Selected Works of D. T. Suzuki ─ Zen

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki is considered a key figure in the introduction of Buddhism to the non-Asian world. Many in the West encountered Buddhism for the very first time through his writings and teaching, and for nearly a century his work and legacy have contributed to the ongoing religious and cultural interchange between Japan and the rest of the world, particularly the United States and Europe. As an early and influential representative of Zen Buddhism outside of Japan, Suzuki shaped the global conversation about the nature of religious practice for much of the twentieth century. This is the first of a multivolume series gathering the full range of Suzuki’s writings. Volume 1 (Zen) presents a collection of Suzuki’s classic essays as well as lesser-known but equally influential articles on Zen Buddhist thought and practice. Chinese and Japanese characters, which were originally removed from most post?World War II editions of Suzuki’s essays, have been reinstated, and the romanization of Buddhist names and technical terms has been updated uniformly throughout the volume. This collection also contains an in-depth introduction to Suzuki’s approach to Zen that places his influence in the context of modern developments in religious thought, practice, and scholarship, making this a useful edition for contemporary scholars and students of Buddhism.

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki (1870?1966) was a Japanese-born scholar and translator who over the course of the twentieth century came to be regarded as one of the leading authorities on Zen Buddhism. Suzuki was the author of more than a hundred works on the subject in both Japanese and English, and was most instrumental in bringing the teachings of Zen Buddhism to the attention of the Western world. His many books in English include An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, Essays in Zen Buddhism, Living by Zen, and Zen and Japanese Culture.

Richard M. Jaffe is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Duke University. He is the series editor for Selected Works of D.T. Suzuki and the author of Neither Monk nor Layman: Clerical Marriage in Modern Japanese Buddhism.