
Fire Monks
Zen Mind Meets Wildfire at the Gates of Tassajara
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $17.16
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Colleen Morton Busch
About this listen
When a massive wildfire surrounded Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, five monks risked their lives to save it. A gripping narrative as well as a portrait of the Zen path and the ways of wildfire, Fire Monks reveals what it means to meet a crisis with full presence of mind.
Zen master and author of the classic Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi established a monastery at Tassajara Hot Springs in 1967, drawn to the location's beauty, peace, and seclusion. Deep in the wilderness east of Big Sur, the center is connected to the outside world by a single unpaved road. The remoteness that makes it an oasis also makes it particularly vulnerable when disaster strikes. If fire entered the canyon, there would be no escape.
More than 2,000 wildfires, all started by a single lightning storm, blazed across the state of California in June 2008. With resources stretched thin, firefighters advised residents at Tassajara to evacuate early. Most did. A small crew stayed behind, preparing to protect the monastery when the fire arrived.
But nothing could have prepared them for what came next. A treacherous shift in weather conditions prompted a final order to evacuate everyone, including all firefighters. As they caravanned up the road, five senior monks made the risky decision to turn back. Relying on their Zen training, they were able to remain in the moment and do the seemingly impossible - to greet the fire not as an enemy to defeat, but as a friend to guide.
Fire Monks pivots on the kind of moment some seek and some run from, when life and death hang in simultaneous view. Novices in fire but experts in readiness, the Tassajara monks summoned both intuition and wisdom to face the crisis with startling clarity. The result is a profound lesson in the art of living.
©2011 Colleen Morton Busch (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
A Walk in the Woods
- Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Rob McQuay
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Appalachian Trail trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America - majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaing guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way - and a couple of bears. Already a classic, A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).
-
-
Informational
- By Amber C on 03-29-17
By: Bill Bryson
-
Dead Mountain
- The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
- By: Donnie Eichar
- Narrated by: Donnie Eichar
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. Eerie aspects of the incident—unexplained violent injuries, signs that they cut open and fled the tent without proper clothing or shoes, a strange final photograph taken by one of the hikers, and elevated levels of radiation found on some of their clothes—have led to decades of speculation over what really happened.
-
-
Mystery & Intrigue In The Ural Mountains
- By Sara on 06-30-15
By: Donnie Eichar
-
The Last Season
- By: Eric Blehm
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Destined to become a classic of adventure literature, The Last Season examines the extraordinary life of legendary backcountry ranger Randy Morgenson and his mysterious disappearance in California's unforgiving Sierra Nevada - mountains as perilous as they are beautiful. Eric Blehm's masterful work is a gripping detective story interwoven with the riveting biography of a complicated, original, and wholly fascinating man.
-
-
Well Written Character Study of an NPS Ranger
- By Kathy in CA on 06-23-16
By: Eric Blehm
-
North
- By: Scott Jurek, Jenny Jurek
- Narrated by: Scott Jurek, Jenny Jurek
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scott Jurek is one of the world's best known and most beloved ultrarunners. Renowned for his remarkable endurance and speed, accomplished on a vegan diet, he's finished first in nearly all of ultrarunning's elite events over the course of his career. But after two decades of racing, training, speaking, and touring, Jurek felt an urgent need to discover something new about himself. He embarked on a wholly unique challenge, one that would force him to grow as a person and as an athlete: breaking the speed record for the Appalachian Trail.
-
-
Couldn’t take Jenny
- By M. Bissett on 08-27-18
By: Scott Jurek, and others
-
Grandma Gatewood's Walk
- The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail
- By: Ben Montgomery
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than $200. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, atop Maine's Mount Katahdin, she sang the first verse of "America, the Beautiful" and proclaimed, "I said I'll do it, and I've done it."
-
-
Inspiring story about a strong amazing woman
- By David Shear on 12-22-14
By: Ben Montgomery
-
The Fire Line
- The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots
- By: Fernanda Santos
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a bolt of lightning ignited a hilltop in the sleepy town of Yarnell, Arizona, in June of 2013, setting off a blaze that would grow into one of the deadliest fires in American history, the 20 men who made up the Granite Mountain Hotshots sprang into action. An elite crew trained to combat the most challenging wildfires, the Granite Mountain Hotshots were a ragtag family crisscrossing the American West and wherever else the fires took them. The Hotshots were loyal to one another and dedicated to the tough job they had.
