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pan23's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
A brief introduction to the topic in classic Zen fashion. If you think you have it, it is lost; in not finding it, you have it.
dibujared's review against another edition
As well as a book can, it introduces the general spirit of Zen to someone who may not at all be familiar. Things admittedly appear muddled and nonsensical when Suzuki is covering the broad strokes, but when he touches on specific practices and concepts, teachings are clear and understandable.
You do not understand Zen; Zen is understood.
You do not understand Zen; Zen is understood.
21degustafson's review against another edition
3.0
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
What does your original face look like?
Gay son or thot daughter?
What does your original face look like?
Gay son or thot daughter?
bittersweet_symphony's review against another edition
4.0
Zen Buddhism is more a lifestyle, a way of liberation, than it is a religion or a belief system: "it is anything but a philosophy in the western sense of the word." As such, it continues to be one of the most difficult subjects I've tried to understand and live. Yet, it somehow feels so natural.
Knowing that Suzuki had a huge influence on Alan Watts, and having read several of "the spiritual entertainer's" books, I knew I needed to dig deeper, to get closer to the source. While less humorous and witty than Watts, Suzuki still offers a fairly accessible introduction to Zen. He writes with a blend of humility and authority.
I welcomed the foreword from Carl Jung, another person who has influenced my perspectives. In attempting to bridge the gap between the East and the West, Jung writes "I have no doubt that the satori experience does occur also in the West, for we too have men who scent ultimate ends and will spare themselves no pains to draw near to them. But they will keep silence, not only out of shyness but because they know that any attempt to convey their experiences to others would be hopeless." As a plug for his own field of work, as justifiably so, he points out that "the only movement within our culture which partly has, and partly should have, some understanding of these aspirations is psychotherapy." (for more, read Psychotherapy, East and West by Alan Watts)
Everything is Zen. Zen is radically concrete and anti-abstraction: "personal experience, therefore, is everything in Zen. No ideas are intelligible to those who have no backing of experience." Truth is delivered through lived sermons, paradoxical statements known as koans. "Zen is the spirit of a man. Zen believes in his inner purity and goodness. Zen, therefore, is emphatically against all religious conventionalism...Zen is a wafting cloud in the sky. No screw fastens it, no string holds it; it moves as it lists. No amount of meditation will keep Zen in one place. Meditation is not zen."
Suzuki blasts rationalism for its limitations: "Zen in inflexible and would protest that the so-called common-sense way of looking at things is final, and that the reason why we cannot attain to a thoroughgoing comprehension of the truth is due to our unreasonable adherence to a 'logical' interpretation of things. If we really want to get to the bottom of life, we must abandon our cherished syllogisms, we must acquire a new way of observation whereby we can escape the tyranny of logic and the one-sidedness of our everyday phraseology." He challenges intellectualization even further: "in Zen it means not to get entangled in intellectual subtleties, not to be carried away by philosophical reasoning that is so often ingenuous and full of sophistry...In this sense, Zen is pre-eminently practical. It has nothing to do with abstractions or with subtleties of dialectics..the reason why Zen is so vehement in its attack on logic...is that logic has so pervasively entered into life as to make most of us conclude that logic is life and without it life has no significance."
Zen is not some set of abstractions to be learned and repeated. It is a living truth. "Copying is slavery. The letter must never be followed, only the spirit is to be grasped. Higher affirmations live in the spirit."
Perhaps the insight most helpful for me in understanding Zen: "a finger is needed to point at the moon, but what a calamity it would be if one took the finger for the moon!"
Honestly, it is a near-impossible task to instruct people in the ways of Zen using text, but when most of us don't have the opportunity to live face to face with a Zen master, Suzuki offers some encouraging insights. His collection of short essays nudge one's state of mind in the direction of zen. It appears that satori can require many years to achieve or one incredible moment of enlightenment.
I still prefer the work of Alan Watts, but I think most of us westerners will better understand Watts after having read D.T. Suzuki.
Knowing that Suzuki had a huge influence on Alan Watts, and having read several of "the spiritual entertainer's" books, I knew I needed to dig deeper, to get closer to the source. While less humorous and witty than Watts, Suzuki still offers a fairly accessible introduction to Zen. He writes with a blend of humility and authority.
I welcomed the foreword from Carl Jung, another person who has influenced my perspectives. In attempting to bridge the gap between the East and the West, Jung writes "I have no doubt that the satori experience does occur also in the West, for we too have men who scent ultimate ends and will spare themselves no pains to draw near to them. But they will keep silence, not only out of shyness but because they know that any attempt to convey their experiences to others would be hopeless." As a plug for his own field of work, as justifiably so, he points out that "the only movement within our culture which partly has, and partly should have, some understanding of these aspirations is psychotherapy." (for more, read Psychotherapy, East and West by Alan Watts)
Everything is Zen. Zen is radically concrete and anti-abstraction: "personal experience, therefore, is everything in Zen. No ideas are intelligible to those who have no backing of experience." Truth is delivered through lived sermons, paradoxical statements known as koans. "Zen is the spirit of a man. Zen believes in his inner purity and goodness. Zen, therefore, is emphatically against all religious conventionalism...Zen is a wafting cloud in the sky. No screw fastens it, no string holds it; it moves as it lists. No amount of meditation will keep Zen in one place. Meditation is not zen."
Suzuki blasts rationalism for its limitations: "Zen in inflexible and would protest that the so-called common-sense way of looking at things is final, and that the reason why we cannot attain to a thoroughgoing comprehension of the truth is due to our unreasonable adherence to a 'logical' interpretation of things. If we really want to get to the bottom of life, we must abandon our cherished syllogisms, we must acquire a new way of observation whereby we can escape the tyranny of logic and the one-sidedness of our everyday phraseology." He challenges intellectualization even further: "in Zen it means not to get entangled in intellectual subtleties, not to be carried away by philosophical reasoning that is so often ingenuous and full of sophistry...In this sense, Zen is pre-eminently practical. It has nothing to do with abstractions or with subtleties of dialectics..the reason why Zen is so vehement in its attack on logic...is that logic has so pervasively entered into life as to make most of us conclude that logic is life and without it life has no significance."
Zen is not some set of abstractions to be learned and repeated. It is a living truth. "Copying is slavery. The letter must never be followed, only the spirit is to be grasped. Higher affirmations live in the spirit."
Perhaps the insight most helpful for me in understanding Zen: "a finger is needed to point at the moon, but what a calamity it would be if one took the finger for the moon!"
Honestly, it is a near-impossible task to instruct people in the ways of Zen using text, but when most of us don't have the opportunity to live face to face with a Zen master, Suzuki offers some encouraging insights. His collection of short essays nudge one's state of mind in the direction of zen. It appears that satori can require many years to achieve or one incredible moment of enlightenment.
I still prefer the work of Alan Watts, but I think most of us westerners will better understand Watts after having read D.T. Suzuki.
staypositive's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.0
justsimplehonestjuice's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Physical abuse
vagrantshark's review against another edition
For the first time in nearly a decade, I've been unable to actually finish a book. Despite being only 100+ pages, Suzuki crams a 20+ page forward by Carl Jung which wasn't really necessary. I'm no stranger to various Eastern thought, such as Taoism, Buddhism, etc; but this is an obtuse, dense, and, to be perfectly honest, angrily written collection. I conceptually understand what is being said and unsaid here, I do. I just couldn't get past the vilifying responses to critics early in the reading. Which made exceedingly little sense to bother responding to at all. Just move on.