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The field of Zen
The Buddhist Society of London, knowing the rising demand in the West for works on Zen by masters of that spiritual science, present herewith a selection of articles and recorded talks by Dr. Suzuki, mostly given during his visits to England in 1953, 1954, and 1958, and published in the Society’s journal, The Middle Way. (from the Foreword by Christmas Humphreys) From the back “This collection covers such a wide range and forms such a complete collection in itself that it has been aptly called The Field of Zen.” –World Buddhism “The style is simple, revealing Dr. Suzuki’s profound and wide learning, his thinking and culture, all of which are based upon the experience of his spiritual awakening.” –The Middle Way “Will be welcomed by Suzuki’s admirers and indeed by anyone interested in Zen. As far as Zen is concerned, Suzuki was the apostle of the West…The fact that Zen has now become a household word in the English-speaking world is almost entirely due to him…The present collection of essays is vintage Suzuki…In this collection his creed seems to be more positively than ever the ‘reconciliation of opposites’ and the affirmation of becoming in the context of being.” –The Times [London] Literary Supplement
105 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1969
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About the author
D.T. Suzuki
327 books461 followersDaisetsu Teitaro Suzuki (鈴木 大拙 貞太郎 Suzuki Daisetsu Teitarō; rendered "Daisetz" after 1893) was Professor of Buddhist philosophies at Ōtani University. As a translator and writer on Buddhism and Eastern philosophy, he greatly helped to popularize Japanese Zen in the West.
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December 3, 2025
A COLLECTION OF LECTURES, ETC., BY THE MOST PROMINENT ZEN EXPONENT
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1870-1966) was a Japanese author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in spreading interest in both Zen and Shin to the West. Suzuki spent several lengthy stretches teaching or lecturing at Western universities, and devoted many years to a professorship at Otani University, a Japanese Buddhist school.
The Foreword to this 1969 book was written by [Travers] Christmas Humphreys (1901-1983), founder of the London Buddhist Society. He said, “In this dynamic process of living, which involves a fusion of opposing ultimates, a new perception of the meaning of life and of its ultimate high purpose may be dimly seen… This is Zen Buddhism, and nearly all that is known of it in the West comes from the many books and lectures by the late D.T. Suzuki. If, therefore, this living process has deeply penetrated the higher levels of Western thought, and thereby played a part in restoring the balance of the Western mind, appreciation should be recorded where it is due… This truly great man died in Japan in July, 1966, and it was hoped that a Collected Edition of his thirty works in English would soon be put in hand. But as yet no volume has appeared… The Buddhist Society, therefore, knowing the rising demand in the West for works by Zen masters of that spiritual science, present herewith a selection of articles and recorded talks by Dr. Suzuki, mostly given during his visits to England in 1953, 1954 and 1958, and published in the Society’s journal, ‘The Middle Way.’”
In November 1964, Suzuki dictated his ‘Early Memories,’ in which he explains, “one must decide to throw absolutely everything one has into the effort [to solve a koan]. ‘Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.’ It often happens that just as one reaches the depths of despair and decides to take one’s life then and there that satori comes. I imagine that with many people satori may have some when it was just too late. They were already on their way to death. Ordinarily there are so many choices one can make, or excuses one can make to oneself. To solve a koan one must be standing at an extremity, with no possibility of choice confronting one. There is just one thing which one must do.” (Pg. 10)
He continues, “This crisis or extremity came for me when it was finally settled that I should go to America to help Dr. Carus with the translation of the ‘Tao Te Ching.’ I realized that … winter might be my last chance to go to sesshin [intense meditation] and that if I did not solve my koan then I might never be able to do so. I must have put all my spiritual strength into that sesshin. Up till then I had always been conscious that ‘Mu’ was in my mind. But so long as ‘I’ was conscious of Mu it meant that I was somehow separate from Mu, and that is not a true samadhi. But towards the end of that sesshin… I ceased to be conscious of Mu. I was one with Mu, identified with Mu, so that there was no longer the separateness implied by being conscious of Mu. This is the real state of samadhi. But this samadhi alone is not enough. You must come out of that state, be awakened from it, and that awakening is Prajna. That moment of coming out of the samadhi and seeing it for what it is---that is satori. When I came out of that state of samadhi during that sesshin, I said, ‘I see. This is it.’” (Pg. 10)
