Self-help ✦ Penny’s Take
The Art of Just Sitting
John Daido Loori · 2002
75/100
👍 Worth It
For anyone practicing zazen or curious about the deep roots of shikantaza, this anthology is a genuine treasure — 1,500 years of Zen teaching gathered and curated by a respected American Zen master is not something you find on every bookshelf. It is not a book to read casually; it is a reference to sit with, return to, and let accumulate meaning over time. Outside the Zen community, though, the audience shrinks considerably.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Explicitly Buddhist (Zen) content; non-Christian spiritual practice. We still scored it 75; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety85
substance82
craft76
originality78
accuracy82
hype75
age-fit80
human-eye72
Penny’s verdict75
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