In these Zen Journals 1969-1982, Matthiessen describes the intense inner process of his discovery of Zen, his practice and his laborious assimilation until he became a Zen monk. The account of his inner evolution - developed in the physical frameworks of the United States, Nepal and Japan - is combined with interesting explanations of the history and fundamental ideas of Zen, all narrated with the mastery, nerve and amenity of the author of The tree in which man was born. "One of the best writers in the United States." Don Delillo. Peter Matthiessen is an original and powerful artist produced a set of works as impressive as that of the best writers of our time. "William Styron. In August 1968, on his return from a trip to Africa, Peter Matthiessen found himself at the door of his house with three Japanese Zen masters, guests of his wife, who were beginning to begin in this spiritual discipline. After thirteen years, Matthiessen was ordained a Buddhist monk. These Zen Journals 1969-1982 are the narrative of the author's interior and exterior journey during these thirteen years and reflect, with sincerity and with Matthiessen's usual narrative mastery, his experiences, doubts, difficulties, failures and triumphs in his spiritual search. The experiences narrated in these pages have by physical frame the United States of America, Nepal and Japan. The narrative of the author's inner process is skilfully combined with explanations of the fundamental methods and concepts of Zen, as well as with the fascinating stories of the great masters of the past and the present; At the same time, Matthiessen's account reflects the interesting process of the introduction of Zen in the United States and the consequent confrontation of two mentalities as different as the Eastern and Western mentalities, making these journals also an interesting document on the dialogue between civilizations and cultures. The text of Matthiessen has the freshness, the vividness and the immediacy of the lived. His extraordinary talent as a writer knows how to convey all the nuances of a rich and profound experience, the reality of environments, places and characters and, above all, and paradoxically, something of that wisdom that is not left in words that is Zen .