"Ruth Ozeki, a Zen Buddhist priest, sets herself the task of staring
at her face in a mirror for three full, uninterrupted hours; her
ruminations ripple out from personal and familial memories to wise and
honest meditations on families and aging, race and the body."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune
What did your face look like before your parents were born? In The
Face: A Time Code, bestselling author and Zen Buddhist priest Ruth
Ozeki recounts, in moment-to-moment detail, a profound encounter with
memory and the mirror. According to ancient Zen tradition, "your face
before your parents were born" is your true face. Who are you? What is
your true self? What is your identity before or beyond the dualistic
distinctions, like father/mother and good/evil, that define us?
With these questions in mind, Ozeki challenges herself to spend three
hours gazing into her own reflection, recording her thoughts, and
noticing every possible detail. Those solitary hours open up a
lifetime's worth of meditations on race, aging, family, death, the body,
self doubt, and, finally, acceptance. In this lyrical short memoir,
Ozeki calls on her experience of growing up in the wake of World War II
as a half-Japanese, half-Caucasian American; of having a public face as
an author; of studying the intricate art of the Japanese Noh mask; of
being ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest; and of her own and her parents'
aging, to paint a rich and utterly unique portrait of a life as told
through a face.
Alternately philosophical, funny, personal, political, and poetic, the
short memoirs in The Face series offer unique perspectives from some of
our favorite writers. Find out more at www.restlessbooks.com/the-face.
