Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
3rd out of 409 books
—
464 voters
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
Zen mind is one of those enigmatic phrases used by Zen teachers to throw you back upon yourself, to make you go behind the words themselves and begin wondering. "I know what my own mind is," you tell yourself, "but what is Zen mind?" And then: "But do I really know what my own mind is?" Is it what I am doing now? Is it what I am thinking now?" And if you should then try to...more
Paperback, 132 pages
Published
April 1st 1973
by Weatherhill
(first published 1970)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
This book was recommended to me by various persons in different phases of my life, but I clearly wasn't ready to read it till now. Suzuki's talks on zazen are spare and direct, demystifying Buddhism as a religion or philosophy and continually bringing the focus back to the simple and perfect practice of sitting--cleaning out your mind through meditation. Though we all choose different paths according to our culture and temperament, the ultimate desire is the same: for the soul or "big I" to free...more
Apr 04, 2012
Kim
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
seekers
Recommended to Kim by:
Meido Moore
Shelves:
non-fiction,
must-read-again
As a music performance major who is burned out and bitter going into her last year of her undergraduate career, this book was invaluable for its ability to have the notion of practicing zazen also be equal to practicing her instrument.
I have taken a bit of a break from meditation and music for 3-4 months now, and these informal talks are exactly the kind of thing I need to get myself to head in the right direction. It's a book that I recommend re-visiting often, for it provides a perfect impetus...more
I have taken a bit of a break from meditation and music for 3-4 months now, and these informal talks are exactly the kind of thing I need to get myself to head in the right direction. It's a book that I recommend re-visiting often, for it provides a perfect impetus...more
This book is a classic to be read from time to time. At present I am not reading it but have convinced my 15 year old sn to read it hoping that it, together with long conversations and care, will immediately help him with his teenage angst. Even more, I hope the ideas in the book can be planted now to bloom later.
Those are just some thoughts about some present concerns. The main reason for the posting is to pass on something I read that as not in a book. It is this powerful Zen koan.
Count the s...more
Those are just some thoughts about some present concerns. The main reason for the posting is to pass on something I read that as not in a book. It is this powerful Zen koan.
Count the s...more
Jul 15, 2008
Graham
added it
You don't have to understand it to love it: I bought this book eighteen years ago. When I bought it, I understood little of it but for the past 18 years it has been my favourite companion book helping me to calm down before I went to sleep. I have never read "a new age book" and pride myself on being hard-headed, but nonetheless the soothing, calm prose was reassuring even if enigmatic. 18 years on, I now actually understand quite a bit of it and read it not only for the prose style but for the...more
4 likes · like · see review
This book was put together from a series of lectures by Shunyru Suzuki who was one of the first Zen Buddhist teachers to share Buddhism with Americans in the middle to late 20th century. I met Suzuki when I was a teenager, and was influenced by him a great deal. Because of him I found that I was very attracted to meditation practice and to his particular style of teaching. He was a good spiritual friend. In this book Shunryu expresses the heart of Zen in the simplest but most profound ways. His...more
This book is about the importance of keeping an open mind and how this process can help you in your everyday life.
I was assigned this book to read in a class on Buddhism, but it is now one of my favorite books.
While this is written by a master of Zen Buddhism, it is a very secular presentation of the philosophy and does not include any reliance on Buddhist beliefs. There is some discussion of Buddhist beliefs, but if that is contrary to your world view you can ignore those parts and still benefi...more
I was assigned this book to read in a class on Buddhism, but it is now one of my favorite books.
