Transcript DT Suzuki - Allen Black

The Swans Come to the Lake
Daisetsu Suzuki – “The most culturally significant Japanese
person, in international terms, that has ever existed”
- Gary Snyder, American Beat Poet
The Development of Buddhism is Asia
Buddha born in north India/Nepal (563-483 BCE)
Theravada & Mahayana – Syncretism w/ other cultures
Buddhism spreads to China around 100 CE
Buddhism in Japan 6th cent., Zen emerges 13th cent.
Zen focus is on Meditation and Insight into Reality
Experiential practice emphasized more than theory
Originated w/ Buddha’s silent sermon holding a flower
Direct Transmission from Teacher to Student
2 Schools of Zen: Soto (zazen) and Renzai (koans)
D.T. Suzuki: author of “Satori” article
1870 – 1965 Zen Teacher, Translator, Popularizer
Buddhist Modernist who focused on the practical
application of Buddhism to everyday life in the world.
Born in isolated feudal Japanese Samurai culture
Dies in Post Modern World – East and West Exchange
Teaches at Columbia University, NYC 1952-57
Teaches at other elite schools in US, Japan, and Europe
Comes to Chicago in 1893 to World Parliament of Rels.
Removes Zen from its Historical Context for Westerners
Suzuki in America
The Zen Life Documentary
Well-known people associated w/ DT Suzuki
Alan Watts - beat writer, philosopher
Allen Ginsberg – poet, icon
John Cage – music composer
Gary Snyder – poet, teacher
Thomas Merton – Trappist monk
Joseph Campbell – Myths
Houston Smith – Rels. Studies teacher
Erich Fromm - psychoanalyst
Carl Jung – German psychotherapist
Jack Kerouac – Beat writer
Christmas Humphreys– Brit. writer
Robert Aiken – Amer. Zen teacher
Zen and Buddhist Terms:
Satori = Wu = Enlightenment = Unified Consciousness =
Prajna = Supreme Perfect Knowledge – noetic quality
Mystical Experience – 4 Qualities by William James
An inner state of Cons. w/o reference to objects - PCE
Satori ≠ Conversion or Salvation, = Freedom (236)
Intuitive looking into nature of things, Eureka moment!
A supreme act of Will uniting Knower and Known
Descriptions of Satori – sort of !
Supreme Perfect Knowledge, Intuitive, Immediate, Direct Experience
Absolute state of mind, Absolute Freedom, Non Dual
Whole “in one thought” -- Thatness, Suchness, Being
Transcending Dualism, Beyond Rationality and Conceptuality of Mind
Cataclysmic, Revolutionary Transformation, “fiery baptism”
No Abiding Place: (not Conversion to Faith or Salvation by personal God)
Most intimate individual experience of: “self”, “true being” “reality”
“A Zen Life” Video Clips
Suzuki’s own experience
◦ See video - 8:42-9:37
The General Experience of Satori
◦ See video - 16:30 – 19:28
Understanding and Expressing this Experience
◦ See video - 27:52 – 29:53
Freedom and Form
◦ See video - 32:45 – 36:00
Negative, Via Negativa
◦ See video - 46:08 – 46:56