The Face: A Time Code
By Ruth Ozeki
4/5
()
About this ebook
“Ruth Ozeki, a Zen Buddhist priest, sets herself the task of staring at her face in a mirror for three full, uninterrupted hours; her ruminations ripple out from personal and familial memories to wise and honest meditations on families and aging, race and the body.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
What did your face look like before your parents were born? In The Face: A Time Code, bestselling author and Zen Buddhist priest Ruth Ozeki recounts, in moment-to-moment detail, a profound encounter with memory and the mirror. According to ancient Zen tradition, “your face before your parents were born” is your true face. Who are you? What is your true self? What is your identity before or beyond the dualistic distinctions, like father/mother and good/evil, that define us?
With these questions in mind, Ozeki challenges herself to spend three hours gazing into her own reflection, recording her thoughts, and noticing every possible detail. Those solitary hours open up a lifetime's worth of meditations on race, aging, family, death, the body, self doubt, and, finally, acceptance. In this lyrical short memoir, Ozeki calls on her experience of growing up in the wake of World War II as a half-Japanese, half-Caucasian American; of having a public face as an author; of studying the intricate art of the Japanese Noh mask; of being ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest; and of her own and her parents’ aging, to paint a rich and utterly unique portrait of a life as told through a face.
Alternately philosophical, funny, personal, political, and poetic, the short memoirs in The Face series offer unique perspectives from some of our favorite writers. Find out more at www.restlessbooks.com/the-face.
Read more from Ruth Ozeki
Scrolling Forward, Second Edition: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Face
Related ebooks
The Face: A Time Code Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Chilli Bean Paste Clan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTower Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tree Spirits Grass Spirits Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVertical Motion Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Little Bird Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEmpty Wardrobes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Embroidered Shoes: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I Sing, Mountains Dance: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTomb of Sand: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThings that Fall from the Sky: Longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, 2021 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fish in Exile Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman from Uruguay Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Presence of Absence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dragon Palace Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Blue Room Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSuncatcher: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Song for the Missing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFinger Bone Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCars on Fire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Years, Months, Days: Two Novellas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEvening Is the Whole Day: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spring: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Boy Who Belonged to the Sea: Winner of the Prix Odysée Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Unlasting Home: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInto The War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heart Sutra Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Promise Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Long Live the Post Horn! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Cultural, Ethnic & Regional Biographies For You
Black Boy [Seventy-fifth Anniversary Edition] Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing Crazy Horse: The Merciless Indian Wars in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: An Oprah's Book Club Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of White World Supremacy: Four Speeches Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Distance Between Us: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Assata: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Like Me: The Definitive Griffin Estate Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Oprah's Book Club Selection) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Afeni Shakur: Evolution Of A Revolutionary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just as I Am: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Up From Slavery: An Autobiography: A True Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Yellow House: A Memoir (2019 National Book Award Winner) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5That Bird Has My Wings: An Oprah's Book Club Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Face
15 ratings0 reviews