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Christmas Humphreys

Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki

INTRO TO ZEN BUDDHISM Mass Market Paperback – Nov. 12 1973

by Daisetz T. Suzuki (Author)

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Language

English
Publisher

Ballantine Books
Publication date

Nov. 12 1973
ISBN-10

0345236564
ISBN-13

978-0345236562
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Daisetz T. Suzuki
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books (Nov. 12 1973)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0345236564
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345236562
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 86.2 g

Best Sellers Rank: #2,274,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,873 in Zen

Customer Reviews:
412 ratings

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Christmas Humphreys
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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

412 global ratings

5 star		66%
4 star		18%
3 star		9%
2 star		3%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from Canada

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Customer

An Introduction to Zen Buddhism by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

It's a joy to read this deservedly famous writer's introduction to ZEN.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 17, 2018

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Excellent livre de Suzuki Roshi

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 20, 2017

As someone just beginning a journey into eastern philosophy I found this book a fantastic beginner book, very insightful. Shorter than I had imagined but nonetheless filled with much to think about for the mind uninitiated into much of the Eastern way of thought and of course Zen in particular. Would recommend for sure.

One person found this helpful

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Suckwoo Lee

The most basic material on Zen

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 29, 2003

Zen Buddhism was systemically introduced to the West by Zen master Suzuki. He wrote several books on Zen in plain English and those books are still counted as basic materials to understand Zen. This book cites numerous anecdotes of the heyday of Zen Buddhism, Tang dynasty. This is the typical style of Zen primer.
Buddha attacked the Hinduist concept of atman. Atman is similar to the Platonic forms, that is, all phenomenons have their substance. This way of thought is deeply ingrained in our language. For example, ¡®I¡¯ am always ¡®I¡¯. When I was 5 years old, when I was 20 years old, and when I will be 60 years. And that, we think, with no questioning, those ¡®I¡¯s should have the same identity. And our friends should be so. But those ¡®I¡¯ and she/he could not be the same ones. What always is there is only the name we give. You could know it with no being lost in thought. Buddha taught that the object that our attention is directed lacks the substance and what we really recognize is only the name. The enlightenment, the ultimate goal of Buddhism, is just breaking through the boundaries of that kind of mundane thought. But achieving such breaking is near-impossible. We could understand what Buddha said but knowing is not doing.
Mahayana Buddhism built up heady mountain of scriptures. By the 12 c., it amounted to 160 thousands pages in total. Zen suspected that the enlightenment couldn¡¯t be achieved with reading scripts and meditation. It is best reached not by the study of scripture, the practice of good deeds, rites and ceremonies, or worship of images, but by shaking up ordinary inertia. Zen Buddhism employed Koans to do it. Koan is a brief paradoxical statement or question used as a discipline in meditation. The effort to solve a koan is designed to exhaust the analytic intellect and the will, leaving the mind open for response on an intuitive level. There are about 1,700 traditional koans, which are based on anecdotes from ancient Zen masters. They include the well-known example "When both hands are clapped a sound is produced; listen to the sound of one hand clapping." This should sound the at best illogical at worst babble. But koan is the typical way to reach to the enlightenment in Zen Buddhism. And it is inevitable to write the history of Zen Buddhism is to write the list of koans. This book is no exception. But each koan had its own situation. So each koan should be introduced with its own locale. And this determines the writing style of the Zen primers: almost all Zen primers take the form of storytelling. And Zen master Suzuki is an excellent raconteur.
But Suzuki restrains himself to storyteller, not interpreter of each koan. So you should guess the meaning of koans by yourself. This is the very tradition of Zen-related books. Suzuki could put the meaning of koans in words. But such wording can¡¯t catch the very essence of koan. You should realize it by yourself. All the cues are in this book.

3 people found this helpful

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Erika Borsos

A Drink of Water for a Thirsty Man in the Desert

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 3, 2004

Amazingly my volume of this book was published in 1964 and looking at the preface, the book was created from articles written in Japan in 1914 ... The author states if he can lead the reader to study more of his work he has achieved his goal. This volume will serve to quench the thirst and hunger of any reader who is interested in Zen and it will lead one to try to understand more of the concepts associated with this experience.
The introduction is written by Dr. Carl Gustav Jung, who tells us, that the oriental concepts of Tao, satori, and the Buddhist concept of kamma are so different from Western ideas that it is difficult to translate. Yet he gives his highest recommendations to this volume -- no small matter, from one such as he is... a world famous psychiatrist and psychologist. The Zen texts say "enlightenment" is a natural occurence, and that it is a state of insight into the nature of self. Jung tells us it is a state of "spiritual reality", that 'satori' is a psychic occurence. It is a state of 'seeing things differently', a state of "consciousness of the consciousness" ... It is associated with "becoming whole" ... a spiritual experience that is part of consciousness ... but more expansive. Jung considers it is duty to tell Westerners -- it is "the longest of roads" -- "difficulties strew the path" -- "trodden by only a few of our great men" -- it remains for most -- "a beacon on a high mountain, shining out in a haze future". [p.27]
D.T. Suzuki in his "Preliminary" describes the two paths of Buddhism, the Lesser Vehicle and Higher Vehicle. "Personal experience is everything in Zen." [p.33]"No amount of meditation will keep Zen in one place." [p.41] He provides chapters on "nihilistic zen", "illogical zen", and "zen a higher affirmation". Practical zen, koans, and acquiring '"satori" or a new viewpoint' are well documented with fine examples. For a book of *only* 132 pages the breadth, width and depth of detail is astonishing. The author proves to be a master of his subject, indeed, no one else can whet the appetite of a beginner and have them searching to know more. This is the best gift a writer can provide -- this author provides us his *very* *best*. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Secret Squirrel

More like a pamphlet than a book... 56 pages... Very poor quality binding... Avoid!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

Very low quality reprint of a few magazine articles. Only 56 pages in total. Horrible pixelated scanned cover. I recommend you to look for the full version by Suzuki instead. Returned immediately. However, return/refund was free/immediate, so thanks Amazon - I'm still a happy customer :-).

7 people found this helpful

J

Good book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 14, 2019

Verified Purchase

It is exactly what it says it is and I was not disappointed.

One person found this helpful

D Smith

Quite a difficult book. I've reread parts of it ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 18, 2015

Verified Purchase

Quite a difficult book. I've reread parts of it many times and gradually gain some insight.

One person found this helpful

B. L. Smith

Be careful --- some of the reviews refer to a ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 30, 2014

Verified Purchase

Be careful --- some of the reviews refer to a much longer version of this book (9 chapters, over 100 pages), but this version is actually only 3 chapters (as shown in the Kindle sample via 'Look Inside')

16 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 25, 2018

Verified Purchase

Perfect

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Follow the Authors

INTRO TO ZEN BUDDHISM Mass Market Paperback – Nov. 12 1973

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About the authors

Christmas Humphreys

Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki

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