An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

Difficult to define Zen, but Suzuki helped me a lot to have a glimpse of understanding by getting what Zen is not....and the explanation on satori makes sense even to my non-Zen thinking....

Not always easy but still a classic

I wanted to read this for a while so I was very excited when I got it. I was not disappointed, it made a very good read and the book really gets you to think over many things in life. Recommend!

Zen can be very confusing! This book is a great introduction to the subject, and is a good starting point for anyone wishing to explore this subject further.

This very cheap printing of a classic text has quite a large number of typos and misprints, and isn't very nicely presented. Still, it's a cheap way to get hold of Suzuki's work.

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

This is a short (Suzuki's part of the book is almost exactly 100 pages) collection of essays which first appeared during the First World War. The age of the collection may put some people off - more hip and contemporary writers are, of course, far more attractive to us modern readers, despite the fact that what Suzuki is writing about extends back hundreds of years. To disregard this book on those grounds would be a mistake. Suzuki's style is excellent, he writes clearly, simply and eloquently and there is plenty of freshness in what he has to say. The essays themselves are all fascinating and certain to interest any serious student of Zen, as well as being a good introduction to many Zen principles for the less dedicated reader. Suzuki addresses familiar questions - "What is Zen?" and "Is Zen Nihilistic?", for example - and also expounds on practical Zen and the essential aim of Zen ("to acquire a new viewpoint"), among other things. His longest essay is devoted to an excellent discussion of the koan and there is a short but fascinating article on the traditional Zen meditation hall and the life of a monk. Suzuki's contribution to the book, then, is a beautiful one, and I would say an excellent and accessible introduction to his works. What makes the book that little bit different for me, however, is the foreword, a 20-page essay by Carl Jung. In this, Jung writes "Great as is the value of Zen Buddhism...its use among Western people is very improbable". I wonder what he would have to say if he could see the world today. So, in a nutshell - rather short, but worth a look.

This is not a review.