D. T. Suzuki

Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (鈴木 大拙 Suzuki Daisetsu, October 18, 1870 – July 12, 1966) was a famous 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.

Enlightenment is like everyday consciousness but two inches above the ground.

Quotes

• We may sometimes ignore the claims of reason and rest satisfied, though usually unconsciously, with assertions which are conflicting when critically examined, but we cannot disregard by any means those of the religious sentiment which finds satisfaction only in the very fact of things. If it ever harboured some flagrant contradiction in the name of faith it was because its ever pressing demands had to be met with even at the expense of reason.
  • Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism, p 218 (1907)

• The inflexibility of karma is more than poor mortal can endure.
  • Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism, p 283. (1907)

• Enlightenment is like everyday consciousness but two inches above the ground.
  • As quoted in Root (2001)

The Development of Mahayana Buddhism (1909)

(first part of The Development of Zen, full text)

• The Dharmakaya is now conceived by the human heart as love and wisdom, and its eternal prayer is heard to be the deliverance of the ignorant from their self-created evil karma which haunts them as an eternal curse. The process of deliverance is to awaken in the mind of the ignorant the Samyaksambodhi, or most perfect wisdom, which is the reflection of the Dharmakaya in sentient beings. This wisdom, this Bodhi, is generally found asleep in the benighted, who are in a spiritual slumber induced by the narcotic influence of evil karma, which has been and is being committed by them, because of their non-realization of the presence in themselves of the Dharmakaya. p 8

• Deliverance or enlightenment, therefore, consists of making every sentient being open his mental eye to this fact. It is not his ego-soul that makes him think, feel, desire, or aspire, but the Dharmakaya itself in the form of Bodhicitta or “wisdom-heart” which constitutes his ethical and religious being. Abandon the thought of egoism, and return to the universal source of love and wisdom, and we are released from the bond of evil karma, we are enlightened as to the reason of existence, we are Buddhas. p 8

• The Mahayana Buddhists offer a doctrine complementary to that of karma, in order to give a more satisfying and more human solution to our inmost religious needs. The Mahayana doctrine of Parinamana, therefore, must go side by side with that of karma; for through this harmonious co-working of the two, the true spirit of Buddhism will be more effectively realized. In this phase of development, Mahayana Buddhism must be said to be profoundly religious. p 9

• This subtle spiritual system, of which all sentient beings are its parts or units, is like a vast ocean in which the eternal moonlight of Dharmakaya is reflected. Even a faint wavelet which is noticed in one part of the water is sure to spread, sooner or later, according to the resistance of the molecules, over its entire surface, and thus finally disturb the serenity of the lunar image in it.

• Likewise, at every deed, good or evil, committed by any of the sentient units of this spiritual organization, the Dharmakaya rejoices or is grieved. When it is grieved, it wills to counteract the evil with goodness; when it rejoices, it knows that so far the cause of goodness has been advanced. p 10

• The doctrine of karma is terrible; the doctrine of Parinamana is humane: karma is the law of nature, inflexible and irreconcilable; Parinamana is the heart of a religious being, filled with tears: the one is rigidly masculine and knows no mercy whatever; the other is most tenderly feminine, always ready to weep and help: the one is justice incarnate; the other is absolute love: the one is the god of thunder and lightning, who crushes everything that dares to resist him; the other is a gentle spring shower, warm, soft, and relaxing, and helping all life to grow: we bow before the one in awe and reverence; we embrace the other as if finding again the lost mother: we must have the one to be responsible for our own thoughts, feelings, aspirations, and deeds; but we cannot let the other go, as we need love, tolerance, humaneness, and kindheartedness.

• Karma cannot be denied, it is the law; but the human heart is tender and loving, it cannot remain calm and unconcerned at the sight of suffering, in whatever way this might have been brought about. It knows that all things ultimately come from the one source; when others suffer I suffer too; why then should not self-renunciation somehow moderate the austerity of karma? This is the position taken by Mahayana Buddhists in regard to the doctrine of karma. p 12

Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis (1960)

(full text)

Lectures on Zen Buddhism

• Basho was a nature poet, as most of the Oriental poets are. They love nature so much that they feel one with nature, they feel every pulse beating through the veins of nature. Most Westerners are apt to alienate themselves from nature. They think man and nature have nothing in common except in some desirable aspects, and that nature exists only to be utilized by man. But to Eastern people nature is very close. This feeling for nature was stirred when Basho dcovered an inconspicuous, almost negligible plant blooming by the old dilapidated hedge along the remote country road, so innocently, so unpretentiously, not at all desiring to be noticed by anybody. Yet when one looks at it, how tender, how full of divine glory or splendor more glorious than Solomon's it is!

