Synopses & Reviews
KEY TEACHINGS OF ZEN'S FOREMOST SAMURAI MONK
Suzuki Shosan is among the most dramatic personalities on the history of Zen. A samurai who served under the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu in the seventeenth century, he became a Zen monk at age 41 and evolved a highly original teaching style imbued with the warrior spirit. The warrior's life, Shosan believed, was particularly suited to Zen study because it demand vitality, courage, and "death energy," the readiness to confront death at any moment. Emphasizing dynamic activity over quiet contemplation, Shosan urged students to realize enlightenment in the midst of their daily tasks, whether tilling fields, selling wares, or confronting an enemy in the hear of battle. Long popular in Japan but little know to the West, Shosan is presented here to Western readers in a sparkling translation and with a comprehensive introduction that brings alive his unique and colorful teaching.
About the Author
ARTHUR BRAVERMAN, who has lived in Tokyo and Kyoto, where he studied Zen, is the author/translator of
Mud and Water, talks by the fourteenth-century Zen master Bassui. He now teaches in southern California.