Books
Two works by ZEN Master Ken appear in English in 2026, published across twenty countries — each approaching the same summit from an opposite face.
The path through the Buddha’s life. From the prophecies at his birth in the Shakya kingdom, through the awakening under the Bodhi tree, to his final years, the book retells the Buddha’s story within a single framework: the four stages of enlightenment, completed by Juki — the prophecy and vow through which a new universe comes into being.
Its starting point, however, is modern: relativity, quantum theory, the many-worlds interpretation, and the anthropic principle all converge on one unsolved mystery — who caused the Big Bang in infinite space, and what are we here to live for? The book’s answer is that the person who solved this mystery was born into the human world, and his name was the Buddha.
The second half turns to the Lotus Sutra, following the bestowal of Juki upon the great disciples — Śāriputra, Mahākāśyapa, Ānanda, Rāhula, Gotamī and Yaśodharā — and reads these chapters as the mechanism of cosmic creation itself. It is written so that the reader does not merely study the Buddha’s life, but relives it.
The path through the history of science. The sister volume approaches the same summit from the opposite face: it follows physics itself — from Aristotle and Newton, through Einstein’s revolution, to the four founders of quantum theory and Hawking — as one long journey to seek the Mind of God.
That journey ends before three riddles: the vacuum, the many worlds, and the Big Bang. The book then shows how the Buddha’s cosmology answers precisely where the equations fall silent — culminating in an account of the vacuum as the deepest layer of the self, in which past and future exist together and this world is one thought.
Its conclusion is practical. The competition and division of the modern world are rooted in uncertainty — in not knowing the future. A civilisation that understands the vacuum, the book argues, can replace that restlessness with something better: a quiet revolution of the spirit.
Also by ZEN Master Ken
ZEN Master Ken is the author of more than ten books in Japanese on Zen, the Buddha’s life, and the origins of the cosmos — including a title that reached number one on Amazon Japan. Three further titles, written originally in English, are in preparation.
Cover imagery and international store links will be added on publication. Journalists may request review materials through the press office.
On 1 November 2026, the teaching of these books returns to Bodh Gaya — where ZEN Master Ken delivers a Dharma talk at the Mahabodhi Temple.