• The ranges of the Himalayas may stir in us the feeling of sublime awe; the waves of the Pacific may suggest something of infinity. But when one’s mind is poetically or mystically or religiously opened, one feels as Basho did that even in every blade of wild grass there is something really transcending all venal, base human feelings, which lifts one to a realm equal in its splendor to that of the Pure Land.

• Tennyson’s plucking the flower and holding it in his hand, “root and all,” and looking at it, perhaps intently. It is very likely he had a feeling somewhat akin to that of Basho who discovered a nazuna flower by the roadside hedge. But the difference between the two poets is: Basho does not pluck the flower. He just looks at it. He is absorbed in thought. He feels something in his mind, but he docs not express it. He lets an exclamation mark say everything he wishes to say. For he has no words to utter; his feeling is too full, too deep, and he has no desire to conceptualize it. As to Tennyson, he is active and analytical. He first plucks the flower from the place where it grows. He separates it from the ground where it belongs. Quite differently from the Oriental poet, he does not leave the flower alone. He must tear it away from the crannied wall, ”root and all,” which means that the plant must die.

• The scientifically minded West applies its intelligence to inventing all kinds of gadgets to elevate the standard of living and save itself from what it thinks to be unnecessary labor or drudgery. It thus tries hard to “develop” the natural resources it has access to. The East, on the other hand, does not mind engaging itself in menial and manual work of all kinds, it is apparently satisfied with the “undeveloped” state of civiliza¬ tion. It does not like to be machine-minded, to turn itself into a slave to the machine. This love of work is perhaps characteristic of the East.

• Western people often wonder why the Chinese people have not developed many more sciences and mechanical contriv¬ ances. This is strange, they say, when the Chinese are noted for their discoveries and inventions such as the magnet, gun¬ powder, the wheel, paper, and other things. The principal reason is that the Chinese and other Asiatic peoples love life as it is lived and do not wish to turn it into a means of accomplish¬ ing something else, which would divert the course of living to quite a different channel.

• The Zen master is a strange sort of man. He will not listen to you and to what you may tell him about sciences modern or ancient. He knows his business better from his experience.

• Some primitive people were once visited by an American scientist, and when they were told that Western people think with their heads, the primitive people thought that the Ameri¬ cans were all crazy. They said, “We think with the abdomen.” People in China and also in Japan—I do not know about India —when some difficult problems come up, often say, “Think with your abdomen,” or simply, “Ask your belly.” So, when any question in connection with our existence comes up, we are advised to “think” with the belly—not with any detachable part of the body. “The belly” stands for the totality of one’s being, while the head, which is the latest-developed portion of the body, represents intellection.

• The head is conscious while the abdomen is unconscious. When the master tells his disciples to “think** with the lower part of the body, he means that the koan is to be taken down to the unconscious and not to the conscious field of consciousness.

• Somebody asked Joshu, “Buddha is the enlightened one and teacher of us all. He is naturally entirely free of all the passions (klesa), is he not?” Joshu said, “No, he is the one who cherishes the greatest of all the passions.” “How is that possible?” “His greatest passion is to save all beings!” Joshu answered

• The bodhisattva would revolve the identity-wheel of opposites or contradictions: black and white, dark and bright, same¬ness and difference, the one and the many, finite and infinite, love and hate, friend and foe, etc., etc. While in the midst of clouds and dust, infinitely variegated, the bodhisattva works with his head and face all covered with mud and ashes. Where the utmost confusion of passions rages in its indescribable furies, the bodhisattva lives his life in all its vicissitudes, as the Japanese proverb has it, “seven times rolling up and down, and eight times getting up straight.” He is like the lotus flower in flame, whose color grows brighter and brighter as it goes through the baptism of fire.

