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Wikipedia

D. T. Suzuki

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki (鈴木 大拙 貞太郎, Suzuki Daisetsu Teitarō, 18 October 1870 – 12 July 1966[1]), self-rendered in 1894 as "Daisetz",[2] was a Japanese essayist, philosopher, religious scholar, translator, and writer. He was a scholar and author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in spreading interest in both Zen and Shin (and Far Eastern philosophy in general) to the West. Suzuki was also a prolific translator of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Sanskrit literature. Suzuki spent several lengthy stretches teaching or lecturing at Western universities, and devoted many years to a professorship at Ōtani University, a Japanese Buddhist school.

D. T. Suzuki
circa 1953
Born(1870-10-18)18 October 1870
Honda-machi, Kanazawa, Japan
Died12 July 1966(1966-07-12) (aged 95)
Kamakura, Japan
OccupationUniversity professor, essayist, philosopher, religious scholar, translator, writer
Notable awardsNational Medal of Culture

He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963.[3]

Biography edit

Early life edit

 
His student days

D. T. Suzuki was born Teitarō Suzuki in Honda-machi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, the fourth son of physician Ryojun Suzuki. The Buddhist name Daisetsu, meaning "Great Humility", the kanji of which can also mean "Greatly Clumsy", was given to him by his Zen master Soen (or Soyen) Shaku.[4] Although his birthplace no longer exists, a humble monument marks its location (a tree with a rock at its base). The samurai class into which Suzuki was born declined with the fall of feudalism, which forced Suzuki's mother, a Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist, to raise him in impoverished circumstances after his father died. When he became old enough to reflect on his fate in being born into this situation, he began to look for answers in various forms of religion. His naturally sharp and philosophical intellect found difficulty in accepting some of the cosmologies to which he was exposed.[5]

Study edit

Suzuki studied at Waseda University and University of Tokyo.[6][7] Suzuki set about acquiring knowledge of Chinese, Sanskrit, Pali, and several European languages. During his student years at Tokyo University, Suzuki took up Zen practice at Engaku-ji in Kamakura.[4]

Suzuki lived and studied several years with the scholar Paul Carus. Suzuki was introduced to Carus by Soyen Shaku (or Soen Shaku), who met him at the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. Carus, who had set up residence in LaSalle, Illinois, approached Soyen Shaku to request his help in translating and preparing Eastern spiritual literature for publication in the West. Soyen Shaku instead recommended his student Suzuki for the job. Suzuki lived at Dr. Carus's home, the Hegeler Carus Mansion, and worked with him, initially in translating the classic Tao Te Ching from ancient Chinese. In Illinois, Suzuki began his early work Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism.

 
Beatrice Erskine Lane (1878–1939)

Carus himself had written a book offering an insight into, and overview of, Buddhism, titled The Gospel of Buddha. Soyen Shaku wrote the introduction, and Suzuki translated the book into Japanese. At this time, around the turn of the century, quite a number of Westerners and Asians (Carus, Soyen, and Suzuki included) were involved in the worldwide Buddhist revival that had begun slowly in the 1880s.

Marriage edit

In 1911, Suzuki married Beatrice Erskine Lane Suzuki, a Radcliffe graduate and theosophist with multiple contacts with the Baháʼí Faith both in America and in Japan.[8] Later Suzuki himself joined the Theosophical Society Adyar and was an active theosophist.[9][10][11]

Career edit

 
Hu Shih and DT Suzuki during his visit to China in 1934

Professor of Buddhist philosophies edit

Besides living in the United States, Suzuki traveled through Europe before taking up a professorship back in Japan. In 1909, Suzuki became an assistant professor at Gakushuin University and at the Tokyo University.[6] Suzuki and his wife dedicated themselves to spreading an understanding of Mahayana Buddhism. Until 1919 they lived in a cottage on the Engaku-ji grounds, then moved to Kyoto, where Suzuki began professorship at Ōtani University in 1921. While he was in Kyoto, he visited Dr. Hoseki Shin'ichi Hisamatsu, a Zen Buddhist scholar, and they discussed Zen Buddhism together at Shunkō-in temple in the Myōshin-ji temple complex.

In 1921, the year he joined Ōtani University, he and his wife founded the Eastern Buddhist Society.[12] The Society is focused on Mahayana Buddhism and offers lectures and seminars, and publishes a scholarly journal, The Eastern Buddhist.[13] Suzuki maintained connections in the West and, for instance, delivered a paper at the World Congress of Faiths in 1936, at the University of London (he was an exchange professor during this year).

Besides teaching about Zen practice and the history of Zen (Chan) Buddhism, Suzuki was an expert scholar on the related philosophy called, in Japanese, Kegon, which he thought of as the intellectual explication of Zen experience.

Suzuki received numerous honors, including Japan's National Medal of Culture.

Studies edit

A professor of Buddhist philosophy in the middle decades of the 20th century, Suzuki wrote introductions and overall examinations of Buddhism, and particularly of the Zen school. He went on a lecture tour of American universities in 1951, and taught at Columbia University from 1952 to 1957.

Suzuki was especially interested in the formative centuries of this Buddhist tradition in China. A lot of Suzuki's writings in English concern themselves with translations and discussions of bits of the Chan texts the Biyan Lu (Blue Cliff Record) and the Wumenguan (Mumonkan/Gateless Passage), which record the teaching styles and words of the classical Chinese masters. He was also interested in how this tradition, once imported into Japan, had influenced Japanese character and history, and wrote about it in English in Zen and Japanese Culture. Suzuki's reputation was secured in England prior to the U.S.

In addition to his popularly oriented works, Suzuki wrote a translation of the Lankavatara Sutra and a commentary on its Sanskrit terminology. He looked in on the efforts of Saburō Hasegawa, Judith Tyberg, Alan Watts and the others who worked in the California Academy of Asian Studies (now known as the California Institute of Integral Studies), in San Francisco in the 1950s. In his later years, he began to explore the Jōdo Shinshū faith of his mother's upbringing, and gave guest lectures on Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism at the Buddhist Churches of America.

Suzuki produced an incomplete English translation of the Kyogyoshinsho, the magnum opus of Shinran, founder of the Jōdo Shinshū school. He is quoted as saying that Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism is the "most remarkable development of Mahayana Buddhism ever achieved in East Asia".[14] Suzuki also took an interest in Christian mysticism and in some of the most significant mystics of the West, for example, Meister Eckhart, whom he compared with the Jōdo Shinshū followers called Myokonin. Suzuki was among the first to bring research on the Myokonin to audiences outside Japan as well.

Other works include Essays in Zen Buddhism (three volumes), Studies in Zen Buddhism, and Manual of Zen Buddhism. American philosopher William Barrett compiled many of Suzuki's articles and essays concerning Zen into a 1956 anthology entitled Zen Buddhism.

Scholarly opinions edit

It was Suzuki's contention that a Zen "awakening" was the goal of the tradition's training, but that what distinguished the tradition as it developed through the centuries in China was a way of life radically different from that of Indian Buddhists. In India, the tradition of the holy beggar prevailed, but in China, social circumstances led to the development of a temple-and-training center system in which the abbot and the monks all performed mundane tasks. These included food gardening or farming, carpentry, architecture, housekeeping, administration (or community direction), and the practice of folk medicine. Consequently, the enlightenment sought in Zen had to stand up well to the demands and potential frustrations of everyday life.[15][16]

Suzuki took an interest in other traditions besides Zen. His book Zen and Japanese Buddhism delved into the history and scope of interest of all the major Japanese Buddhist sects.

