StarAstrologer - Books : Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 294
EAN: 9780060957544
ISBN: 0060957549
Label: HarperOne
Manufacturer: HarperOne
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 176
Publication Date: June 01, 2003
Publisher: HarperOne
Release Date: May 27, 2003
Sales Rank: 10972
Studio: HarperOne
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Our tendency is to be interested in something that is growing in the garden, not in the bare soil itself. But if you want to have a good harvest, the most important thing is to make the soil rich and cultivate it well.
In a beautiful companion volume to Shunryu Suzuki's first book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, this is a collection of thirty-five lectures taken from the last three years of Suzuki's life that has been masterfully edited by Edward Espe Brown, bestselling author and one of Suzuki's students.
In Not Always So Shunryu Suzuki voices Zen in everyday language, with humor and good-heartedness. While offering sustenance -- much like a mother or father lending a hand -- Suzuki encourages you to find your own way. Rather than emphasizing specific directions and techniques, his teaching encourages you to touch and know your true heart and to express yourself fully.
Wise and inspirational, Not Always So is a wonderful gift for anyone seeking spiritual fulfillment and inner peace.
Amazon.com Review:
If you can imagine Zen Existentialism, Not Always So is it. Part instruction manual for Zen practice and part philosophical meditation, Shunryu Suzuki's teachings emphasize being-in-the-world. He does not point toward a singular enlightenment-event as a burst into higher consciousness. Rather, he suggests a more experiential enlightenment that finds meaning in a full awareness of the present. For example: "If you go to the rest room, there is a chance for enlightenment. When you cook, there is a chance for enlightenment. When you clean the floor, there is a chance to attain enlightenment."
Shunryu Suzuki was an important emissary of Zen Buddhism to the United States. Establishing a Zen center in San Francisco in the 1960s, he attracted many noted pupils, including this book's editor, Edward Espe Brown. In fact, Not Always So is Brown's collection of Suzuki's teachings during his last years, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
No doubt some readers will want to wrestle with the often paradoxical nature of Zen teachings. And those from the Western philosophical tradition may find vast differences between the Western system that takes its cue from Descartes' cogito and the Eastern one that emphasizes the destruction of the ego. Says Suzuki: "It is just your mind that says you are here and I am there, that's all. Originally we are one with everything." While the book does not wrestle with cultural-philosophical differences, it is nevertheless a good introduction to Zen. Suzuki's teachings tend to flow from simple stories, usually drawn from his own experiences. It's almost entirely free of the jargon that clutters many books on Buddhism, and the teachings are communicated with clarity and brevity. --Eric de Place
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Anything about Suzuki is worth reading and I wish I could visit his places in Californis. This is a book that I will read again.
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I am very new to Zen and have read several books on the subject. I have practiced zazen for a little while, so I am, by no means, advanced on the subject of Zen and zazen meditation. This book is geared more for those who are more advanced into the world of Zen and Buddhism than I am as there are a lot of things written that I really don't understand (I know that's somewhat Zen in and of itself), but seriously there are better books for beginners. Hopefully in a few years I can pick this book ... Read More
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On page 110, it is written: "Because we do not cling to any particular standard for thinking, for us there is no true way and not false." Is that not a meaty philosophical idea that could lead to endless intellectual discussions about the Buddha etc. etc.? His life will be prolonged in your mind and get in the way of your practice.
The book does end on what Zen really "is"; "So the point is just to sit..." (page 152). "Even though our practice is not better than a frog's, we continue to sit." ... Read More
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Outstanding book with insight into a true Zen master. Written after the passing of Suzuki Roshi by one of his students, it is an insight into a beautiful man.
Not always so is a simple book with a single teisho or talk every couple of pages. This allows you to read one talk and digest it without having to delve into any serious brain bending. Suzuki Roshi presents the most complex ideas of Zen in a refreshing and accessible way. I enjoyed reading the 1-2 pages and then going to sit, ... Read More
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Ed Brown definitely knows Master Suzuki's heart.
And he presents the warm heart of his master in a logical and progressive ordering of a few of Suzuki's lectures.
After 30 years of daily meditation (15 in the style of Monk Dogen) and always failing to reach calmness of mind in every session,
a book like this gives a nugget of hope.
For example:
specifically, on page 6 of the Chapter on "Calmness of Mind," it offers:
"Exhaling, you gradually fade into ... Read More
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