Quotes about D. T. Suzuki

• In the literature on Zen Buddhism, there are writers such as Suzuki, whose authenticity is beyond doubt--he speaks of what he has experienced. The very fact of this authenticity makes his books often difficult to read, because it is of the essence of Zen not to give answers that are rationally satisfying. There are some other books which seem to portray the thoughts of Zen properly, but whose authors are mere intellectuals whose experience is shallow. Their books are easier to understand, but they do not convey the essential quality of Zen.
  • Erich Fromm, The Art of Being. Continuum International Publishing Group, Chapter 1. (1994)

• Dr Suzuki writes with authority. Not only has he studied original works in Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese and Japanese, but he has an up-to-date knowledge of Western thought in German and French as well as the English which he speaks and writes so fluently. He is, moreover, more than a scholar; he is a Buddhist. Though not a priest of any Buddhist sect, he is honoured in every temple in Japan, for his knowledge of spiritual things, as all who have sat at his feet bear witness, is direct and profound. When he speaks of the higher stages of consciousness he speaks as a man who dwells therein.
  • Christmas Humphreys, Editor's Foreword to DT Suzuki. Essays in Zen Buddhism. Second Series. Rider and Company. London 1970 p 11.

• Suzuki's works on Zen Buddhism are among the best contributions to the knowledge of living Buddhism… We cannot be sufficiently grateful to the author, first for the fact of his having brought Zen closer to Western understanding, and secondly for the manner in which he has achieved this task.
  • Carl Jung, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, Foreword by C. Jung. New York: Grove Press, p. 9. (1964)

• It was not merely a sense of mission… or even scholarly drive which provided Suzuki Sensei with his real internal motivation. I believe that behind his activities resided a religious Awakening. As a youth, under the guidance of Zen Master Soyen Shaku, he had become deeply realized through penetrating into the root-source of the universe of life-and-death. His "motivation" derived from no other than this realization… This Awakening functioned within Suzuki Sensei as an overwhelming Buddhist spirit of 'vow', aimed at bringing everyone to awaken to the same Reality. His scholarly study of Buddhism was undertaken in order to further this work, it was not the other way around.^{[citation needed]}
  • Abe Masao. in: "Introduction" at xiii-xix, xiii, to The Emptying God. A Buddhist-Jewish-Christian Conversation (New York: Orbis Press 1990), edited by John B. Cobb, Jr. and Christopher Ives: Prof. Abe was said to have succeeded to the rôle of Suzuki following his death. Christopher Ives,

• Though perhaps less universally known than such figures as Einstein or Gandhi (who became symbols of our time) Daisetz Suzuki was no less remarkable a man than these. And though his work may not have had such resounding and public effect, he contributed no little to the spiritual and intellectual revolution of our time.
  • Thomas Merton, Zen and the Birds of Appetite. The Abbey of Gethsemani, New Directions, p. 59. 1968 ISBN 0-8112-0104-X

• That there are today Zen training centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, and South America is a tribute to the comprehensive and illuminating works of D.T. Suzuki. And that there is scarcely an educated person in the West today that has not heard of Zen or who hasn't some acquaintance with its tenets is also due to the prodigious labors of this man who, at the age of eighty, came to America to explain this arcane philosophy. In this he evokes the spirit of the redoubtable Bodhidharma.^{[citation needed]}
  • Philip Kapleau. Actually Kapleau compares Yasutani Roshi, not D. T. Suzuki, with the redoubtable Bodhidharma (see The Three Pillars of Zen, p. 29, 35th Anniversary Edition). Kapleau was in fact a little critical of Suzuki whom he perceived as having intellectualized Zen too much: on page 29 of the 35th Anniversary Edition, under the heading A Biographical Note on Yasutani Roshi, Kapleau states: "At the age of eighty zen master Hakuun Yasutani undertook an extended stay in America to expound the Buddha's Dharma. In so doing he evoked the spirit of the redoubtable Bodhidharma, who in the latter years of his life turned his back on his native land and went forth to distant shores to plant the living seed of Buddhism". On p. 96 of the same edition, Kapleau says about D. T. Suzuki "This espousal of the philosophical, theoretical approach to Zen is all too apparent from the index to a recent anthology of Professor Suzuki's writings. In this book of almost 550 pages, only two references to zazen can be found, one a footnote and the other barely three lines in the text".

• Prophecy is rash, but it may be that the publication of D.T. Suzuki's first Essays in Zen Buddhism in 1927 will seem to future generations as great an intellectual event as William of Moerbeke's Latin translations of Aristotle in the thirteenth century or Marsiglio Ficino's of Plato in the fifteenth.
  • Lynn Townsend White, Jr., "The Changing Canons of our Culture," in Lynn White, Jr., ed. Frontiers of Knowledge in the Study of Man. New York: Harper & Bros., pp. 304-305. 1956