Norman Fischer's When You Greet Me I Bow gathers essays spanning decades of practice as a Zen teacher, poet, and interfaith collaborator. Fischer, former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, writes about meditation, aging, grief, social engagement, and the relationship between spiritual practice and creative work. These essays are personal without being confessional; Fischer reflects on his own struggles and discoveries while always connecting them to larger questions about how to live. He writes about the death of his mother, about teaching meditation to corporate executives and prisoners, about translating Jewish liturgy and Psalms. The book is organized around themes rather than chronology, creating conversations between pieces written years apart. Fischer's prose is clear and unhurried, modeling the attentiveness he advocates. He is honest about the limits of what meditation can accomplish and critical of spiritual communities that become insular or authoritarian. Yet he remains committed to practice as a way of staying awake to life's difficulty and beauty. Readers familiar with Fischer's poetry will recognize his ear for language; readers new to his work will find an accessible entry point to Zen that doesn't ask them to check their intellect at the door. Essential reading for anyone interested in contemplative practice in the contemporary world.