Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
by Shunryu Suzuki
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Book Reviews of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
Book Review: Highly recommended with serious reservations!
Summary: 3 Stars
Life isn't always that simple - yep! It would be arrogant to think that all the good reviews - are misguided. This book has obviously helped a lot of people. But - hasn't anyone twigged the fact that isolated things in it are simply nuts. What !!! Heresy !!!
What do I mean? Well, its simple. Shunryu Suzuki condoned suicide in this book, citing the example of Sen-no-Rikyu's suicide as an example of Buddhist 'acceptance.' Maybe the offending passage has been removed since the first ed. Don't know, haven't checked reprints. Suzuki didn't even provide the background details,which concerned Hideyoshi ORDERING Sen-no-Rikyu to commit seppuku (ritual suicide)- because of various suspicions. Hideyoshi had felt 'up-staged' when the tea master had his own statue erected over the gate at Daitokuji. Secondly, Hideyoshi had confided many things to the tea-master. Fearing this might endanger his position of authority (Sen-no-Rikyu evidently shared 'confidences' with other people), Hideyoshi decided to play it safe - and exercised his power, ordering the tea-master to kill himself.
This - very briefly, is the background to the story.
It has NOTHING to do with Zen, and everything to do with feudal POWER in Japan. It is about unquestioning OBEDIENCE, the invisible steel wires that regulated old Japan. The kind of 'acceptance' found in Buddhism - has nothing to do with such controls. Put in a modern context, it is like a wacky dialogue between a company boss and employee:
Boss: "Listen Jones, I'm not happy with your performance
this past year or so. I order you to jump out off
the window on the 73rd floor. "
Jones: "Yes, boss . . .aaaaaaahhhhhhh. "
Get real! Would any of you take such orders, or see sense in that kind of 'acceptance'? Why, then, is it so palatable, because it is conveyed by a Japanese Buddhist teacher?
A final point. I didn't write the book, or invent Japanese history. I am merely pointing out the problem.
Book Review: Misleading title for a possibly great book
Summary: 3 Stars
I do not want to detract from this book's worth or wisdom in any way. No doubt the glowing reviews reflect the book's significance to the lives of those who have read and UNDERSTOOD it.
My only caveat is that for complete novices--like myself--the title is misleading, and therefore the book's teachings were not very accessible to me. The term "beginner's mind," as used in this work, refers to the idea of maintaining an open, childlike mind, and never acting or feeling as though one has ACHIEVED enlightenment. Be always searching, always growing.
"Beginner's mind" should NOT be taken as an indication that this is a book for those like myself who are newcomers to the study of Zen (i.e. "beginners"). Maybe you're an "old soul," but new to Zen, in which case, you may get more out of this book than I currently do.
As someone who instinctively feels that Zen has something BIG to offer me if only I can understand what the hell the books on Zen are talking about, this is NOT a good introduction. Zen terminology is thrown around as though I already know what the terms mean. The description of poses (without benefit of pictures) is confusing, and I must admit that I [shallowly?] found myself ticked off: if I couldn't figure out a stinking pose (or even get BEYOND the fact that I couldn't figure it out), how on earth was I "deep enough" to get my foot on the path to enlightenment?
For anyone who, like myself, needs something a little more concrete to get me started, something I can sink my literal Western teeth into, this ain't the book! I believe I personally need something a little less esoteric to start with, a book that bridges the gap between my VERY literal-minded Western upbringing and the much LESS literal mindset required of adherents of eastern religion/philosophy.
I also believe that if I am able to bridge that gap (using other resources), THEN I will be able to appreciate this book's teachings and will certainly come back to it.
Book Review: Start Where Ever You Are ... You Are Here Now ... Read On
Summary: 5 Stars
This book ... of all books about Zen, makes it perfectly clear that the whole purpose of Zen is to help you see reality more clearly ... that is all. However, *that* is saying a lot ...One of the interesting features of this book is the author was a direct descendent of the 13th C. spiritual master, Dogen. However, the author does not write based on this relationship -- instead, he writes based on his *experience*. The book is well organized into three parts, "Right Practice" (action) and "Right Attitude" (frame of mind) adn "Right Understanding" (self-explanatory). The author describes how posture, control, breathing, mind waves and mind weeds affect our reality when practicing 'zazen'. No matter what arises in the mind we need to continue our efforts ... the power lies in our ability "to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable." This is one huge pronouncement ...