-
-
touching
- By matt on 05-04-16
By: Fernanda Santos
-
A Walk in the Woods
- Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Rob McQuay
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Appalachian Trail trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America - majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaing guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way - and a couple of bears. Already a classic, A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).
-
-
Informational
- By Amber C on 03-29-17
By: Bill Bryson
-
Dead Mountain
- The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
- By: Donnie Eichar
- Narrated by: Donnie Eichar
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. Eerie aspects of the incident—unexplained violent injuries, signs that they cut open and fled the tent without proper clothing or shoes, a strange final photograph taken by one of the hikers, and elevated levels of radiation found on some of their clothes—have led to decades of speculation over what really happened.
-
-
Mystery & Intrigue In The Ural Mountains
- By Sara on 06-30-15
By: Donnie Eichar
-
The Last Season
- By: Eric Blehm
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Destined to become a classic of adventure literature, The Last Season examines the extraordinary life of legendary backcountry ranger Randy Morgenson and his mysterious disappearance in California's unforgiving Sierra Nevada - mountains as perilous as they are beautiful. Eric Blehm's masterful work is a gripping detective story interwoven with the riveting biography of a complicated, original, and wholly fascinating man.
-
-
Well Written Character Study of an NPS Ranger
- By Kathy in CA on 06-23-16
By: Eric Blehm
-
North
- By: Scott Jurek, Jenny Jurek
- Narrated by: Scott Jurek, Jenny Jurek
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scott Jurek is one of the world's best known and most beloved ultrarunners. Renowned for his remarkable endurance and speed, accomplished on a vegan diet, he's finished first in nearly all of ultrarunning's elite events over the course of his career. But after two decades of racing, training, speaking, and touring, Jurek felt an urgent need to discover something new about himself. He embarked on a wholly unique challenge, one that would force him to grow as a person and as an athlete: breaking the speed record for the Appalachian Trail.
-
-
Couldn’t take Jenny
- By M. Bissett on 08-27-18
By: Scott Jurek, and others
-
Grandma Gatewood's Walk
- The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail
- By: Ben Montgomery
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than $200. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, atop Maine's Mount Katahdin, she sang the first verse of "America, the Beautiful" and proclaimed, "I said I'll do it, and I've done it."
-
-
Inspiring story about a strong amazing woman
- By David Shear on 12-22-14
By: Ben Montgomery
-
The Fire Line
- The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots
- By: Fernanda Santos
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a bolt of lightning ignited a hilltop in the sleepy town of Yarnell, Arizona, in June of 2013, setting off a blaze that would grow into one of the deadliest fires in American history, the 20 men who made up the Granite Mountain Hotshots sprang into action. An elite crew trained to combat the most challenging wildfires, the Granite Mountain Hotshots were a ragtag family crisscrossing the American West and wherever else the fires took them. The Hotshots were loyal to one another and dedicated to the tough job they had.
-
-
touching
- By matt on 05-04-16
By: Fernanda Santos
-
Lost in the Wild
- Danger and Survival in the North Woods
- By: Cary J. Griffith
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a beautiful summer afternoon in 1998, Dan Stephens, a 22-year-old canoeist, was leading a trip deep into Ontario's Quetico Provincial Park. He stepped into a gap among cedar trees to look for the next portage - and did not return. More than four hours later, Dan awakened from a fall with a lump on his head and stumbled deeper into the woods, confused. Three years later, Jason Rasmussen, a third-year medical student who loved the forest's solitude, walked alone into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on a crisp fall day.
-
-
Great book, but should be organized differently
- By Don Lance on 09-20-19
By: Cary J. Griffith
-
Warrior: A Spiritual Odyssey
- By: William "Rev. Bill" McDonald Jr.