In a 1953 lecture, he states, “Now the religious or spiritual life is something which transcends an intellectual attempt to reach reality. Other religions emphasize moral discipline, but moral endeavor can never reach the realm of spirituality. When we have attained the spiritual plane, moral life emanates naturally, but moral discipline and intellection will never bring us to this spiritual life. We must transcend the subject-object aspect of existence.” (Pg. 14)
He goes on, “When God created the world outside Himself, He made a great mistake. He could not solve the problem of the world as long as He kept it outside of Himself. In Christian theological terminology, God, to say ‘I am,’ has to negate Himself… and His negation comes in the form of the creation of the world of particulars. To be God is not to be God. We must negate ourselves to affirm ourselves. Our affirmation is negation, but as long as we remain in negation we shall have no rest; we must return to affirmation. We must go out of ourselves and come back. We go out into negation, but that negation must come back into affirmation. Going out is coming back. But to realize that going out is coming back we have to go through all kinds of suffering and hardship, of trials and temptations.” (Pg. 15)
He continues, “Human consciousness is so made that at the beginning there was utter not-knowing. Then there was the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge---the knowledge that consists in making the knower different from what he knows. This is the origin of this world. The fruit separated us from not-knowing---in the sense of not knowing subject and object. This awakening of knowledge resulted in our ejection from the Garden of Eden. But we have a persistent desire to return to the state of innocence prior, epistemologically speaking, to creation, to the state where there is no division, no knowledge---prior to the subject-object division, to the time when there was only God as He was before He created the world. The separation of God from the world is the source of all our troubles. We have an innate desire to be united with God.” (Pg. 15-16)
In a 1953 talk to the Buddhist Society, he cited a Haiku poem, beginning with the line, ‘Oh, Morning glory!’ and he comments: “you can picture to yourself how she stood before the flower, losing herself. There was no flower, no human poet; just a ‘something’ which was neither flower nor poet. But when she recovered her consciousness, there was the flower, there was herself… there was … a bifurcation of subject-object… When she uttered, ‘Oh, Morning Glory!’ the flower was created and along with it herself, but before that bifurcation, that dualization of subject and object, there was nothing. And yet there was a ‘something’ which had not yet … become subject to bifurcation, to discriminative understanding… this is PRAJNA.” (Pg. 23-24)
He continues, “Samadhi is not enough, which is no more than the unification of consciousness. There must be an awakening from this state of unification or uniformity. This awakening is becoming aware of consciousness in its own activities… But as soon as you say ‘I have caught it’ it is no more there. Therefore, satori is not something you can take hold of and show to others, saying, ‘See, it is here!’” (Pg. 25-26)
In a 1958 talk he states, “‘Love your enemy,’ say the Christians, but this is not quite natural. Karuna in a way corresponds to Agape while Eros is human love, but Agape is divine love which has no specified object; it just flows out… In the human world love has its object but in the Prajna world love has no object.” (Pg. 43)
In a 1953 lecture, he explains, “The same analysis applies to self. If there is a self separate from all our sense organs it must more effectively work without them when we take them away. Sense organs limit; therefore, when they are taken away, the self must be more efficient. But when we die the senses are gone, and self seems to be gone also. Now we may say that without some intellectual hypothesis we cannot have what we call self-responsibility… Without the idea of responsibility morality ceases to exist… When the notion of self is destroyed, there will be no individual responsibility … human community becomes impossible. We must in some way have a self, but when a self is analyzed in this way, and the senses and the intellect are taken away, no self is left.” (Pg. 58)
He continues, “It is true that as we see this world, there are things worthy of attachment. But reasoning tells me that as I get older I am about to be changed into a skeleton… But to hold the idea that all is vain is analytical reasoning, and reasoning does not always work effectively. If it worked effectively, we should never have war… we try to reason, and after reasoning we try to love. But such love is a result of intellect and not an appreciation of things beautiful.” (Pg. 60)
In ‘Instruction of the Soto Masters,’ he wrote, “Prajna-knowledge is something which the Godhead has not turned itself into as the God-Creator. This is the kind of knowledge that exists before subject and object come up… This illumination is always used in Zen and many Christians also experience it… [T]hat which is, is reality. Reality knows itself without contacting events. Prajna-intuition is of the utmost suddenness. When you say that something is intimate when presented, that is absolute prajna-intuition.” (Pg. 69)