While this is written by a master of Zen Buddhism, it is a very secular presentation of the philosophy and does not include any reliance on Buddhist beliefs. There is some discussion of Buddhist beliefs, but if that is contrary to your world view you can ignore those parts and still benefi...more
It is tempting to call Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind repetitive and frustrating. It would be factually true to say this. Suzuki drives home the same points time and again: the ordinariness of the Zen mindset; the call to abandon ideas of success, failure, and goals in practice; the ubiquity of Buddha nature in life. Readers may find themselves questioning their reading, feeling sure that they have somehow backtracked to earlier portions of the text. That said, one is reminded of Bruce Lee's dictum o...more
This one is a classic. I read it years ago and was reminded of it when it was quoted in (of all places) Ultimate Speed Secrets: The Complete Guide to High-Performance and Race Driving. I remember reading it initially in high school when I was just becoming cynical about Western religions and interested in Eastern religions but had no knowledge of Buddhism in general, and even less of Zen specifically. I didn't think too much of it at that first reading, finding it a bit vacuous. Then I reread it...more
I am not the only Westerner to be moved by this, the first Zen tract aimed specifically at an American audience. And maybe to the Zen true-believer (Western or otherwise) it’s Zen-lite, I don’t know. I’m not a Buddhist or anything, much less a Zen master. But reading Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind helped me realize that Zen is not so much about religion as it is about discipline of all kinds — it is, in fact, a discipline about discipline. Not so much the rap-your-knuckles kind. More the “fall down s...more
I know this is supposed to be THE zen book for beginners, by one of the most influential western zen masters, etc. But it didn't set a fire under me at all. I found myself trying to mine a few words of relevant wisdom from chapter after chapter of semi-opaque discourse. It's not that the book is difficult to read, but that the insights offered by Suzuki Roshi (undeniably a great zen master) are the insights of an old man who has been practicing zen for a long time and talking to serious zen stud...more
6 likes · like · see review
Yang Saya baca adalah edisi bahasa Indonesia terbitan Gramedia.
Membaca buku ini membolak-balik apa yang kita konsepkan selama ini sebagai yang spiritual. Ketika mengatakan "ini spiritual" maka kita kembali terjebak dalam dualitas karena di dalam ungkapan itu "hadir' dikotomi dengan "sesuatu yang tidak spiritual".
Hadir dalam kekinian, "di sini" dan "saat ini" itulah zen. Jika kita makan saat kita makan, itulah zen. Jika kita berak (maaf) saat kita berak, itulah zen. Yang sering terjadi pada kit...more
Membaca buku ini membolak-balik apa yang kita konsepkan selama ini sebagai yang spiritual. Ketika mengatakan "ini spiritual" maka kita kembali terjebak dalam dualitas karena di dalam ungkapan itu "hadir' dikotomi dengan "sesuatu yang tidak spiritual".
Hadir dalam kekinian, "di sini" dan "saat ini" itulah zen. Jika kita makan saat kita makan, itulah zen. Jika kita berak (maaf) saat kita berak, itulah zen. Yang sering terjadi pada kit...more
Good stuff. It took me a while to get into the (edited) Japanese-y English. Again, the same problem resurfaces of not feeling like I can ever retain anything from from a book.
But reading it, you do get sort of an idea how Zen folks think or behave. I tend to like teachers that can notice where I (or their readers) are potentially going astray, especially for something like this where it's so easy to get the wrong idea and starting artificial and stupid. No contrivance sounds easy, but then you'r...more
But reading it, you do get sort of an idea how Zen folks think or behave. I tend to like teachers that can notice where I (or their readers) are potentially going astray, especially for something like this where it's so easy to get the wrong idea and starting artificial and stupid. No contrivance sounds easy, but then you'r...more
Dec 27, 2012
Kendra
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
nonfiction,
mfa-recommendations
I cannot pretend to be an expert on Zen--its tenets, its spokespeople, or its literature. I cannot even pretend to be terribly interested in Zen, save perhaps for a general amused interest in the history of Zen in North America. I am not interested in either Zen or in Steve Jobs, strictly speaking,but the one has influenced the other has influenced Western culture in a profound way, from minimalist thinking to minimalist computing to cloud storage to The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. I suppose...more
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind falls into a rare category of books, one which holds the power to knock at the doors of one's heart, which is yearning to know it's real nature. And once you open the doors, it does not preaches wisdom but let you walk the path where wisdom churns out within oneself.Suzuki talks about one of the most important and often missed subject, of how to keep one's practice pure. Suzuki makes it very clear that, intellectual masturbation is useless without actual practice.Suzuki
...more
Mar 27, 2012
Erik Graff
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone
Recommended to Erik by:
Paul Schaich
Shelves:
religion
This is the best non-academic introduction to Zen Buddhism that I've come upon. What caught me especially was a moment in the introduction when an interview with Suzuki was interrupted by his wife. She was serving tea, overheard part of his discourse and remarked to the interviewer that, in essence, he was full of shit--all given and taken in good humor.