- Narrated by: Clay Lomakayu
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Warrior: A Spiritual Odyssey consists of the life stories of a modern day mystic. Rev. Bill McDonald takes the listener on a journey with these told-from-the-heart life experiences. This is his autobiography and follows his life before going off to war in Vietnam - in Vietnam and afterwards. The combination of the author's supernatural and mystical stories and powerful reading give the listener a truly spiritual listening experience.
-
-
Warrior a spiritual odyssey
- By Thomas Kowalczyk on 01-08-25
-
A Life on the Edge
- Memoirs of Everest and Beyond
- By: Jim Whittaker
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May of 1963, Seattle mountaineer Jim Whittaker stepped into world history by becoming the first American to summit Mount Everest. More than 50 years later, he is still regarded as a seminal figure in North American mountaineering, as well as an astute businessman who helped create the outdoor recreation industry. A Life on the Edge: Memoirs of Everest and Beyond is Jim's courageous, no-punches-pulled autobiography and a look at a peripatetic, sometimes difficult life.
-
-
Such a great book
- By Sherry Wood on 01-15-21
By: Jim Whittaker
-
Field Notes
- The Grace Note of the Canyon Wren
- By: Barry Lopez
- Narrated by: Barry Lopez
- Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Field Notes completes Barry Lopez's trilogy that includes Desert Notes and River Notes. In these fictional stories, Lopez's characters must rediscover the wisdom and spiritual strength found in nature. Many of Lopez's vignettes are mystical and magical - a reckless desert sojourner is saved by birds; a botanist is led back to his family by wildflowers; a hunter is given a trapping lesson by wolverines.
-
-
Good Descriptive Writing
- By Tyler Tanner on 06-28-16
By: Barry Lopez
-
Granite Mountain
- The Firsthand Account of a Tragic Wildfire, Its Lone Survivor, and the Firefighters Who Made the Ultimate Sacrifice
- By: Brendan McDonough, Stephan Talty - contributor
- Narrated by: John Glouchevitch
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The true story behind the events that inspired the major motion picture Only the Brave. A "unique and bracing" (Booklist) first-person account by the sole survivor of Arizona's disastrous 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire, which took the lives of 19 "hotshots" - firefighters trained specifically to battle wildfires. Brendan McDonough was on the verge of becoming a hopeless, inveterate heroin addict when he, for the sake of his young daughter, decided to turn his life around. He enlisted in the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a team of elite firefighters based in Prescott, Arizona.
-
-
Thank you Brendan
- By Kenton on 06-07-16
By: Brendan McDonough, and others
-
Second Suns
- Two Doctors and Their Amazing Quest to Restore Sight and Save Lives
- By: David Oliver Relin
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this transporting book, David Oliver Relin shines a light on the work of Geoffrey Tabin and Sanduk Ruit, gifted ophthalmologists who have dedicated their lives to restoring sight to some of the world’s most isolated, impoverished people through the Himalayan Cataract Project, an organization they founded in 1995. Tabin was the high-achieving bad boy of Harvard Medical School, an accomplished mountain climber and adrenaline junkie as brilliant as he was unconventional.
-
-
This guy should be madea Saint
- By Anon E Mouse on 05-17-15
-
Craig & Fred
- A Marine, a Stray Dog, and How They Rescued Each Other
- By: Craig Grossi
- Narrated by: Craig Grossi
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The uplifting and unforgettable true story of a US marine, the stray dog he met on an Afghan battlefield, and how they saved each other and now travel America together, "spreading the message of stubborn positivity".
-
-
Looks like a Fred
- By Paul Winker on 11-02-17
By: Craig Grossi
-
On the Burning Edge
- A Fateful Fire and the Men Who Fought It
- By: Kyle Dickman
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On June 28, 2013, a single bolt of lightning sparked an inferno that devoured more than 8,000 acres in Northern Arizona. Twenty elite firefighters - the Granite Mountain Hotshots - walked together into the blaze, tools in their hands and fire shelters on their hips. Only one of them walked out.
-
-
Be on the fire line, and in their heads.
