Thursday, December 15, 2011

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind



Zen Mind 
“Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” – the classic zen book by Shunryu Suzuki, i picked it especially for the island time. it was up at Amazon on a special offer of “buy 4 english paperbacks for 15$”. and the Zen book, it’s wonderful. here’s the wiki description:

"Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind is a book of teachings by the late Shunryu Suzuki, a compilation of talks given to his satellite Zen center in Los Altos, California. Published in 1970 by Weatherhill, the book is not academic. These are frank and direct transcriptions of Suzukis' talks recorded by his student Marian Derby. Trudy Dixon and Richard Baker—Baker was Suzuki's successor—edited the talks by choosing those most relevant, arranging them into chapters. According to some, it has become a spiritual classic, helping readers to steer clear from the trappings of intellectualism."

from zen mind to radish teachings
with this book, i ordered it by title and mini-description, and then first started to read the book itself. around halfway in, i got curious about the Zen center and the time and started to google - and arrived at a wonderful page that is brimmming with background information, interviews with students and friends, and even with large excerpts of another book. the page is Cuke.com - an archival site related to the life and Zen teaching of Shunryu Suzuki, hosted by David Chadwik. the site comes with a quote page, and from there i arrived at the interview page - which includes this note in the list:

Ed Brown, excerpts from Tomato Blessings, Radish Teachings. Extensive.

Extensive it is, indeed. this link, and the others.

**

& later that year: more zen reads
zen and the empty city (global reading challenge)

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