7 likes · like · see review
I discovered the teachings of Ronin Suzuki via San Francisco Zen Center's weekly podcasts. The founder is remembered with reverence and awe- an everpresent ghost who flits about most lectures.
I'd heard of course- his classic quote- 'In a beginner's mind, there are many choices, in an expert's few'- in the context of programming.
I had no idea of the central role he played in American Zen Buddhism- let alone that he was the founder of a prominent Zen center.
This book is wonderful; challenging. Eve...more
I'd heard of course- his classic quote- 'In a beginner's mind, there are many choices, in an expert's few'- in the context of programming.
I had no idea of the central role he played in American Zen Buddhism- let alone that he was the founder of a prominent Zen center.
This book is wonderful; challenging. Eve...more
From what I could tell, an interesting discussion of the ideas behind Zen Buddhism. The "author" is in fact a speaker, and each chapter comes from talks he gave to practicing Zen Buddhists. As I read it as a non-Buddhist interested in Asian thought (and particularly Asian religious thought), I found it to be at times confusing (though obviously this comes from attempting to understand another's culture through the medium of a single book). Suzuki's aim is (it seems to me) is to describe Zen Budd...more
Read this quite a few years ago when I was a young woman of seventeen, and have turned to it again recently.
Very spare, very light, profound. A book to dip into once, then again, and again.
Published, I believe, at least 50 years ago(?). How does it hold up against heavies like Chodron and the Dalai Lama? Very well, I think. Chodron's great gift is her ability to convey Buddhist teaching with such warmth and ease that one feels you could run into her and strike up a conversation; this title does...more
Very spare, very light, profound. A book to dip into once, then again, and again.
Published, I believe, at least 50 years ago(?). How does it hold up against heavies like Chodron and the Dalai Lama? Very well, I think. Chodron's great gift is her ability to convey Buddhist teaching with such warmth and ease that one feels you could run into her and strike up a conversation; this title does...more
It's not surprising to see so many reviewers here and elsewhere say that Zen Mind, Beginner's mind didn't say much to them when they read it for the first time, but that things have changed upon a second reading (usually separated by years). I'm one of those who read the book long ago and found it oblique, at best. No longer.
It's the kind of book that you can finish today and start reading again tomorrow. That's just what I wanted to do when I finished the book yesterday. It's not a book to read...more
It's the kind of book that you can finish today and start reading again tomorrow. That's just what I wanted to do when I finished the book yesterday. It's not a book to read...more
As an introductory book to Zen Buddhism, this is quite daunting or useless. The publishing industry seems to have cashed into the misconception that this this is a book for beginners because it has "Beginner's Mind" in the title. This book is really not where you should be starting as the first point for any sort of reading on Buddhism - Zen or not. I'd recommend reading something else first, actually attending a zazen session somewhere and *then* reading this book to get the full impact.
Suzuki'...more
Suzuki'...more
I read this in college for a class on Eastern Philosophies and at the time I did not really read it. (Cue rant about the problem with the education system in teaching kids to short term learn for testing then immediately forget.) I read the assigned passages but did not really take in any of the concepts or information. Long story short a couple of years later I read it again, at my own discretion and it was much much more enjoyable. I was able to get so much more out of the book and its concept...more
Oh my God I love Suzuki Roshi. Can I check an infinite number of stars? Just the page that is one of Suzuki Roshi's hand drawn illustrations of a fly is reason enough to own this book. Oh, yeah, and there's the other hundred something pages of incredible Zen teachings. I used this book when I was a little baby meditation practitioner, plunking my bottom on rolled up blankets and trying to get my stiff old man legs to conform to the rigours of the cross legged position. This book was sheer encour...more
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind is, apparently, the collected lectures of Shunryu Suzuki on Zen Buddhism and especially the practice of zazen, the 'just sitting and meditating' part of Buddhist practice. The book is replete with ostensibly paradoxical statements, but past that kind of Zen argot, it's easy to discern the meaningfulness of Zen practice--at least I think so. As I understand it, the practitioner of Zen meditation, by meditating, attempts to achieve a different conscious state, one that, B...more
If you're looking for an interesting and educational read then I would highly recommend this to you. However, a word of caution- you must approach it with an open, calm, and patient mind otherwise you will find yourself frustrated. The text was dictated from speeches given by the late Shunryu Suzuki. As such, they lack the editing and clarity that is usually more prevalent in the written word. This leads to redundancy and plenty of confusing language. As I said, a bit of patience will go a long...more
Every few years I come back to this small, astonishing book. Oddly, my connection to it now is this: reviewing some of the great books that help writers begin writing, this (which has nothing to do with writing as such) is, to me, perhaps the most valuable. It reminds me to move away from noise to both silence and then from there, to deeper articulation of those true things from which writing must come. It jolts me back, yanks me back, invites me back to stillness, to the possibility of stillnes...more
I finished this book awhile ago, but put off writing this review because I really wanted to write a great review. This will not be a great review, though. Or maybe it will be so un-great that it will be extra great. Get it? Zen.