- By Desiree May on 04-29-16
By: Kyle Dickman
-
Smokejumper
- A Memoir by One of America's Most Select Airborne Firefighters
- By: Jason A. Ramos, Julian Smith
- Narrated by: Ned Vaughn
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this extraordinarily rare memoir by an active-duty jumper, Jason Ramos takes listeners into his exhilarating and dangerous world, explores smokejumping's remarkable history, and explains why their services are more essential than ever before.
-
-
About damn time a book on wildland firefighting was written!!!
- By Jefferer R. Beren on 07-16-15
By: Jason A. Ramos, and others
-
Yellowstone: Hellfire
- By: Bobby Akart
- Narrated by: Chris Abernathy
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Yellowstone series, a new disaster thriller from international best-selling author Bobby Akart, takes the listener on a thrill ride as a cataclysmic event of extinction level proportions ticks away like a time bomb, awaiting its moment.
-
-
Hackneyed, lame, tedious
- By Spinnaker on 10-21-18
By: Bobby Akart
-
Serious Face
- Essays
- By: Jon Mooallem
- Narrated by: Jon Mooallem
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beneath the self-assured and serious faces we wear, every human life is full of longing, guesswork, and confusion—a scramble to do the best we can and make everything up as we go along. In these wide-ranging essays, Jon Mooallem chronicles the beauty of our blundering and the inescapability of our imperfections.
-
-
A must read this summer
- By Nathan Tower on 06-06-22
By: Jon Mooallem
-
Deep Creek
- Finding Hope in the High Country
- By: Pam Houston
- Narrated by: Pam Houston
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, beloved writer Pam Houston learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it. Elk calves and bluebirds mark the changing seasons, winter temperatures drop to 35 below, and lightning sparks a 110,000-acre wildfire, threatening her century-old barn and all its inhabitants. Through her travels from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska, she explores what ties her to the Earth, the ranch most of all.
-
-
The most beautiful book I’ve ever read
- By KFratt on 04-26-19
By: Pam Houston
What listeners say about Fire Monks
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael J Gore
- 11-09-21
WOW
A beautifully written story about fire and Zen shows Zen practitioners meeting and moving through a world on fire.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mimi Routh
- 07-05-22
Author Writes Well, Reads Really Well!
Less than a year ago, my then town of South Lake Tahoe was entirely evacuated because of the Caldor Fire. All the fear, excitement, mistrust, doubt came up for me listening to this wonderful story. I got seriously antsy. I would leave and soon go back because if they lived it, I could listen to the telling. . . . I often look around and ask myself, "Now what to do?" How to spend available time and energy in the absolute best way? A lot of us say, "God help us!" I don't remember any reference in this story to God or prayer -- Only the disciplined paying attention to what IS of five people who love that piece of real estate known as Tassajara. Apparently, each of them set aside emotion and personal needs. As to the administrators and fire fighters who made perhaps bad decisions, where I know I would be screaming curses and epithets, the situations are analyzed, described, and words chosen very carefully. Wow! Just wow. Being a simple meditator and vegetarian, I'll be getting the cookbook in print right away. So much elegance! A million thanks to the people who lived this and to Ms. Busch who told the story!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Aaron
- 08-13-21
True Dharma in Practice
No matter the ethics or morals of what they did this is true Dharma in practice. This book perfectly encapsulats the story, feelings, and Dharma of the "Fire Monks".
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Peter W. Kalnin
- 04-29-24
An Amazing Perspective on a Terrible Event
An Amazing Perspective on a Terrible Event
This is a great example of how Buddhism works in the real world. Well done!
Colleen Busch's narration is perfect.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Swamitanabe
- 11-23-21
Beautiful and profound
This book surprised me. I did not expect to be moved as deeply as I was by it, to find so much to learn and think about. The narrative is clear,unprepossessing, memorable. I will return again and again to the fire monks.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tamara Hanlin
- 04-11-21
Lovely blending of Zen and the physical world
I enjoyed the practical application of Buddhist ideals. Also learned much about the harsh reality for wild fires.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stuffpuff
- 03-25-22
uninteresting, badley read. no story, dull, icky
uninteresting, badly read, no story, dull icky. not worth downloading. think twice or three times before downloading. and don't buy.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!