Customer Reviews

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Shambhala Library) 1st (first) edition Text Only

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ZEN MIND, BEGINNER'S MIND is the most easily accessible guide to Zen practice, and is usually the first book that new practitioners and the Zen-curious approach after reading the more general "What's Zen Anyway?"-type books. Thus, it has developed an almost canonical reputation. Shunryu Suzuki (1905-1971) spent only a few years in America, was less than fluent in English, and taught in a way that was both simple and yet profound. With his easy intensity, Suzuki had a seminal role in establishing Zen as a viable spiritual practice in the United States and beyond.

Notable for its brevity, the thesis of the collected "informal talks" in ZEN MIND, BEGINNER'S MIND is that in order to know Zen we must know the self; that in order to know the self we must reattain the "beginner's mind," that unclouded, intuitive understanding of life that was ours in childhood; and that this sense of newness is the linchpin of enlightenment. Although ZEN MIND, BEGINNER'S MIND only spans a whopping 138 pages, the length of this book is no guide to the quality of what lies within. It invites many readings.

This is a handsome, sturdy, dust-jacketed half-sized hardbound edition from Shambhala whose heavyweight pages and binded gold fillet pagemarker speak well to the fact that you will be in a relationship with this book for years to come.

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AUDIOBOOK REVIEW

Dramatic actor Peter Coyote has been a Zen practitioner for three decades, and here reads Suzuki-Roshi's classic in his well-modulated stentorian voice, without flourishes, but with a fine appreciation of Suzuki-Roshi's words. The print edition of ZEN MIND, BEGINNER'S MIND is a collection of transcribed spontaneous Zen teachings (teisho); Coyote returns those words to their original medium. A fine recording for teaching, meditation, or contemplation, the only drawback to this CD is that it abridges the book, though at three hours it is more than sufficient for most listeners.

I have read this along with many other Zen books and I wish I had started with this one first.