The Empty Mirror

"This small and memorable memoir records the experiences of a young Dutch student who spent a year and a half as a novice monk in a Japanese Zen Buddhist monastery . . . What makes this account extraordinary is that the book contains none of the convert's irritating certitude."—Time

"A vivid, humorous, and slightly disillusioning account of a Dutchman's frustrating struggle toward enlightenment in a Japanese Zen monastery. Insightful, funny."—Carl Rogers

"What emerges is a work of nonfiction, told through the ingenuous persona of van de Wetering, that is as enjoyable to read as a well-crafted novel."—East West Journal

"What is accessible is the day-to-day description of life, of the monks themselves, and of the others [whom the author] met, of the jokes they played and the food they ate, of the moments of satori, the explosive moment of an understanding surpassing understanding."—Los Angeles Times