D.T. Suzuki's 'Living by Zen' serves as an accessible gateway into the core tenets of Zen Buddhism, particularly for Western audiences. A key figure in popularizing Zen in the West, Suzuki moves beyond mere theoretical explanations, focusing instead on practical application. He illuminates how Zen's principles-mindfulness, simplicity, and experiential understanding-can be woven into daily existence to cultivate inner tranquility and clarity.
The book explores fundamental Zen concepts like meditation and the nature of reality, presenting them in a straightforward manner. Rather than relying on complex intellectual constructs, Suzuki emphasizes direct experience and intuitive insight. 'Living by Zen' functions as both a spiritual guidebook and a philosophical work, offering guidance on navigating life's challenges through a Zen lens. It is thus a valuable resource for anyone, from those new to Zen to experienced practitioners seeking to deepen their comprehension.
Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki was a well known Buddhist scholar, known for his important publications on Zen Buddhism. He was a professor at Otani University, Japan. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963.
SINCE the end of the war the author has met several young American and English inquirers about the teaching of Zen, whose approach was more or less in the modern scientific spirit. This made him go over anew the ground which he had been accustomed to cover in a somewhat old-fashioned way. Moreover, he has reconsidered to some extent his understanding of Zen in accordance with later experience and reflection. The present book is a partial result of this reconsideration, while he hopes in his future works, if he is allowed to live a few years longer, to give a fuller exposition of Zen.
Mr. Christmas Humphreys has read and revised the MS., for which the author is duly grateful.
LIVING BY ZEN was the seventh work by Dr. Suzuki published by Rider and Co. in London in his Collected Works in English, the first edition appearing in 1950.
But the Author was not quite satisfied with the original manuscript, which he sent me for publication in 1949, and in later correspondence made it clear that he was contemplating revision. In 1966, however, he died, and all at-tempts to find and use such revisions as he may have made have failed. In the circumstances, with the approval of a distinguished Rinzai Zen Roshi, who actually translated the English text for a Japanese edition, I have agreed to a reprint of the first edition as it stands. Readers, however, must bear in mind that the Author was considering, and may have made, improvements in the text, and the work as it stands must be read accordingly.
Its reappearance is overdue, for a whole generation of Zen students in the West has scarcely heard of it. Its genesis makes it different from other works in the Series, as the Author's own Preface makes clear, and in a way it may be regarded as a second introduction to Zen which some may find more helpful than An Introduction to Zen Buddhism first published in the Collection in 1947- Of the Author little need here be said. Born in 1869 of a line of doctors, he was educated in Tokyo University, but soon gave all his time to the study of Zen Buddhism at Engakuji in Kamakura. Under the famous Soyen Shaku Roshi he attained his enlightenment in 1896, just before leaving to work for a period of years with Dr. Paul Carus in Chicago. Back in Japan he dedicated his life to bringing Zen Buddhism into the lives of the people of Japan, writing some thirty books to this end, and in the intervals of frequent visits to Europe adding a further twenty in English.
He wrote with authority. Not only had he studied original works in Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese and Japanese but he had an up-to-date knowledge of Western thought in German and French as well as English, in which he wrote with such charming fluency. He was, however, more than a scholar. Though not a member of any Japanese school of Buddhism he was honoured as an enlightened Buddhist in every temple in Japan.
He died in 1966 at the age of ninety-five, still working, and we shall not in this century know his like again. If the tremendous message of Zen Buddhism is ever integrated into the spiritual life of the West, to the world's advantage, it will be largely due to the work of that great teacher, scholar and man of Zen whom we knew and loved as Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki.
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