Warrior of Zen: The Diamond-Hard Wisdom Mind of Suzuki Shosan (Kodansha Globe) [Paperback]

Arthur Braverman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1994 | Series: Kodansha Globe

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Zen has often been saddled with the belief that only quiet contemplation and inactivity can lead the practitioner to enlightenment. This work is a welcome counterpoint to this belief. Suzuki Shosan, a samurai warrior under the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, became a Zen monk and brought to Zen an active philosophy. He believed that a warrior's life was well suited to Zen because both demanded vitality, active belief, courage, and what he called "death energy"-the readiness to confront death at any moment. This book contains selections of the Roankyo, talks given by Suzuki Shosan to his students. The editor/translator does a good job of maintaining the colloquial atmosphere of the original text; he allows the teachings to speak for themselves. This book is a good introduction for the English-reading world to a long-neglected variation of Zen philosophy. Recommended for both public and academic libraries.
Glenn Masuchika, Chaminade Univ. Lib., Honolulu
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Japanese

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha USA (August 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568360312
• ISBN-13: 978-1568360317
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #667,688 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very different Zen book, July 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Warrior of Zen: The Diamond-Hard Wisdom Mind of Suzuki Shosan (Kodansha Globe) (Paperback)

If you read books on Zen, and would like an unusual take on things, this book may offer it. Suzuki Shosan was a samurai who resigned to study the "Way". For him, mindfulness of death and general preparedness was the main point. I liked the way, in particular, that he cast aside his "enlightenment experiences" as useless. Sometimes, just when he seems not as deep as some other Zen heros, he surprises you. So: a good, somewhat unorthodox and refreshing read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Diamond Hard Wisdom demolishing mental icons, July 24, 2005

By 

Andrew Beaulac (Whidbey Island, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Warrior of Zen: The Diamond-Hard Wisdom Mind of Suzuki Shosan (Kodansha Globe) (Paperback)

I have to hand it to Arthur Braverman. He manages to find the wonderful characters of Zen who are not in the mainstream, the one's perhaps most of us have never heard of. And when he is done presenting them, one wonders why we never heard of them and sees how much we had missed before they were brought to light.

Suzuki Shosan was one of Japan's most startlingly original - even iconoclastic - Zen masters. Arthur Braverman has translated the colorful teachings of this samurai-turned-Zen-Master and thus has given all Zen students a wonderful gift. Suzuki Shosan covers a wide range of human problems for people of all walks of life, and he does so intimately, from his own experience. One of Shosan's cornerstones is the continual awareness of death, an awareness that breaks through or knocks down all that is false. Thank you, Mr. Braverman, for continuing to discover and translate for us some of the best teachers and poets from the past.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warrior of Zen, January 31, 2004

By 

Kirk A'gard "Jammer" (Astoria, New York United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Warrior of Zen: The Diamond-Hard Wisdom Mind of Suzuki Shosan (Kodansha Globe) (Paperback)

This book truly hits the warrior path, zen and death on the head. The book is easy reading yet very well put together. It has a great deal of historical matter in it, not just on Buddhism, Zen and the Samurai but life itself. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Zen, The Warrior's Path and the final stage of our human existence before DEATH!!!