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Summary:
A respected Zen master in Japan and founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, Shunryu Suzuki has blazed a path in American Buddhism like few others. He is the master who climbs down from the pages of the koan books and answers your questions face to face. If not face to face, you can at least find the answers as recorded in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, a transcription of juicy excerpts from his lectures. From diverse topics such as transience of the world, sudden enlightenment, and the nuts and bolts of meditation, Suzuki always returns to the idea of beginner's mind, a recognition that our original nature is our true nature. With beginner's mind, we dedicate ourselves to sincere practice, without the thought of gaining anything special. Day to day life becomes our Zen training, and we discover that "to study Buddhism is to study ourselves." And to know our true selves is to be enlightened. --Brian Bruya
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Shushô: Practice/Enlightenment
Customer Rating:
Who would want to criticise Suzuki-roshi, perhaps the best-loved figure in American Zen, or this wise, likeable book, the result of a lifetime's dedicated practice? Still it does show up the limitations of Sôtô Zen as practised in Japan, and still more when seeded overseas.
Sôtô Zen leads to an open-ended model of practice. You sit for the sake of sitting, not to achieve anything. Your practice goes on and on like a meandering river, now swift and narrow, now broad and slow, and now troubled by rocks and rapids. Whatever happens in meditation you "let go" of it and start again tomorrow with a "beginner's mind". The notion of aiming at Enlightenment is anathema. That is Dualistic Thinking. Aren't Practice and Enlightenment one and the same?
But read the Pali Canon. You'll find that hundreds of times the Buddha urges his listeners to work with all their strength to attain Enlightenment. Why the contradiction? From the highest standpoint, of course you can't attain Enlightenment: in Enlightenment there is no You, no Attainment. But this is a level of truth beyond most of us. No-one was ever nourished by pictures of food and no-one was ever enlightened by repeating words like "Nonduality" or "Must avoid Dualistic Thinking".
Have you experienced a Nondual state, with self and world perceived as One? Or a state of pure Unity beyond time and space, without subject or object? Can you "drop off body and mind" like Dôgen-Zenji or "dwell without thought-coverings" as in the Heart Sutra? If the answer is No, then saying that Practice and Enlightenment are one and the same is like someone stuck out in the snow and the freezing wind, miles from home, repeating, "My house is cosy and warm; my house is cosy and warm".
Read the teachings of two Japanese Sôtô Ancestors: Dôgen-Zenji's "Zazenshin" and Keizan-Zenji's "Zazen Yojinki". Both are findable online or in John Daido Loori's book "The Art of Just Sitting". Better still read the "Practice-Instructions" of Master Hung-chih in "Cultivating the Empty Field". Also purely Sôtô (Ts'ao-tung) in outlook, these haunting poetic paragraphs tell you as much as can be said: and all you need then is the courage to put it into practice.
Know and not know
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I was looking for a Zen book to help relieve work stress. Reading this book helpped me understanding my ignorance. I cannot claim I now know Zen since that would defeat the author's goal of teaching "Beginner's Mind". Learning is a continuos process so Zen is a practice, not an end to understanding a subject. Other than the concept of "Begginer's Mind", I thought "No Gaining Thought" is intriguing in looking at the world and doing the things you want to do in life. A great book to go back repeatedly.
Excellent
Customer Rating:
Nutshell review - This is a beautiful book on Zen. It is an excellent book both for the novice and the seasoned practitioner. There are some valuable insights and lessons in this little book for anyone interested in Zen.
If you are going to read on book on Zen...Right Here
Customer Rating:
I can't count how many times I have read this book. this book is the rudder in my life.
a great book and even better b/c you can find it free online
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Again, I'll make this review very quick. A great book, although sometimes comfusing with apparently paradoxical language (which is fairly commen in zen buddhism). That aside, this book can be very helpful for beginner as well as long-practicing buddhists. It is especially helpful for any home-practicing buddhist out there who do not have the added benefit of a zendo nearby. An even better bonus is that it can be found online for free if you look hard enough. cheers.
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