Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki was a Japanese author of books and essays
on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in spreading
interest in both Zen and Shin (and Far Eastern philosophy in
general) to the West. Suzuki was also a prolific translator of
Chinese, Japanese, and Sanskrit literature. Suzuki spent several
lengthy stretches teaching or lecturing at Western universities,
and devoted many years to a professorship at Otani University, a
Japanese Buddhist school. Besides living in the United States,
Suzuki traveled through Europe before taking up a professorship
back in Japan. In 1911, Suzuki married Beatrice Erskine Lane, a
Radcliffe graduate and Theosophist with multiple contacts with the
Baha Faith both in America and in Japan. Later Suzuki himself
joined the Theosophical Society Adyar and was an active
Theosophist. While he was in Kyoto, he visited Dr. Hoseki Shinichi
Hisamatsu, a famous Zen Buddhist scholar, and discussed Zen
Buddhism together at Shunkoin temple in the Myoshinji temple
complex. In 1921 he and his wife, Beatrice, founded the Eastern
Buddhist Society; the Society is focused on Mahayana Buddhism and
offers lectures and seminars, and publishes a scholarly journal.
Besides teaching about Zen practice and the history of Zen (Chinese
Chan) Buddhism, Suzuki was an expert scholar on the related
philosophy called, in Japanese, Kegon, which he thought of as the
intellectual explication of Zen experience. In addition to his
popularly oriented works, Suzuki wrote a translation of the
Lankavatara Sutra and a commentary on its Sanskrit terminology. He
looked in on the efforts of Saburo Hasegawa, Judith Tyberg, Alan
Watts and the others who worked in the California Academy of Asian
Studies (now known as the California Institute of Integral
Studies), in San Francisco in the 1950s. Suzuki is often linked to
the Kyoto School of philosophy, but he is not considered one of its
official members. Suzuki took an interest in other traditions
besides Zen. His book Zen and Japanese Buddhism delved into the
history and scope of interest of all the major Japanese Buddhist
sects. In his later years, he began to explore the Jodo Shinshu
faith of his mother's upbringing, and gave guest lectures on Jodo
Shinshu Buddhism at the Buddhist Churches of America. D.T. Suzuki
also produced an incomplete English translation of the
Kyogyoshinsho, the magnum opus of Shinran, founder of the Jodo
Shinshu school. However, Suzuki did not attempt to popularize the
Shin doctrine in the West, as he believed Zen was better suited to
the Western preference for Eastern mysticism, though he is quoted
as saying that Jodo Shinshu Buddhism is the "most remarkable
development of Mahayana Buddhism ever achieved in East Asia."
Suzuki also took an interest in Christian mysticism and in some of
the most significant mystics of the West, for example, Meister
Eckhart, whom he compared with the Jodo Shinshu followers called
Myokonin. Suzuki was among the first to bring research on the
Myokonin to audiences outside Japan as well. Suzuki's books have
been widely read and commented on by many important figures. A
notable example is An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, which includes
a commentary by famous analytical psychologist Carl Jung. Other
works include Essays in Zen Buddhism, Studies in Zen Buddhism, and
Manual of Zen Buddhism. Additionally, American philosopher William
Barrett has compiled many of Suzuki's articles and essays
concerning Zen into a volume entitled Zen Buddhism." Suzuki
believed that the Far Eastern peoples had a more sensitive or
attuned to nature than either the people of Europe or those of
Northern India. Suzuki subscribed to the idea that religions are
each a sort of organism, an organism that is (through time) subject
to "irritation" and having a capacity to change or evolve.
General
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