Zen training edit

While studying at Tokyo University Suzuki took up Zen practice at Engaku-ji, one of Kamakura's Five Mountains, first studying with Kosen Roshi. After Kosen's 1892 passing, Suzuki continued with Kosen's successor at Engaku-ji, Soyen Shaku.[17]

Under Rōshi Soyen, the first master to teach zen Buddhism in America, Suzuki's studies were essentially internal and non-verbal, including long periods of sitting meditation. The task involved what Suzuki described as four years of mental, physical, moral, and intellectual struggle. During training periods at Engaku-ji, Suzuki lived a monk's life. He described this life and his own experience at Kamakura in his book The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk. Suzuki characterized the facets of the training as: a life of humility; a life of labor; a life of service; a life of prayer and gratitude; and a life of meditation.[18]

Suzuki was invited by Shaku to visit the United States in the 1890s, and Suzuki acted as English-language translator for a book by Shaku (1906). Though Suzuki had by this point translated some ancient Asian texts into English (e.g. Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana), his role in translating and ghost-writing aspects of Soyen Shaku's book was more the beginning of Suzuki's career as a writer in English.[19]

Later in life, Suzuki was, on a personal level, more inclined to Jodo Shin (True Pure Land) practice, seeing in the doctrine of Tariki, or other power as opposed to self-power, an abandonment of self that is entirely complementary to Zen practice and yet to his mind even less willful than traditional Zen. In his book Buddha of Infinite Light (2002), (originally titled, Shin Buddhism) Suzuki declared that, "Of all the developments that Mahayana Buddhism has achieved in East Asia, the most remarkable one is the Shin teaching of Pure Land Buddhism." (p. 22)

Spread of Zen in the West edit

Zen-messenger edit

Suzuki spread Zen in the West. Philosopher Charles A. Moore said:

Suzuki in his later years was not just a reporter of Zen, not just an expositor, but a significant contributor to the development of Zen and to its enrichment.

Buddhist modernism edit

As Suzuki portrayed it, Zen Buddhism was a highly practical religion whose emphasis on direct experience made it particularly comparable to forms of mysticism that scholars such as William James had emphasized as the fountainhead of all religious sentiment.[20] It is this idea of a common essence that made Suzuki's ideas recognizable to a Western audience, who could identify with the Western esotericism concealed in it, disguised as eastern metaphysics.[21] Suzuki presents a version of Zen that can be described as detraditionalized and essentialized. This resemblance is not coincidental, since Suzuki was also influenced by Western esotericism,[11] and even joined the Theosophical Society.[10]

Several scholars have identified Suzuki as a Buddhist modernist. As scholar David McMahan describes it, Buddhist modernism consists of

forms of Buddhism that have emerged out of an engagement with the dominant cultural and intellectual forces of modernity."[22]

Most scholars agree that the influence of Protestant and Enlightenment values have largely defined some of the more conspicuous attributes of Buddhist modernism.[23] McMahan cites

western monotheism; rationalism and scientific naturalism; and Romantic expressivism" as influences.[24]

Buddhist modernist traditions often consist of a deliberate de-emphasis of the ritual and metaphysical elements of the religion, as these elements are seen as incommensurate with the discourses of modernity. Buddhist modernist traditions have also been characterized as being "detraditionalized," often being presented in a way that occludes their historical construction. Instead, Buddhist modernists often employ an essentialized description of their tradition, where key tenets are described as universal and sui generis. It was this form of Zen that has been popularized in the West:

The popular "lay" image of Zen, notably the notion that Zen refers not to a specific school of Buddhism but rather to a mystical or spiritual gnosis that transcends sectarian boundaries, is largely a twentieth-century construct. Beginning with the persecution of Buddhism in the early Meiji (haibutsu kishaku) Zen apologists have been forced to respond to secular and empiricist critiques of religion in general, and to Japanese nativist critiques of Buddhism as a "foreign funerary cult" in particular. In response, partisans of Zen drew upon Western philosophical and theological strategies in their attempt to adapt their faith to the modern age.[25]

Criticism edit

Suzuki has been criticized for his essentialist approach. As early as 1951, Hu Shih[26][27] criticized Suzuki for presenting an idealist picture of Zen.[28]

McMahan states:

In his discussion of humanity and nature, Suzuki takes Zen literature out of its social, ritual, and ethical contexts and reframes it in terms of a language of metaphysics derived from German Romantic idealism, English romanticism, and American transcendentalism.[29]

Suzuki's approach has been marked as "incomprehensible":

... D. T. Suzuki, whose most cherished methodology seems to have been to describe some aspect of Zen as beyond ordinary explanation, then offer a suitably incomprehensible story or two by way of illustration. Obviously, Suzuki's approach captured the imaginations of generations of readers. However, while this approach substantiated Suzuki's authority as one with insider access to the profound truths of the tradition, another result was to increase the confusion in reader's minds. To question such accounts was to admit one did not "get it", to distance oneself even further from the goal of achieving what Suzuki termed the "Zen enlightenment experience".[30]

Involvement with Japanese nationalism edit

According to Sharf and Victoria, Suzuki was associated with Japanese nationalism and its propagation via the appraisal of Japanese Zen.[31] He has been criticised for defending the Japanese war effort,[32] though Suzuki's thoughts on these have also been placed in the context of western supremacy in the first half of the 20th century, and the reaction against this supremacy in Asian countries.[21]{

View on Nazism and anti-Semitism edit

Brian Victoria delivered lectures in Germany in 2012 in which he revealed evidence of Suzuki's sympathy for the Nazi regime.[33][34] Victoria writes,

"D. T. Suzuki left a record of his early view of the Nazi movement that was included in a series of articles published in the Japanese Buddhist newspaper, Chūgai Nippō, on 3, 4, 6, 11 and 13 October 1936." In this Suzuki expresses his agreement with Hitler's policies as explained to him by a relative living in Germany.

"While they don't know much about politics, they have never enjoyed greater peace of mind than they have now. For this alone, they want to cheer Hitler on. This is what my relative told me. It is quite understandable, and I am in agreement with him." He also expresses agreement with Hitler's expulsion of the Jews from Germany.

"Changing the topic to Hitler's expulsion of the Jews, it appears that in this, too, there are a lot of reasons for his actions. While it is a very cruel policy, when looked at from the point of view of the current and future happiness of the entire German people, it may be that, for a time, some sort of extreme action is necessary in order to preserve the nation."

Suzuki expressed sympathy with individual Jews. "As regards individuals, this is truly a regrettable situation."[33]

Suzuki was a friend of Karlfried Graf von Dürckheim. Dürckheim, also a noted expounder of Japanese Zen philosophy in the West, was a committed Nazi and worked for the German Foreign Office in Tokyo during the war.[35] He helped his friend Suzuki introduce Zen Buddhism to the West.

Yet perhaps this information, by itself, comprises no appropriate nuance when considering Suzuki's attitudes, and may be counterpoised by the quotation from Kemmyō Taira Satō given in the section below ("Japanese nationalism").

