Geoffrey Windham, in this ground-breaking book, explores what it means to be a human being and the relationship between our sense of self and other. He believes that spirituality is a practical and worldly affair, but our imprisonment in language, the usual mind's conflicts with itself, and the dis-integrity we intuit, dulls our experience of this magical and mysterious world, and drives our desire to fix and transcend it.

Brad Warner, a Soto Zen priest and author of several important modern books on Buddhism, says in the fore word: "What makes this book different from any of the others I've encountered that attempt to deal with Zen and contemporary psychology is that Geoff draws on his real experience with the practice. Geoff's concept of the 'usual me' is a great way of explaining one of the most difficult aspects of Buddhist philosophy in concrete, real world terms, and should be of great use to anyone who finds the Buddhist idea of 'no self' baffling. I hope this book helps in your search to find what is most essential in yourself."