Finger To The Moon

Finger To The Moon is a gentle, patient first walk into the teaching of the Buddha, written for adolescent readers and for anyone meeting the tradition for the first time.

Written in the voice of a father introducing the subject to his children, the book strips away the mystery and brings forward the simple thread that runs through the whole teaching: that everything alive is born soft and travels into hardness, and that the work of a life is to hold the hard things lightly and to remember the soft, in oneself and in all things.

Each chapter offers a plain-spoken rendering of a teaching, a clear retelling, and a long warm reflection on what it might mean for a life lived now. The voice is unhurried, the tone is affectionate, and the humour is gentle. The book moves from the life of the Buddha, through the Four Noble Truths and the deeper machinery of the teaching, to the living tradition as it is practised in the world, and closes with a father’s letter to the reader.

It is designed to be a first step and not a whole journey: a doorway, left open, with a light on behind it. For a young reader, or for anyone returning to the contemplative traditions after a long absence, Finger To The Moon points the way in. A companion to The Quiet Door and Zhuangzi series.