New Buddhism edit

At the onset of modernization in the Meiji period, in 1868, when Japan entered the international community, Buddhism was briefly persecuted in Japan[32] as "a corrupt, decadent, anti-social, parasitic, and superstitious creed, inimical to Japan's need for scientific and technological advancement".[36] The Japanese government intended to eradicate the tradition, which was seen as a foreign "other", incapable of fostering the nativist sentiments that would be vital for national, ideological cohesion. In addition to this, industrialization led to the breakdown of the parishioner system that had funded Buddhist monasteries for centuries.[37] However, a group of modern Buddhist leaders emerged to argue for the Buddhist cause.[37] These leaders stood in agreement with the government persecution of Buddhism, accepting the notion of a corrupt Buddhist institution in need of revitalization.

As a response to the modernisation of Japan and the persecution of Buddhism, the shin bukkyo, or "New Buddhism", came into existence. It was led by university-educated intellectuals who had been exposed to a vast body of Western intellectual literature. Advocates of New Buddhism, like Suzuki's teachers Kosen and his successor Soyen Shaku, saw this movement as a defense of Buddhism against government persecution, and also saw it as a way to bring their nation into the modern world as a competitive cultural force.[38]

Scholars such as Robert Sharf, as well as Japanese Zen monk G. Victor Sogen Hori,[39] have argued that the breed of Japanese Zen that was propagated by New Buddhism ideologues, such as Imakita Kosen and Soyen Shaku, was not typical of Japanese Zen during their time, nor is it typical of Japanese Zen now. Its importance lies especially within western Zen:

Suffice it to say that, just as the writings of Suzuki and Hisamatsu are not representative of traditional (i.e., pre-Meiji) Zen exegetics, the style of Zen training most familiar to Western Zen practitioners can be traced to relatively recent and sociologically marginal Japanese lay movements which have neither the sanction nor the respect of the modern Rinzai or Sōtō monastic orthodoxies. Indeed, the one feature shared by virtually all of the figures responsible for the Western interest in Zen is their relatively marginal status within the Japanese Zen establishment. While Suzuki, Nishida, and their intellectual heirs may have shaped the manner in which Westerners have come to think of Zen, the influence of these Japanese intellectuals on the established Zen sects in Japan has been negligible. At this point, it is necessary to affirm that Japanese Zen monasticism is indeed still alive, despite the shrill invectives of some expatriate Zen missionaries who insist that authentic Zen can no longer be found in Japan.[31]

The traditional form of Zen has been greatly altered by the Meiji restoration, but Japanese Zen still flourishes as a monastic tradition. The Zen tradition in Japan, in its customary form, required a great deal of time and discipline from monks that laity would have difficulty finding. Zen monks were often expected to have spent several years in intensive doctrinal study, memorizing sutras and poring over commentaries, before even entering the monastery to undergo kōan practice in sanzen with a Zen master.[40] The fact that Suzuki himself was able to do so (as a layman) was largely the invention of New Buddhism.

Japanese nationalism edit

During the Meiji restoration the Nihonjinron philosophy took prevalence. It emphasizes the uniqueness of the Japanese people. This uniqueness has been attributed to many different factors. Suzuki attributed it to Zen. In his view, Zen embodies the ultimate essence of all philosophy and religion. He pictured Zen as a unique expression of Asian spirituality, which was considered to be superior to the western ways of thinking.[31]

Sharf criticizes this uniqueness theory, as propagated by Suzuki:

The nihonjinron cultural exceptionalism polemic in Suzuki's work—the grotesque caricatures of 'East' versus 'West'—is no doubt the most egregiously inane manifestation of his nationalist leanings.[41]

Sharf also doubts the motivations of Suzuki:

One is led to suspect that Suzuki's lifelong effort to bring Buddhist enlightenment to the Occident had become inextricably bound to a studied contempt for the West.[42]

Kemmyō Taira Satō does not agree with this critical assessment of Suzuki:

In cases where Suzuki directly expresses his position on the contemporary political situation—whether in his articles, public talks, or letters to friends (in which he would have had no reason to misrepresent his views)—he is clear and explicit in his distrust of and opposition to State Shinto, rightwing thought, and the other forces that were pushing Japan toward militarism and war, even as he expressed interest in decidedly non-rightist ideologies like socialism. In this Suzuki's standpoint was consistent from the late nineteenth century through to the postwar years. These materials reveal in Suzuki an intellectual independence, a healthy scepticism of political ideology and government propaganda, and a sound appreciation for human rights.[43]

Praise of Suzuki's work edit

Suzuki's books have been widely read and commented on. One example is An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, which includes a 30-page commentary by analytical psychologist Carl Jung, who wrote of Suzuki:

Suzuki's works on Zen Buddhism are among the best contributions to the knowledge of living Buddhism. We cannot be sufficiently grateful to the author, first for the fact of his having brought Zen closer to Western understanding, and secondly for the manner in which he has achieved this task.[44]

But Jung was also critical, warning against an uncritical borrowing from Asian spirituality.

Bibliography edit

These essays made Zen known in the West for the very first time:

  • Essays in Zen Buddhism: First Series (1927), New York: Grove Press.
  • Essays in Zen Buddhism: Second Series (1933), New York: Samuel Weiser, Inc. 1953–1971. Edited by Christmas Humphreys.
  • Essays in Zen Buddhism: Third Series (1934), York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, Inc. 1953. Edited by Christmas Humphreys.
  • Suzuki translated the Lankavatara Sutra from the original Sanskrit. Boulder, CO: Prajña Press, 1978, ISBN 0877737029, first published Routledge Kegan Paul, 1932.

Shortly after, a second series followed:

  • An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, Kyoto: Eastern Buddhist Soc. 1934. Republished with foreword by C.G. Jung, London: Rider & Company, 1948. Suzuki calls this an "outline of Zen teaching."[45]
  • The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk, Kyoto: Eastern Buddhist Soc. 1934. New York: University Books, 1959. This work covers a "description of the Meditation Hall and its life".[45]
  • Manual of Zen Buddhism, Kyoto: Eastern Buddhist Soc. 1935. London: Rider & Company, 1950, 1956. New York: Random House, 1960 and subsequent editions. A collection of Buddhist sutras, classic texts from the masters, icons and images, including the "Ten Ox-Herding Pictures". Suzuki writes that this work is to "inform the reader of the various literary materials relating to the monastic life...what the Zen monk reads before the Buddha in his daily service, where his thoughts move in his leisure hours, and what objects of worship he has in the different quarters of his institution."[45]

After World War II, a new interpretation:

  • The Zen Doctrine of No-Mind, London: Rider & Company, 1949. York Beach, Maine: Red Wheel/Weiser 1972, ISBN 0877281823.
  • Living by Zen. London: Rider & Company, 1949.
  • Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist: The Eastern and Western Way, Macmillan, 1957. "A study of the qualities Meister Eckhart shares with Zen and Shin Buddhism". Includes translation of myokonin Saichi's poems.
  • Zen and Japanese Culture, New York: Pantheon Books, 1959. A classic.
  • Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis, Erich Fromm, D. T. Suzuki, and De Martino. Approximately one third of this book is a long discussion by Suzuki that gives a Buddhist analysis of the mind, its levels, and the methodology of extending awareness beyond the merely discursive level of thought. In producing this analysis, Suzuki gives a theoretical explanation for many of the swordsmanship teaching stories in Zen and Japanese Culture that otherwise would seem to involve mental telepathy, extrasensory perception, etc.

