Reddit reviews Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D. T. Suzuki

If you want a good primer on Zen D.T. Suzuki is a great place to start.

Well, I think Zen Koans are different than Buddha stories. Here are a few Koans - then are usually short stories and illustrations that force you to consider truth and meaning and reality and face your doubt.

A Buddha story is usually a longer account of an event that illustrates a deeper meaning, like this:

>The Buddha was sitting under a tree talking to his disciples when a man came and spit on his face. He wiped it off, and he asked the man, “What next? What do you want to say next?” The man was a little puzzled because he himself never expected that when you spit on somebody’s face, he will ask, “What next?” He had no such experience in his past. He had insulted people and they had become angry and they had reacted. Or if they were cowards and weaklings, they had smiled, trying to bribe the man. But Buddha was like neither, he was not angry nor in any way offended, nor in any way cowardly. But just matter-of-factly he said, “What next?” There was no reaction on his part.

>Buddha’s disciples became angry, they reacted. His closest disciple, Ananda, said, “This is too much, and we cannot tolerate it. He has to be punished for it. Otherwise everybody will start doing things like this.”

>Buddha said, “You keep silent. He has not offended me, but you are offending me. He is new, a stranger. He must have heard from people something about me, that this man is an atheist, a dangerous man who is throwing people off their track, a revolutionary, a corrupter. And he may have formed some idea, a notion of me. He has not spit on me, he has spit on his notion. He has spit on his idea of me because he does not know me at all, so how can he spit on me?

>“If you think on it deeply,” Buddha said, “he has spit on his own mind. I am not part of it, and I can see that this poor man must have something else to say because this is a way of saying something. Spitting is a way of saying something. There are moments when you feel that language is impotent: in deep love, in intense anger, in hate, in prayer. There are intense moments when language is impotent. Then you have to do something. When you are angry, intensely angry, you hit the person, you spit on him, you are saying something. I can understand him. He must have something more to say, that’s why I’m asking, “What next?”

>The man was even more puzzled! And Buddha said to his disciples, “I am more offended by you because you know me, and you have lived for years with me, and still you react.”

>Puzzled, confused, the man returned home. He could not sleep the whole night. When you see a Buddha, it is difficult, impossible to sleep again the way you used to sleep before. Again and again he was haunted by the experience. He could not explain it to himself, what had happened. He was trembling all over and perspiring. He had never come across such a man; he shattered his whole mind and his whole pattern, his whole past.

>The next morning he was back there. He threw himself at Buddha’s feet. Buddha asked him again, “What next? This, too, is a way of saying something that cannot be said in language. When you come and touch my feet, you are saying something that cannot be said ordinarily, for which all words are a little narrow; it cannot be contained in them.” Buddha said, “Look, Ananda, this man is again here, he is saying something. This man is a man of deep emotions.”

>The man looked at Buddha and said, “Forgive me for what I did yesterday.”

>Buddha said, “Forgive? But I am not the same man to whom you did it. The Ganges goes on flowing, it is never the same Ganges again. Every man is a river. The man you spit upon is no longer here. I look just like him, but I am not the same, much has happened in these twenty-four hours! The river has flowed so much. So I cannot forgive you because I have no grudge against you.”

>“And you also are new. I can see you are not the same man who came yesterday because that man was angry and he spit, whereas you are bowing at my feet, touching my feet. How can you be the same man? You are not the same man, so let us forget about it. Those two people, the man who spit and the man on whom he spit, both are no more. Come closer. Let us talk of something else.”

I don't really have a source for these stories, I just try to collect them when I see them. I usually just get books on Buddhism and read them, and buy the ones I like. You can usually order most any book from your local library for free. Each person has different needs and grows in a different way, so what is meaningful to me may be different from what is meaningful to you.

I gravitate mostly to Zen, and the idea of Direct Pointing. So I like to read books like D.T. Suzuki's Zen Buddhism. I am also currently reading The Life of the Buddha: According to the Pali Canon for a more complete understanding of the Buddha and his teachings - and so far, it is fantastic. A more basic book on the Buddha, and a good place to start in my opinion, is Buddha by Karen Armstrong. However, it is somewhat her interpretation of the Pali Canon's account... and many Buddhists would rather go directly to the source... but I think it's a good beginning.

I also bought this version of the Tao Te Ching. I think it's fantastic, even though it's technically Tao instead of Buddhism... but I find it practically indistinguishable from Koans in its value and wisdom. And the text can be found online for free, but there are many translations.

As mentioned before, I would always first recommend The Way Of Zen as it had the most profound effect on my life and mind of all the books I've read.

Also, make sure to engage in meditation. The direct realization of non-duality is of utmost importance. Book learning and words are the shadows of meaning - direct realization is entering in the gates.

You can start with most any of his intro books:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/038548349X/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521410314&sr=1-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=D.+T.+Suzuki&dpPl=1&dpID=51Sq0VaL6cL&ref=plSrch

Looks like extracts from Beginners mind and http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Buddhism-Daisetz-T-Suzuki/dp/038548349X/ref=pd_sim_b_9

Thank you. After reading some D.T. Suzuki chapter four's 8 'chief characteristics of satori' sealed the deal for me. I have a much greater understanding of what happened now. I'm grateful for the work he has done.

I have been beginning to meditate informally (if that's possible :) but I know little about it and so have begun reading the book Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, which I must say is so far an excellent read! I already know I'm going to order this one so there is a hardcopy on hand. Big thank you to Vplatt!

The self investigation is great advice for anyone. That's what impresses me about this Way. Everyone and everything says, "don't take our word for it, try it yourself and see!" And you know, it's effective when it opens. That "third eye" opens and it's so unbelievably "DUH!"

I love the entire extract but this spoke to me : "Let us once see into our own original Nature and we have the truth, even when we are quite illiterate, not knowing a word...." Taken from Kechimyakuron - Six Essays by Shoshitsu (as quoted by D.T. Suzuki in Zen Buddhism)

Thanks for the resources and encouragement!

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Buddhism-Daisetz-T-Suzuki/dp/038548349X

edit: this was the best book for me. there are many different 'paths' to enlightenment, so figure out which one works for you. if you're interested in the different 'paths' just google it, should come up.

For source material, here's the reputed words of Lao-Tzu which are the fundamental basis of Taoism-Tao Te Ching. And then this book is a good text on American Buddhism in general which includes a lot about Zen (the largest Buddhist movement in the US)- Buddhism in America. To understand Zen, you must understand Buddhism in general, so here's a good introduction-Basic Buddhism. And last but not least, here's a great work on Zen Buddhism specifically-Zen Buddhism.