Suzuki, a Zen Master, essentially popularized Zen in America back in the... seventies? Yeah, sure. Back in the 1970s. Or '60s. Whatever one you want to believe. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that Suzuki has had an astronomical influence on many, many people and...more
Suzuki, a Zen Master, essentially popularized Zen in America back in the... seventies? Yeah, sure. Back in the 1970s. Or '60s. Whatever one you want to believe. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that Suzuki has had an astronomical influence on many, many people and...more
Jan 10, 2013
Christine
added it
A sweet, calm, and insightful book about Zen and its relation to life. Suzuki does a great job of opening Zen (and zazen) to an American audience. It's a very peaceful read, with beautiful imagery and other literary techniques. I do not think, however, that this is a stand alone book and I think it requires a brief knowledge of Zen prior to reading. For instance, although not the entirety of the boom, Suzuki does a tremendous job describing the uses of zazen in a Western culture, however, this i...more
Some take aways:
-Right attitude is to have strong confidence in our original nature
-Repetition
-Concentration on our usual everyday routine
-When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.
-Study yourself and forget yourself
-When you become you, Zen becomes Zen. When you are you, you see things as they are, and you become one with your surroundings.
-Big mind is something to express, not something to figure out. Big mind is something you...more
-Right attitude is to have strong confidence in our original nature
-Repetition
-Concentration on our usual everyday routine
-When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.
-Study yourself and forget yourself
-When you become you, Zen becomes Zen. When you are you, you see things as they are, and you become one with your surroundings.
-Big mind is something to express, not something to figure out. Big mind is something you...more
This seems like a good book that would go well as an aid to meditation, but unfortunately, it is somewhat opposed to the intellectual or philosophical side of Buddhism, which is what I set out to learn about when I picked up this book. Hopefully I will be able to find that elsewhere.
I definitely will remember parts of this book while I am building up my meditation practice again. Sometimes the language can seem confusing, but the author states this is necessary since it is so hard to really defi...more
I definitely will remember parts of this book while I am building up my meditation practice again. Sometimes the language can seem confusing, but the author states this is necessary since it is so hard to really defi...more
This is a short basic introduction to Zen Buddhism (Soto Zen) and how to meditate (zazen meditation) according to it. I found it informative. Some of it I accept, some of it I don't, some I'm unsure of, some I just find confusing. I do have confidence in meditation as a way to a calmer approach to everyday living. There are many other ways to meditate, though, in many religious structures. This one uses posture, clearing the mind by concentrating on breathing. There is no use of a mantra. I thin...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WHAT IS ZEN? | 15 | 126 | Jan 26, 2013 09:43pm |
Suzuki Roshi was a Sōtō Zen monk and teacher who helped popularize Zen Buddhism in the United States, and is renowned for founding the first Buddhist monastery outside Asia (Tassajara Zen Mountain Center). Suzuki founded San Francisco Zen Center, which along with its affiliate temples, comprises one of the most influential Zen organizations in the United States. A book of his teachings, Zen Mind,...more
More about Shunryu Suzuki...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.”
—
105 people liked it
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”
—
21 people liked it
More quotes…
That sounds exactly right. This is not a book to be read and closed. Like the Dhammapada, it has clear and meaningful gui...more
May 18, 2012 10:44am