Miscellaneous:

  • An anthology of his work until the mid-1950s: Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D. T. Suzuki, Doubleday, New York: 1956. Edited by William Barrett.
  • Very early work on a Western mystic-philosopher. Swedenborg: Buddha of the North, West Chester, Pa: Swedenborg Foundation, 1996. Trans. by Andrew Bernstein of Swedenborugu, 1913.
  • A Miscellany on the Shin Teaching of Buddhism; Kyōto, Shinshū Ōtaniha, 1949.
  • Shin Buddhism; New York, Harper & Row, 1970.
  • Gutoku Shaku Shinran, The Kyōgyōshinshō, The Collection of Passages Expounding the True Teaching, Living, Faith, and Realizing of the Pure Land, translated by Daisetz Teitarō Suzuki (ed. by The Eastern Buddhist Society); Kyōto, Shinshū Ōtaniha, 1973.
  • Collected Writings on Shin Buddhism (ed. by The Eastern Buddhist Society); Kyōto, Shinshū Ōtaniha, 1973.
  • Transcription of talks on Shin Buddhism. Buddha of Infinite Light. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1998. Edited by Taitetsu Unno.
  • 'Tribute; anthology of essays by great thinkers. D. T. Suzuki: A Zen Life Remembered. Wheatherhill, 1986. Reprinted by Shambhala Publications.
  • See also the works of Alan Watts, Paul Reps et al.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Stirling 2006, pg. 125
  2. ^ D. T. Suzuki Museum, accessed 2012.2.17; Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, D.Litt., "Manual of Zen Buddhism", Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc. set in PDF, 2005, accessed 2012.2.17; A Zen Life: The D.T.Suzuki Documentary Project, accessed 2012 February 17
  3. ^ Nomination Database
  4. ^ a b Fields 1992, pg. 138.
  5. ^ D. T. Suzuki "Introduction: Early Memories" in The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk. New York: University Books. 1965
  6. ^ a b Suzuki, D.T. (1972) Shin Buddhism. New York: Harper & Row, p 93 (bio)
  7. ^ Sharf, Robert (2005).Suzuki, D. T., in The Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., edited by Lindsay Jones, New York: Macmillan, vol. 13, pp. 8884–8887
  8. ^ Tweed 2005.
  9. ^ Algeo 2005
  10. ^ a b Algeo 2007
  11. ^ a b Tweed 2005
  12. ^ the Eastern Buddhist Society
  13. ^ The Eastern Buddhist 18 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ D.T. Suzuki Buddha of Infinite Light: The Teachings of Shin Buddhism: the Japanese Way of Wisdom and Compassion Boulder: Shambhala; New Ed edition. 2002 ISBN 1570624569
  15. ^ D.T. Suzuki Studies in Zen, pp. 155–156. New York:Delta. 1955
  16. ^ D.T. Suzuki Zen and Japanese Culture. New York: Bollingen/Princeton University Press, 1970 ISBN 0691098492
  17. ^ Andreasen 1998, p. 56
  18. ^ D.T. Suzuki The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk. New York: University Books. 1965.
  19. ^ Fields 1992 Chapter Ten
  20. ^ William James "The Varieties of Religious Experience" (New York: Collier Books, 1981)
  21. ^ a b McMahan 2008.
  22. ^ McMahan 2008:6
  23. ^ See Tomoko Masuzawa "The Invention of World Religions" (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), amongst others
  24. ^ McMahan 2008:10
  25. ^ Sharf 1995:44
  26. ^ McRae 2001, pp. 71–74.
  27. ^ Faure 1996, pp. 89–99.
  28. ^ Hu Shih 1953
  29. ^ McMahan 2008:125
  30. ^ McRae 2003:74
  31. ^ a b c Sharf 1993
  32. ^ a b Victoria 2006.
  33. ^ a b
  34. ^
  35. ^ Koltermann, Till Philip (2009), Der Untergang des Dritten Reiches im Spiegel der deutsch-japanischen Kulturbegegnung 1933–1945, Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 87–89
  36. ^ Sharf 1993, p. 3.
  37. ^ a b Sharf 1993, p. 4.
  38. ^ Sharf 1993, p. 7.
  39. ^ Hori 2005.
  40. ^ See Giei Sato, Unsui: a Diary of Zen Monastic Life (Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1973), amongst others
  41. ^ Sharf 1995.
  42. ^ Sharf 1993.
  43. ^ Sato 2008, p. 118.
  44. ^ D.T. Suzuki An Introduction to Zen Buddhism , Foreword by C. Jung. New York: Grove Press, p. 9. 1964 ISBN 0802130550
  45. ^ a b c Suzuki, D. T. (1978). Manual of Zen Buddhism. Random House. p. 11.

Sources edit

  • Abe, Masao, ed. (1995), A Zen Life: D.T. Suzuki Remembered, Weatherhill, ISBN 0834802139
  • Algeo, Adele S. (July 2005), "Beatrice Lane Suzuki and Theosophy in Japan", Theosophical History, XI
  • Algeo, Adele S. (January–February 2007), , Quest, 95 (1): 13–17, archived from the original on 5 March 2016, retrieved 14 December 2011
  • Andreasen, Esben (1998). Popular Buddhism in Japan: Shin Buddhist Religion & Culture. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0824820282.
  • Fields, Rick (1992). How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America. Shambhala Publications. ISBN 0877736316.
  • Faure, Bernard (1996), Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition, Princeton University Press
  • Hori, Victor Sogen (2005), "Introduction" (PDF), in Dumoulin, Heinrich (ed.), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 2: Japan, World Wisdom Books, pp. xiii–xxi, ISBN 978-0941532907
  • Hu Shih (January 1953), "Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism in China. Its History and Method", Philosophy East and West, 3 (1): 3–24, doi:10.2307/1397361, JSTOR 1397361
  • McMahan, David (2008), The Making of Buddhist Modernism, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • McRae, John (2001), Religion as Revolution in Chinese Historiography: Hu Shih (1891–1962) on Shen-hui (684–758). In: Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie 12: 59–102
  • McRae, John (2003), Seeing Through Zen. Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism, The University Press Group Ltd, ISBN 978-0520237988
  • Sato, Kemmyō Taira (2008), (PDF), The Eastern Buddhist, 39 (1): 61–120, archived from the original (PDF) on 25 October 2014
  • Sharf, Robert H. (August 1993), "The Zen of Japanese Nationalism", History of Religions, 33 (1): 1–43, doi:10.1086/463354, S2CID 161535877
  • Sharf, Robert H. (1995), Whose Zen? Zen Nationalism Revisited (PDF)
  • Stirling, Isabel (2006). Zen Pioneer: The Life & Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki. Shoemaker & Hoard. ISBN 978-1593761103.
  • Tweed, Thomas A. (2005), (PDF), Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 32 (2): 249–281, archived from the original (PDF) on 22 May 2012, retrieved 14 December 2011
  • Victoria, Brian Daizen (2006), Zen at war (Second ed.), Lanham e.a.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
  • Victoria, Brian Daizen (2010). (PDF). The Eastern Buddhist. 41 (2): 97–138. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 November 2014.