While it is considered "nothing special" to meditate in this manner ... the ability to track one's mind and release duality occurs with "right practice." Repetition and maintaining a "single-mindedness" is the effort that brings results --"cultivating one's spirit" one can attain equanimity and overcome many obstacles.. The overall effect is to communicate and express one's self from a point of truth. One begins to realize how effort, energy, and outcome arise from moment to moment ... *IF* there is a sense of being driven to attain "enlightenment", perhaps, the practice driven by "karma" and one is wasting their time. The direction of effort needs to be pointed within ... developing readiness, mindfulness, without a true sense of a goal. It is difficult but that seems to be the true art of zen practice. Discovering a weed is a treasure for zen students ... because that is an opportunity for learning and growth to occur. Highly recommended book. Erika Borsos (erikab93)
Book Review: It Was Nothing Special
Summary: 5 Stars
A great teacher of Christian prayer has described to me personally that "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" is a "classic". Shunryu Suzuki would best describe his book as "nothing special".
I never thought that this book would impact me as it has, but a combination of Jesus' own teaching on prayer("Metanoiesete, for the Kingdom of God is within you"[Lk.17:21]); Saint Thomas Aquinas' ultimate confession:"Because we are not capable of knowing WHAT GOD IS but only what God is not...this is the ultimate in human knowledge of God: TO KNOW THAT WE DO NOT KNOW HIM"[Questiones Disputate de Potentia Dei,7,5 ad 14]; and Suzuki's conclusion "I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in NO THING."(p.116) has brought me to the conclusion that EAST/WEST dialogue on contemplative prayer is the key to the future of Christianity and all other world religions in these desperate times.
This book teaches prayer with the understanding that the only time we have is "NOW", and the only directive is "Don't think about it, don't write about it, do it! Now!
It has been three years since I wrote the above review. Since that time, I have read a great number of books on Zen and on Contemplative Christianity and have come to believe that I am the blessed recipient of a genuine insight that the world so desperately needs to hear. It is that put on Jesus' lips as his keynote in the Gospel of Mark (The first and earliest gospel, ~65AD...Mk.1:16) where Jesus says:
"The present moment is the right time, the Kingdom of God is within you. Change the way you think about reality; believe this 'good news'."
Zazen/Christian prayer can be done 24/7/365 anywhere, in any situation, and when it is, it is "ordinary", "interior" and "nothing special".
Book Review: Meditation On The Inevitable
Summary: 4 Stars
I did sort of a half-a$$ed zazen practice for quite a while, and this book more than any other, or any teacher I personally knew for that matter, helped me stick with things as much as I did. This is not some kind of formal sutra or even a good introduction to Buddhism. Truthfully, critics who say that Suzuki was just a regular unenlightened Joe teaching a practice that isn't really even Buddhist may have a point; for various historical reasons, the different practices of Daoism, Neo-Confuscianism, and several Buddhist schools have intertwined in East Asia to an almost inseparable mess, and what Suzuki says here seems more like Neo-Confucianism by an old Japanese guy who never claims to be anything special than a Buddhist monk talking about ultimate truth or scriptural authority. Soto Zen in general, while certainly a religion and subject to the same difficulties as other religions, jettisons speculation for the here and now in a way unthinkable in "Western" traditions, and what Suzuki says can be valuable even outside the Soto context. He talks from experience of a lifetime of meditation and has some really deep and abiding things to say, both about the goal of practice (or lack thereof) and what we mean when we talk about certain terms. It gives us hints on how to practice but reminds us that only we ourselves can do it. Nowadays I do Vippasana but I've found that many of his insights still hold true when practicing separate but similar forms of meditation. Some of his general philosophical points don't do much for me; regardless, I appreciate the calm, humanistic, down to earth tone that permeates them all. If you want to read the best beginners' books on Buddhism, I'd start with Walpola and/or Schumann. If you want to read a book that can inspire your practice regardless of your religious orientation, and give you access to some fairly profound insights, this is a really good choice.