In a time when abuse at the hands of religious leaders is too common, comes this guide to making the most of the Zen tradition while protecting and empowering yourself.

While the liberation that Zen offers is real, it must be engaged with carefully, explains this sensei. Her book is neither a memoir about a single case of abuse nor a bloodless academic study. Nelson reflects on the multiple dangers in Zen, from firsthand experience in Boston--where documented abuse recently took place--integrating her discussion at every step with core Zen teachings.

Practicing Safe Zen: Navigating the Pitfalls on the Road to Liberation, Julie Seido Nelson, Monkfish Book Publishing, Paperback, 220 pages, $24.95

Julie Seido Nelson is a transmitted teacher (Sensei) in the Maezumi Roshi Zen lineage. Her home Zen community is the Greater Boston Zen Center, a sangha which has experienced three major upheavals due to teacher arrogance and abuses of power over the last several years. She is also a teacher at the Great Plains Zen Center in Monroe, Wisconsin. She has written for popular Buddhist audiences in Tricycle magazine and on her blog. Her Zen talks have been published in the Greater Boston Zen Center podcast series.

She is now a professor emeritus after a career in research and teaching. Nelson is the author of Economics for Humans (University of Chicago Press) as well as many academic books, book chapters and articles published by Oxford University Press, Routledge, Springer, Blackwell, and others. Having begun Zen practice in 2004, she has found it to be of immense value. She is deeply saddened when people, either in addition to or instead of realizing the benefits, suffer great harm.