External links edit

  • at the Wayback Machine (archived 4 February 2005)
  • Eastern Buddhist Society
  • Shunkoin Temple 17 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  • Matsugaoka Bunko Dr. Suzuki's Zen institute
  • D.T. Suzuki Documentary
  • D. T. Suzuki Museum
  • Biographical Sketch
  • "An ambassador of enlightenment: The man who brought Zen to the West", The Japan Times, Thursday, 16 Nov 2006.
  • Whose Zen? Zen Nationalism Revisited by Robert H. Sharf
  • The Question of God: Other Voices: D.T. Suzuki, PBS series, WGBH, Boston, September 2004.
  • Japanese Spirituality (『日本的霊性』1944), translated by Norman Waddell(1972)
  • Works by or about D. T. Suzuki at Internet Archive
  • Works by D. T. Suzuki at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)  

suzuki, daisetsu, teitaro, suzuki, 鈴木, 大拙, 貞太郎, suzuki, daisetsu, teitarō, october, 1870, july, 1966, self, rendered, 1894, daisetz, japanese, essayist, philosopher, religious, scholar, translator, writer, scholar, author, books, essays, buddhism, shin, that, . Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki 鈴木 大拙 貞太郎 Suzuki Daisetsu Teitarō 18 October 1870 12 July 1966 1 self rendered in 1894 as Daisetz 2 was a Japanese essayist philosopher religious scholar translator and writer He was a scholar and author of books and essays on Buddhism Zen and Shin that were instrumental in spreading interest in both Zen and Shin and Far Eastern philosophy in general to the West Suzuki was also a prolific translator of Chinese Korean Japanese Vietnamese and Sanskrit literature Suzuki spent several lengthy stretches teaching or lecturing at Western universities and devoted many years to a professorship at Ōtani University a Japanese Buddhist school D T Suzukicirca 1953Born 1870 10 18 18 October 1870Honda machi Kanazawa JapanDied12 July 1966 1966 07 12 aged 95 Kamakura JapanOccupationUniversity professor essayist philosopher religious scholar translator writerNotable awardsNational Medal of Culture He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963 3 Contents 1 Biography 1 1 Early life 1 2 Study 1 3 Marriage 2 Career 2 1 Professor of Buddhist philosophies 2 2 Studies 2 3 Scholarly opinions 3 Zen training 4 Spread of Zen in the West 4 1 Zen messenger 4 2 Buddhist modernism 4 3 Criticism 5 Involvement with Japanese nationalism 5 1 View on Nazism and anti Semitism 5 2 New Buddhism 5 3 Japanese nationalism 6 Praise of Suzuki s work 7 Bibliography 8 See also 9 References 10 Sources 11 External linksBiography editEarly life edit nbsp His student days D T Suzuki was born Teitarō Suzuki in Honda machi Kanazawa Ishikawa Prefecture the fourth son of physician Ryojun Suzuki The Buddhist name Daisetsu meaning Great Humility the kanji of which can also mean Greatly Clumsy was given to him by his Zen master Soen or Soyen Shaku 4 Although his birthplace no longer exists a humble monument marks its location a tree with a rock at its base The samurai class into which Suzuki was born declined with the fall of feudalism which forced Suzuki s mother a Jōdo Shinshu Buddhist to raise him in impoverished circumstances after his father died When he became old enough to reflect on his fate in being born into this situation he began to look for answers in various forms of religion His naturally sharp and philosophical intellect found difficulty in accepting some of the cosmologies to which he was exposed 5 Study edit Suzuki studied at Waseda University and University of Tokyo 6 7 Suzuki set about acquiring knowledge of Chinese Sanskrit Pali and several European languages During his student years at Tokyo University Suzuki took up Zen practice at Engaku ji in Kamakura 4 Suzuki lived and studied several years with the scholar Paul Carus Suzuki was introduced to Carus by Soyen Shaku or Soen Shaku who met him at the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893 Carus who had set up residence in LaSalle Illinois approached Soyen Shaku to request his help in translating and preparing Eastern spiritual literature for publication in the West Soyen Shaku instead recommended his student Suzuki for the job Suzuki lived at Dr Carus s home the Hegeler Carus Mansion and worked with him initially in translating the classic Tao Te Ching from ancient Chinese In Illinois Suzuki began his early work Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism nbsp Beatrice Erskine Lane 1878 1939 Carus himself had written a book offering an insight into and overview of Buddhism titled The Gospel of Buddha Soyen Shaku wrote the introduction and Suzuki translated the book into Japanese At this time around the turn of the century quite a number of Westerners and Asians Carus Soyen and Suzuki included were involved in the worldwide Buddhist revival that had begun slowly in the 1880s Marriage edit In 1911 Suzuki married Beatrice Erskine Lane Suzuki a Radcliffe graduate and theosophist with multiple contacts with the Bahaʼi Faith both in America and in Japan 8 Later Suzuki himself joined the Theosophical Society Adyar and was an active theosophist 9 10 11 Career edit nbsp Hu Shih and DT Suzuki during his visit to China in 1934 Professor of Buddhist philosophies edit Besides living in the United States Suzuki traveled through Europe before taking up a professorship back in Japan In 1909 Suzuki became an assistant professor at Gakushuin University and at the Tokyo University 6 Suzuki and his wife dedicated themselves to spreading an understanding of Mahayana Buddhism Until 1919 they lived in a cottage on the Engaku ji grounds then moved to Kyoto where Suzuki began professorship at Ōtani University in 1921 While he was in Kyoto he visited Dr Hoseki Shin ichi Hisamatsu a Zen Buddhist scholar and they discussed Zen Buddhism together at Shunkō in temple in the Myōshin ji temple complex In 1921 the year he joined Ōtani University he and his wife founded the Eastern Buddhist Society 12 The Society is focused on Mahayana Buddhism and offers lectures and seminars and publishes a scholarly journal The Eastern Buddhist 13 Suzuki maintained connections in the West and for instance delivered a paper at the World Congress of Faiths in 1936 at the University of London he was an exchange professor during this year Besides teaching about Zen practice and the history of Zen Chan Buddhism Suzuki was an expert scholar on the related philosophy called in Japanese Kegon which he thought of as the intellectual explication of Zen experience Suzuki received numerous honors including Japan s National Medal of Culture Studies edit A professor of Buddhist philosophy in the middle decades of the 20th century Suzuki wrote introductions and overall examinations of Buddhism and particularly of the Zen school He went on a lecture tour of American universities in 1951 and taught at Columbia University from 1952 to 1957 Suzuki was especially interested in the formative centuries of this Buddhist tradition in China A lot of Suzuki s writings in English concern themselves with translations and discussions of bits of the Chan texts the Biyan Lu Blue Cliff Record and the Wumenguan Mumonkan Gateless Passage which record the teaching styles and words of the classical Chinese masters He was also interested in how this tradition once imported into Japan had influenced Japanese character and history and wrote about it in English in Zen and Japanese Culture Suzuki s reputation was secured in England prior to the U S In addition to his popularly oriented works Suzuki wrote a translation of the Lankavatara Sutra and a commentary on its Sanskrit terminology He looked in on the efforts of Saburō Hasegawa Judith Tyberg Alan Watts and the others who worked in the California Academy of Asian Studies now known as the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco in the 1950s In his later years he began to explore the Jōdo Shinshu faith of his mother s upbringing and gave guest lectures on Jōdo Shinshu Buddhism at the Buddhist Churches of America Suzuki produced an incomplete English translation of the Kyogyoshinsho the magnum opus of Shinran founder of the Jōdo Shinshu school He is quoted as saying that Jōdo Shinshu Buddhism is the most remarkable development of Mahayana Buddhism ever achieved in East Asia 14 Suzuki also took an