Muñoz Soler preaches. No sense and reductionism; to be human is to become pure. A shame! Fredrick Franck deserved a better luck in order to present his interesting, but failed idea, of a ABC program against the new barbarism. What we see through this book, is no less that a kind of pure spiritual barbarism, one who can not tolerate real differences.

There are very few books I know I will ever go through the effort of rereading. This book is one which can be picked up time and time again, for a quick reconnection to our human condition. People from around the globe with differing backgrounds offer their opinions on what it means to them to be human. The overall message of this book is one that has been heard before but few people have heeded; namely that humanity needs to relinquish greed and reconnect with its spiritual nature to allow us to realize our full potential as a species. A very difficult task indeed in our consumer based economy. The writers realize this and demonstrate that it is possible to be true to our human nature. I continue to lend this book to anyone who can appreciate the meaning and depth behind the words.