In Together Under One Roof, Lin Jensen turns his keen eye and powerful prose explicitly to the teachings of the Buddha, to traditional Zen stories, and to the practices of meditation and compassion—as well as the intricacies of everyday language and the natural world, truth and beauty, family, and the myriad ways our simplest actions affect our whole lives. His previous two works, memoirs of growing up and growing old and of the hard-won but gentle wisdom gained in his daily public meditations for peace, were both critical successes earning a special place in readers' hearts. This book takes up symphonic variations on one main theme: we are all "in it" together, we are all living under one roof—and there's always a glowing hearth right here in this, the Buddha's household.

Praise & Reviews "The essays that comprise this book, all 268 pages of them, are so deeply and movingly humane, so in tune with a joyous oneness with all that exists, and a deep sense of personal responsibility in the face of that unity, that they virtually sing. [...] If you want something that reads kind of like Anne Lamott's religious writing meets the Dharma and is improved tenfold in that encounter, check out Together under One Roof. You will not be disappointed."—Chris Faatz, PowellsBooks.BLOG "Lin Jensen brings humility and all its gifts—rare nowadays—to the conveying of wisdom and the opening of the Way. Humour, humanity, even humus, the earth itself, are all at play in this genuinely humble man, so hearing his stories and encountering his modesty is like drinking fresh and deep from the old source. I value and trust it, and recommend a long cool draft of it."—Susan Murphy author of Upside-down Zen. “Jensen’s graceful writing reveals the miraculous in the ordinary and the gentle ease of kindness—and we see that enlightenment and compassion are one and the same. Like letters from a good friend, the voice in these singularly valuable essays is personal and honest, speaking directly to what most matters in our lives: each other. This book will make you glad to have read it, and glad to be alive.”—Robert Langan author of Minding What Matters These simply-spoken reflections feel like arrows of truth. Illuminating the mind so swiftly and convincingly that the point of them is unforgettable.—Sylvia Boorstein, author of Happiness is an Inside Job Together Under One Roof restores our faith in the eternal, unbroken tradition of truth that lies right at home, underfoot, as we are. Gently, humorously, humanely, he reminds each of us to keep the house we live in, the wide-open room we share as one. Treasure this book as a housewarming gift.—Karen Maezen Miller, author of Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood "This wise and kind collection of essays by Mandala editor’s favorite writer is an absolute jewel of a book. Yes, Lin, we are all in it together in Buddha’s household, and our simplest actions affect our whole lives and the lives of others. Such a modest humble Buddhist teacher whose view of humanity is clear-sighted—he speaks his truth like no other. He says, rightly, that it is futile to separate the mundane from the spiritual, and so he presents the everydayness of life with grace, finding beauty in the prosaic. Jensen reveals us to ourselves in his personal anecdotes about hiking in the desert, teaching in a prison, paying property taxes, washing a bowl; no matter where he is, he is entering his life from where he is at that moment. An unforgettable book–open it, and resistance is useless."–Nancy Patton, Mandala Magazine “Together Under One Roof is a reflection on life's lessons learned through right effort, a mature writer's well-crafted musings on language, consciousness, meditation, and the need for kindness and love in human relationships. In this book Jensen seems to have found a resting place, a faith that small acts of goodness exchanged in the course of everyday interactions are a worthy practice–and contain their own poetry.”–Inquiring Mind

Lin Jensen, LIN JENSEN is the critically acclaimed author of the memoir Bad Dog! A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places and Pavement: Reflections on Mercy, Activism, and Doing "Nothing" for Peace, a fearless and funny account of curbside social action. He is also the author of Together Under One Roof: Making a Home of the Buddha’s Household. Each of these books took a unique approach to revealing the meaning of a Dharma life. In Bad Dog!, Jensen used his own autobiographical story to convey, in prose that has been likened to Steinbeck, a wise and compassionate look at an enormously difficult childhood, and the life that grew from it. In Pavement, Jensen chronicled what he learned in his daily vigils, sitting silently in protest to the horrors of war, on the streets of his home town in Chico, California. With these two genre-bending books, and his wonderfully poetic writing, Jensen has become one the most beloved of modern Buddhist writers. His first book, Uncovering the Wisdom of the Heartmind, received the Best Nonfiction/Spiritual Book award from Today's Librarian. He has taught writing in various colleges and universities for over twenty years, and continues to teach Buddhist ethics and practices at Chico State University. He is the founding teacher and senior teacher emeritus of the Chico Zen Sangha, in Chico, California, where he lives with his wife. ,