interest in Christian mysticism and in some of the most significant mystics of the West for example Meister Eckhart whom he compared with the Jōdo Shinshu followers called Myokonin Suzuki was among the first to bring research on the Myokonin to audiences outside Japan as well Other works include Essays in Zen Buddhism three volumes Studies in Zen Buddhism and Manual of Zen Buddhism American philosopher William Barrett compiled many of Suzuki s articles and essays concerning Zen into a 1956 anthology entitled Zen Buddhism Scholarly opinions edit It was Suzuki s contention that a Zen awakening was the goal of the tradition s training but that what distinguished the tradition as it developed through the centuries in China was a way of life radically different from that of Indian Buddhists In India the tradition of the holy beggar prevailed but in China social circumstances led to the development of a temple and training center system in which the abbot and the monks all performed mundane tasks These included food gardening or farming carpentry architecture housekeeping administration or community direction and the practice of folk medicine Consequently the enlightenment sought in Zen had to stand up well to the demands and potential frustrations of everyday life 15 16 Suzuki took an interest in other traditions besides Zen His book Zen and Japanese Buddhism delved into the history and scope of interest of all the major Japanese Buddhist sects Zen training editWhile studying at Tokyo University Suzuki took up Zen practice at Engaku ji one of Kamakura s Five Mountains first studying with Kosen Roshi After Kosen s 1892 passing Suzuki continued with Kosen s successor at Engaku ji Soyen Shaku 17 Under Rōshi Soyen the first master to teach zen Buddhism in America Suzuki s studies were essentially internal and non verbal including long periods of sitting meditation The task involved what Suzuki described as four years of mental physical moral and intellectual struggle During training periods at Engaku ji Suzuki lived a monk s life He described this life and his own experience at Kamakura in his book The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk Suzuki characterized the facets of the training as a life of humility a life of labor a life of service a life of prayer and gratitude and a life of meditation 18 Suzuki was invited by Shaku to visit the United States in the 1890s and Suzuki acted as English language translator for a book by Shaku 1906 Though Suzuki had by this point translated some ancient Asian texts into English e g Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana his role in translating and ghost writing aspects of Soyen Shaku s book was more the beginning of Suzuki s career as a writer in English 19 Later in life Suzuki was on a personal level more inclined to Jodo Shin True Pure Land practice seeing in the doctrine of Tariki or other power as opposed to self power an abandonment of self that is entirely complementary to Zen practice and yet to his mind even less willful than traditional Zen In his book Buddha of Infinite Light 2002 originally titled Shin Buddhism Suzuki declared that Of all the developments that Mahayana Buddhism has achieved in East Asia the most remarkable one is the Shin teaching of Pure Land Buddhism p 22 Spread of Zen in the West editZen messenger edit Suzuki spread Zen in the West Philosopher Charles A Moore said Suzuki in his later years was not just a reporter of Zen not just an expositor but a significant contributor to the development of Zen and to its enrichment Buddhist modernism edit As Suzuki portrayed it Zen Buddhism was a highly practical religion whose emphasis on direct experience made it particularly comparable to forms of mysticism that scholars such as William James had emphasized as the fountainhead of all religious sentiment 20 It is this idea of a common essence that made Suzuki s ideas recognizable to a Western audience who could identify with the Western esotericism concealed in it disguised as eastern metaphysics 21 Suzuki presents a version of Zen that can be described as detraditionalized and essentialized This resemblance is not coincidental since Suzuki was also influenced by Western esotericism 11 and even joined the Theosophical Society 10 Several scholars have identified Suzuki as a Buddhist modernist As scholar David McMahan describes it Buddhist modernism consists of forms of Buddhism that have emerged out of an engagement with the dominant cultural and intellectual forces of modernity 22 Most scholars agree that the influence of Protestant and Enlightenment values have largely defined some of the more conspicuous attributes of Buddhist modernism 23 McMahan cites western monotheism rationalism and scientific naturalism and Romantic expressivism as influences 24 Buddhist modernist traditions often consist of a deliberate de emphasis of the ritual and metaphysical elements of the religion as these elements are seen as incommensurate with the discourses of modernity Buddhist modernist traditions have also been characterized as being detraditionalized often being presented in a way that occludes their historical construction Instead Buddhist modernists often employ an essentialized description of their tradition where key tenets are described as universal and sui generis It was this form of Zen that has been popularized in the West The popular lay image of Zen notably the notion that Zen refers not to a specific school of Buddhism but rather to a mystical or spiritual gnosis that transcends sectarian boundaries is largely a twentieth century construct Beginning with the persecution of Buddhism in the early Meiji haibutsu kishaku Zen apologists have been forced to respond to secular and empiricist critiques of religion in general and to Japanese nativist critiques of Buddhism as a foreign funerary cult in particular In response partisans of Zen drew upon Western philosophical and theological strategies in their attempt to adapt their faith to the modern age 25 Criticism edit Suzuki has been criticized for his essentialist approach As early as 1951 Hu Shih 26 27 criticized Suzuki for presenting an idealist picture of Zen 28 McMahan states In his discussion of humanity and nature Suzuki takes Zen literature out of its social ritual and ethical contexts and reframes it in terms of a language of metaphysics derived from German Romantic idealism English romanticism and American transcendentalism 29 Suzuki s approach has been marked as incomprehensible D T Suzuki whose most cherished methodology seems to have been to describe some aspect of Zen as beyond ordinary explanation then offer a suitably incomprehensible story or two by way of illustration Obviously Suzuki s approach captured the imaginations of generations of readers However while this approach substantiated Suzuki s authority as one with insider access to the profound truths of the tradition another result was to increase the confusion in reader s minds To question such accounts was to admit one did not get it to distance oneself even further from the goal of achieving what Suzuki termed the Zen enlightenment experience 30 Involvement with Japanese nationalism editAccording to Sharf and Victoria Suzuki was associated with Japanese nationalism and its propagation via the appraisal of Japanese Zen 31 He has been criticised for defending the Japanese war effort 32 though Suzuki s thoughts on these have also been placed in the context of western supremacy in the first half of the 20th century and the reaction against this supremacy in Asian countries 21 View on Nazism and anti Semitism edit Brian Victoria delivered lectures in Germany in 2012 in which he revealed evidence of Suzuki s sympathy for the Nazi regime 33 34 Victoria writes D T Suzuki left a record of his early view of the Nazi movement that was included in a series of articles published in the Japanese Buddhist newspaper Chugai Nippō on 3 4 6 11 and 13 October 1936 In this Suzuki expresses his agreement with Hitler s policies as explained to him by a relative living in Germany While they don t know much about politics they have never enjoyed greater peace of mind than they have now For this alone they want to cheer Hitler on This is what my