Daisetsu Teitarō Suzuki (1870–1966) was a Japanese scholar of Zen Buddhism and a Buddhist philosopher. The leading scholar of Mahāyāna Buddhism and Japanese religion, he was instrumental in bringing Zen to America and Europe during the first half of the 20th century.
Suzuki was Professor of Buddhist Philosophy at Ōtani University, Kyōto, from 1921. He was known for his fluency in English and his prolific scholarship. He wrote more than 100 books, many in an informal and understandable style appropriate to the general reader. His notable works include the hugely-influential An Introduction to Zen Buddhism (1934) and Zen and Japanese Culture (1959)—these two books are credited with introducing Zen Buddhism to the West.
The D. T. Suzuki Museum in Kanazawa, Japan, commemorates his life and works.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by D. T. Suzuki
True wisdom means the freedom from self-centeredness, for self-centeredness distorts reality.
—D. T. Suzuki
Not to be bound by rules, but to be creating one’s own rules—this is the kind of life which Zen is trying to have us live.
—D. T. Suzuki
Topics: Zen
When there is no crookedness in one’s heart, we say that one is natural and childlike.
—D. T. Suzuki
In the spiritual world there are no time divisions such as the past, present and future; for they have contracted themselves into a single moment of the present where life quivers in its true sense. The past and the future are both rolled up in this present moment of illumination, and this present moment is not something standing still with all its contents, for it ceaselessly moves on.
—D. T. Suzuki
Topics: Spirit, Spirituality
Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.
—D. T. Suzuki
We can see unmistakeably that there is an inner relationship between Zen and the warrior’s life.
—D. T. Suzuki
Topics: Zen
Great works are done when one is not calculating and thinking.
—D. T. Suzuki
Topics: Performance, Effort
Zen opens a man’s eyes to the greatest mystery as it is daily and hourly performed; it enlarges the heart to embrace eternity of time and infinity of pace in its every palpitation; it makes us live in the world as if walking in the garden of Eden
—D. T. Suzuki
Topics: Zen
Zen in it’s essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one’s being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.
—D. T. Suzuki
Topics: Zen
The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one’s hum drum life, a life of monotonous, uninspiring commonplaceness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity.
—D. T. Suzuki
Topics: Zen
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