Essays in Zen Buddhism

Knowledge of Zen Buddhism in the West is largely due to the work of the late Dr. D. T. Suzuki of Japan who, after strenuous study, attained his Zen enlightenment at the age of twenty seven. Thereafter he taught and wrote for sixty five years, with frequent visits to Europe and the U.S.A.

In this third series of essays, the author studies, with a wealth of illustration, the evolution of the profound but extremely metaphysical discoveries of Indian philosophy from a form which suited the Indian mind to that which was compatible with the more practical, extrovert, and humorous mind of the Chinese. The change is immense, and the story of its evolution lucidly and interestingly told. The Chapter on the Bodhisattva Ideal is the answer to all who regard Buddhism as ‘cold’, whilst that on Zen and Japanese culture tells more of the actual practices of Zen Buddhism than any number of theoretical text-books.

The book contains a magnificent collection of pictures reproduced from Chinese and Japanese paintings accompanied by illuminating comments from the author.