relative told me It is quite understandable and I am in agreement with him He also expresses agreement with Hitler s expulsion of the Jews from Germany Changing the topic to Hitler s expulsion of the Jews it appears that in this too there are a lot of reasons for his actions While it is a very cruel policy when looked at from the point of view of the current and future happiness of the entire German people it may be that for a time some sort of extreme action is necessary in order to preserve the nation Suzuki expressed sympathy with individual Jews As regards individuals this is truly a regrettable situation 33 Suzuki was a friend of Karlfried Graf von Durckheim Durckheim also a noted expounder of Japanese Zen philosophy in the West was a committed Nazi and worked for the German Foreign Office in Tokyo during the war 35 He helped his friend Suzuki introduce Zen Buddhism to the West Yet perhaps this information by itself comprises no appropriate nuance when considering Suzuki s attitudes and may be counterpoised by the quotation from Kemmyō Taira Satō given in the section below Japanese nationalism New Buddhism edit At the onset of modernization in the Meiji period in 1868 when Japan entered the international community Buddhism was briefly persecuted in Japan 32 as a corrupt decadent anti social parasitic and superstitious creed inimical to Japan s need for scientific and technological advancement 36 The Japanese government intended to eradicate the tradition which was seen as a foreign other incapable of fostering the nativist sentiments that would be vital for national ideological cohesion In addition to this industrialization led to the breakdown of the parishioner system that had funded Buddhist monasteries for centuries 37 However a group of modern Buddhist leaders emerged to argue for the Buddhist cause 37 These leaders stood in agreement with the government persecution of Buddhism accepting the notion of a corrupt Buddhist institution in need of revitalization As a response to the modernisation of Japan and the persecution of Buddhism the shin bukkyo or New Buddhism came into existence It was led by university educated intellectuals who had been exposed to a vast body of Western intellectual literature Advocates of New Buddhism like Suzuki s teachers Kosen and his successor Soyen Shaku saw this movement as a defense of Buddhism against government persecution and also saw it as a way to bring their nation into the modern world as a competitive cultural force 38 Scholars such as Robert Sharf as well as Japanese Zen monk G Victor Sogen Hori 39 have argued that the breed of Japanese Zen that was propagated by New Buddhism ideologues such as Imakita Kosen and Soyen Shaku was not typical of Japanese Zen during their time nor is it typical of Japanese Zen now Its importance lies especially within western Zen Suffice it to say that just as the writings of Suzuki and Hisamatsu are not representative of traditional i e pre Meiji Zen exegetics the style of Zen training most familiar to Western Zen practitioners can be traced to relatively recent and sociologically marginal Japanese lay movements which have neither the sanction nor the respect of the modern Rinzai or Sōtō monastic orthodoxies Indeed the one feature shared by virtually all of the figures responsible for the Western interest in Zen is their relatively marginal status within the Japanese Zen establishment While Suzuki Nishida and their intellectual heirs may have shaped the manner in which Westerners have come to think of Zen the influence of these Japanese intellectuals on the established Zen sects in Japan has been negligible At this point it is necessary to affirm that Japanese Zen monasticism is indeed still alive despite the shrill invectives of some expatriate Zen missionaries who insist that authentic Zen can no longer be found in Japan 31 The traditional form of Zen has been greatly altered by the Meiji restoration but Japanese Zen still flourishes as a monastic tradition The Zen tradition in Japan in its customary form required a great deal of time and discipline from monks that laity would have difficulty finding Zen monks were often expected to have spent several years in intensive doctrinal study memorizing sutras and poring over commentaries before even entering the monastery to undergo kōan practice in sanzen with a Zen master 40 The fact that Suzuki himself was able to do so as a layman was largely the invention of New Buddhism Japanese nationalism edit Main article Japanese nationalism During the Meiji restoration the Nihonjinron philosophy took prevalence It emphasizes the uniqueness of the Japanese people This uniqueness has been attributed to many different factors Suzuki attributed it to Zen In his view Zen embodies the ultimate essence of all philosophy and religion He pictured Zen as a unique expression of Asian spirituality which was considered to be superior to the western ways of thinking 31 Sharf criticizes this uniqueness theory as propagated by Suzuki The nihonjinron cultural exceptionalism polemic in Suzuki s work the grotesque caricatures of East versus West is no doubt the most egregiously inane manifestation of his nationalist leanings 41 Sharf also doubts the motivations of Suzuki One is led to suspect that Suzuki s lifelong effort to bring Buddhist enlightenment to the Occident had become inextricably bound to a studied contempt for the West 42 Kemmyō Taira Satō does not agree with this critical assessment of Suzuki In cases where Suzuki directly expresses his position on the contemporary political situation whether in his articles public talks or letters to friends in which he would have had no reason to misrepresent his views he is clear and explicit in his distrust of and opposition to State Shinto rightwing thought and the other forces that were pushing Japan toward militarism and war even as he expressed interest in decidedly non rightist ideologies like socialism In this Suzuki s standpoint was consistent from the late nineteenth century through to the postwar years These materials reveal in Suzuki an intellectual independence a healthy scepticism of political ideology and government propaganda and a sound appreciation for human rights 43 Praise of Suzuki s work editSuzuki s books have been widely read and commented on One example is An Introduction to Zen Buddhism which includes a 30 page commentary by analytical psychologist Carl Jung who wrote of Suzuki Suzuki s works on Zen Buddhism are among the best contributions to the knowledge of living Buddhism We cannot be sufficiently grateful to the author first for the fact of his having brought Zen closer to Western understanding and secondly for the manner in which he has achieved this task 44 But Jung was also critical warning against an uncritical borrowing from Asian spirituality Bibliography editThese essays made Zen known in the West for the very first time Essays in Zen Buddhism First Series 1927 New York Grove Press Essays in Zen Buddhism Second Series 1933 New York Samuel Weiser Inc 1953 1971 Edited by Christmas Humphreys Essays in Zen Buddhism Third Series 1934 York Beach Maine Samuel Weiser Inc 1953 Edited by Christmas Humphreys Suzuki translated the Lankavatara Sutra from the original Sanskrit Boulder CO Prajna Press 1978 ISBN 0877737029 first published Routledge Kegan Paul 1932 Shortly after a second series followed An Introduction to Zen Buddhism Kyoto Eastern Buddhist Soc 1934 Republished with foreword by C G Jung London Rider amp Company 1948 Suzuki calls this an outline of Zen teaching 45 The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk Kyoto Eastern Buddhist Soc 1934 New York University Books 1959 This work covers a description of the Meditation Hall and its life 45 Manual of Zen Buddhism Kyoto Eastern Buddhist Soc 1935 London Rider amp Company 1950 1956 New York Random House 1960 and subsequent editions A collection of Buddhist sutras classic texts from the masters icons and images including the Ten Ox Herding Pictures Suzuki writes that this work is to inform the reader of the various literary materials relating to the monastic life what the Zen monk reads before the Buddha in his daily service where his thoughts move in his leisure hours and