Henry Shukman
Awakening is simple — and already here
Henry Shukman is a Zen master, poet, and British writer. Educated in literature at Oxford University, he discovered Zen meditation at 19 during a trip to Japan, and has since become one of the most accessible Zen teachers in the West. He is co-founder of the app The Way and a guiding teacher on Sam Harris's Waking Up.
Shukman teaches that awakening is not a grand event reserved for monks — it is ordinary, accessible, and profoundly loving. His concept of "Original Love" proposes that beneath all layers of conditioning, there is a fundamental belonging that can be rediscovered.
Livros
- Original Love
- One Blade of Grass
- Arroyo
Citacoes
“You discover you belong utterly. And you see that this very moment is a pure gift. It feels like love.”
“There's something about deep wounding that can be a pathway to deep, deep love.”
“In awakening, one thing vanishes, that sense of self, and another thing appears, which is what that sense of self was occluding.”
Principios
Original Love
Beneath everything, there is a fundamental belonging.
Original Love is the discovery that before any conditioning, there is an intrinsic love and well-being native to our original nature. It's not something to build, but to rediscover.
Ordinary Awakening
Awakening isn't mystical — it's seeing what's already here.
Shukman teaches that awakening doesn't require years on retreat. It can happen in simple moments: the separate self dissolves and what was being hidden — presence, connection, openness — appears naturally.
Koan Practice
Impossible questions that open the mind.
Koans are Zen questions or stories that can't be "solved" by the intellect. Koan practice invites the mind to release its certainties and find a more direct way of knowing.
Conexoes
- Sam HarrisShukman is a guest teacher on the Waking Up app; both explore consciousness and the dissolution of self.
- Bruce TiftBoth integrate contemplative practice with psychology — Shukman through Zen, Tift through therapy.
- Brene BrownBoth see emotional wounds as doorways to something deeper — Shukman to awakening, Brown to vulnerability.