Contemplations IV: Zen Contemplative Photography Hardcover – March 28, 2026

What is contemplative photography? I define it as the creation of images of our natural world unadulterated with human intervention, images conducive to the stopping of useless thoughts and mental relaxation. This book shows Zen-inspired contemplative photography illustrating Dogen Zenji's Mountains and Waters sutra. It literally depicts mountains and waters in diverse locations. Each photo is identified by the place and name. The sutra is offered in a new translation using AI of the original, full-length Japanese Sansuikyō, which is a single fascicle within Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō. This longer version retains the repetitions and rhetorical flourishes Dogen used and some translators choose to reduce. The language is crystal clear and easy to understand at the level of grammar and syntax, but the ideas are provocative and confounding. I discuss this and more in sections of the book that I authored. To me the centering notion is contemplation. Read more