I want to caution that this book is not exactly easy. It requires a little deep reading and thinking and it's not a beginner's book. It's a real help however to ordinary people like myself who live in the suburbs and try to practice Buddhism. Even though the author seems to have been a monk most of his life. The reason it is a help is that it presents an American background and understanding to the teachings of Suzuki Roshi (Zen Mind Beginner's Mind) which are often sort of alien and incomprehensible in the original. The book is also very warm like the smiles. To get some more insight into the title, you might want to check out Gary Snyder's Cold Mountain Poems, or the Burton Watson translation of Cold Mountain (Chinese Zen Poet Han Shan).

I would like to start off by saying that you must read this book. Anyone who practices meditation will find this book rewarding--both seasoned practitioners and newcomers to the Buddhist path. The author has a special gift for relating the insights of traditional Zen teaching stories in a refreshingly contemporary manner. I felt like I was actually at the retreats as I read the stories. As mentioned elsewhere; Anderson, who teaches in the tradition of the great Zen master Suzuki Roshi, shows himself to be a worthy inheritor of this lineage and a powerful teacher in his own right.