what objects of worship he has in the different quarters of his institution 45 After World War II a new interpretation The Zen Doctrine of No Mind London Rider amp Company 1949 York Beach Maine Red Wheel Weiser 1972 ISBN 0877281823 Living by Zen London Rider amp Company 1949 Mysticism Christian and Buddhist The Eastern and Western Way Macmillan 1957 A study of the qualities Meister Eckhart shares with Zen and Shin Buddhism Includes translation of myokonin Saichi s poems Zen and Japanese Culture New York Pantheon Books 1959 A classic Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis Erich Fromm D T Suzuki and De Martino Approximately one third of this book is a long discussion by Suzuki that gives a Buddhist analysis of the mind its levels and the methodology of extending awareness beyond the merely discursive level of thought In producing this analysis Suzuki gives a theoretical explanation for many of the swordsmanship teaching stories in Zen and Japanese Culture that otherwise would seem to involve mental telepathy extrasensory perception etc Miscellaneous An anthology of his work until the mid 1950s Zen Buddhism Selected Writings of D T Suzuki Doubleday New York 1956 Edited by William Barrett Very early work on a Western mystic philosopher Swedenborg Buddha of the North West Chester Pa Swedenborg Foundation 1996 Trans by Andrew Bernstein of Swedenborugu 1913 A Miscellany on the Shin Teaching of Buddhism Kyōto Shinshu Ōtaniha 1949 Shin Buddhism New York Harper amp Row 1970 Gutoku Shaku Shinran The Kyōgyōshinshō The Collection of Passages Expounding the True Teaching Living Faith and Realizing of the Pure Land translated by Daisetz Teitarō Suzuki ed by The Eastern Buddhist Society Kyōto Shinshu Ōtaniha 1973 Collected Writings on Shin Buddhism ed by The Eastern Buddhist Society Kyōto Shinshu Ōtaniha 1973 Transcription of talks on Shin Buddhism Buddha of Infinite Light Boston Shambhala Publications 1998 Edited by Taitetsu Unno Tribute anthology of essays by great thinkers D T Suzuki A Zen Life Remembered Wheatherhill 1986 Reprinted by Shambhala Publications See also the works of Alan Watts Paul Reps et al See also edit nbsp Biography portal nbsp Religion portal nbsp Philosophy portal nbsp Japan portal Age of Enlightenment Buddhism and Theosophy Cambridge Buddhist Association Japanese Zen Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States Theosophy Zen Narratives Zen Studies SocietyReferences edit Stirling 2006 pg 125 D T Suzuki Museum accessed 2012 2 17 Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki D Litt Manual of Zen Buddhism Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc set in PDF 2005 accessed 2012 2 17 A Zen Life The D T Suzuki Documentary Project accessed 2012 February 17 Nomination Database a b Fields 1992 pg 138 D T Suzuki Introduction Early Memories in The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk New York University Books 1965 a b Suzuki D T 1972 Shin Buddhism New York Harper amp Row p 93 bio Sharf Robert 2005 Suzuki D T in The Encyclopedia of Religion 2nd ed edited by Lindsay Jones New York Macmillan vol 13 pp 8884 8887 Tweed 2005 Algeo 2005 a b Algeo 2007 a b Tweed 2005 the Eastern Buddhist Society The Eastern Buddhist Archived 18 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine D T Suzuki Buddha of Infinite Light The Teachings of Shin Buddhism the Japanese Way of Wisdom and Compassion Boulder Shambhala New Ed edition 2002 ISBN 1570624569 D T Suzuki Studies in Zen pp 155 156 New York Delta 1955 D T Suzuki Zen and Japanese Culture New York Bollingen Princeton University Press 1970 ISBN 0691098492 Andreasen 1998 p 56 D T Suzuki The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk New York University Books 1965 Fields 1992 Chapter Ten William James The Varieties of Religious Experience New York Collier Books 1981 a b McMahan 2008 McMahan 2008 6 See Tomoko Masuzawa The Invention of World Religions Chicago University of Chicago Press 2005 amongst others McMahan 2008 10 Sharf 1995 44 McRae 2001 pp 71 74 Faure 1996 pp 89 99 Hu Shih 1953 McMahan 2008 125 McRae 2003 74 a b c Sharf 1993 a b Victoria 2006 a b Lecture Universitat Hamburg 14 05 2012 Abstract lecture at the Universitat Hamburg 14 05 2012 Koltermann Till Philip 2009 Der Untergang des Dritten Reiches im Spiegel der deutsch japanischen Kulturbegegnung 1933 1945 Harrassowitz Verlag pp 87 89 Sharf 1993 p 3 a b Sharf 1993 p 4 Sharf 1993 p 7 Hori 2005 See Giei Sato Unsui a Diary of Zen Monastic Life Honolulu University Press of Hawaii 1973 amongst others Sharf 1995 Sharf 1993 Sato 2008 p 118 D T Suzuki An Introduction to Zen Buddhism Foreword by C Jung New York Grove Press p 9 1964 ISBN 0802130550 a b c Suzuki D T 1978 Manual of Zen Buddhism Random House p 11 Sources editAbe Masao ed 1995 A Zen Life D T Suzuki Remembered Weatherhill ISBN 0834802139 Algeo Adele S July 2005 Beatrice Lane Suzuki and Theosophy in Japan Theosophical History XI Algeo Adele S January February 2007 Beatrice Lane Suzuki An American Theosophist in Japan Quest 95 1 13 17 archived from the original on 5 March 2016 retrieved 14 December 2011 Andreasen Esben 1998 Popular Buddhism in Japan Shin Buddhist Religion amp Culture University of Hawaii Press ISBN 0824820282 Fields Rick 1992 How the Swans Came to the Lake A Narrative History of Buddhism in America Shambhala Publications ISBN 0877736316 Faure Bernard 1996 Chan Insights and Oversights An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition Princeton University Press Hori Victor Sogen 2005 Introduction PDF in Dumoulin Heinrich ed Zen Buddhism A History Volume 2 Japan World Wisdom Books pp xiii xxi ISBN 978 0941532907 Hu Shih January 1953 Ch an Zen Buddhism in China Its History and Method Philosophy East and West 3 1 3 24 doi 10 2307 1397361 JSTOR 1397361 McMahan David 2008 The Making of Buddhist Modernism Oxford Oxford University Press McRae John 2001 Religion as Revolution in Chinese Historiography Hu Shih 1891 1962 on Shen hui 684 758 In Cahiers d Extreme Asie 12 59 102 McRae John 2003 Seeing Through Zen Encounter Transformation and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism The University Press Group Ltd ISBN 978 0520237988 Sato Kemmyō Taira 2008 D T Suzuki and the Question of War PDF The Eastern Buddhist 39 1 61 120 archived from the original PDF on 25 October 2014 Sharf Robert H August 1993 The Zen of Japanese Nationalism History of Religions 33 1 1 43 doi 10 1086 463354 S2CID 161535877 Sharf Robert H 1995 Whose Zen Zen Nationalism Revisited PDF Stirling Isabel 2006 Zen Pioneer The Life amp Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki Shoemaker amp Hoard ISBN 978 1593761103 Tweed Thomas A 2005 American Occultism and Japanese Buddhism Albert J Edmunds D T Suzuki and Translocative History PDF Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 32 2 249 281 archived from the original PDF on 22 May 2012 retrieved 14 December 2011 Victoria Brian Daizen 2006 Zen at war Second ed Lanham e a Rowman amp Littlefield Publishers Inc Victoria Brian Daizen 2010 The Negative Side of D T Suzuki s Relationship to War PDF The Eastern Buddhist 41 2 97 138 Archived from the original PDF on 29 November 2014 External links edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to D T Suzuki nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Daisetsu Teitarō Suzuki Biography of D T Suzuki at Otani University at the Wayback Machine archived 4 February 2005 Eastern Buddhist Society Shunkoin Temple Archived 17 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine Matsugaoka Bunko Dr Suzuki s Zen institute D T Suzuki Documentary D T Suzuki Museum Biographical Sketch An ambassador of enlightenment The man who brought Zen to the West The Japan Times Thursday 16 Nov 2006 Whose Zen Zen Nationalism Revisited by Robert H Sharf The Question of God Other Voices D T Suzuki PBS series WGBH Boston September 2004 Japanese Spirituality 日本的霊性 1944 translated by Norman Waddell 1972 Works by or about D T Suzuki at Internet Archive Works by D T Suzuki at LibriVox public domain audiobooks nbsp Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title D T Suzuki amp oldid 1223115360, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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