In 1953, he told a meeting of the Shin Class at the Buddhist Society, “What necessity had God to create the world, and what is the effect of creation? When God moved or thought, that was the very moment when something arose out of unconsciousness. So long as God was all by himself there was no God, but God became himself by thinking his creation. By thinking, God divided himself into two, i.e., he made the world. By making the world, God became God. This is something quite contrary to ordinary Christian ways of thinking but this is the Buddha way.” (Pg. 76)
In a 1953 talk, he says, “Now when we talk of God’s purpose in creating the world, we may say: ‘To build up the Kingdom of Heaven on this earth.’ … if we had the Kingdom of Heaven on earth in actuality, what does it come to after all? If everything is so good, there would be no warfare, no anxiety, we should have real Paradise on earth; but do you think we should be happy? Happiness means that there is something which is not quite conducive to happiness, i.e., happiness always comes along with unhappiness. It is relative.” (Pg. 85)
These short pieces are some of Suzuki’s most interesting and illuminating. (They also contain a surprising amount of discussion of God, and Christian concepts.) This book will be ‘must reading’ for anyone studying Zen.
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1870-1966) was a Japanese author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in spreading interest in both Zen and Shin to the West. Suzuki spent several lengthy stretches teaching or lecturing at Western universities, and devoted many years to a professorship at Otani University, a Japanese Buddhist school.
The Foreword to this 1969 book was written by [Travers] Christmas Humphreys (1901-1983), founder of the London Buddhist Society. He said, “In this dynamic process of living, which involves a fusion of opposing ultimates, a new perception of the meaning of life and of its ultimate high purpose may be dimly seen… This is Zen Buddhism, and nearly all that is known of it in the West comes from the many books and lectures by the late D.T. Suzuki. If, therefore, this living process has deeply penetrated the higher levels of Western thought, and thereby played a part in restoring the balance of the Western mind, appreciation should be recorded where it is due… This truly great man died in Japan in July, 1966, and it was hoped that a Collected Edition of his thirty works in English would soon be put in hand. But as yet no volume has appeared… The Buddhist Society, therefore, knowing the rising demand in the West for works by Zen masters of that spiritual science, present herewith a selection of articles and recorded talks by Dr. Suzuki, mostly given during his visits to England in 1953, 1954 and 1958, and published in the Society’s journal, ‘The Middle Way.’”
In November 1964, Suzuki dictated his ‘Early Memories,’ in which he explains, “one must decide to throw absolutely everything one has into the effort [to solve a koan]. ‘Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.’ It often happens that just as one reaches the depths of despair and decides to take one’s life then and there that satori comes. I imagine that with many people satori may have some when it was just too late. They were already on their way to death. Ordinarily there are so many choices one can make, or excuses one can make to oneself. To solve a koan one must be standing at an extremity, with no possibility of choice confronting one. There is just one thing which one must do.” (Pg. 10)
He continues, “This crisis or extremity came for me when it was finally settled that I should go to America to help Dr. Carus with the translation of the ‘Tao Te Ching.’ I realized that … winter might be my last chance to go to sesshin [intense meditation] and that if I did not solve my koan then I might never be able to do so. I must have put all my spiritual strength into that sesshin. Up till then I had always been conscious that ‘Mu’ was in my mind. But so long as ‘I’ was conscious of Mu it meant that I was somehow separate from Mu, and that is not a true samadhi. But towards the end of that sesshin… I ceased to be conscious of Mu. I was one with Mu, identified with Mu, so that there was no longer the separateness implied by being conscious of Mu. This is the real state of samadhi. But this samadhi alone is not enough. You must come out of that state, be awakened from it, and that awakening is Prajna. That moment of coming out of the samadhi and seeing it for what it is---that is satori. When I came out of that state of samadhi during that sesshin, I said, ‘I see. This is it.’” (Pg. 10)
In a 1953 lecture, he states, “Now the religious or spiritual life is something which transcends an intellectual attempt to reach reality. Other religions emphasize moral discipline, but moral endeavor can never reach the realm of spirituality. When we have attained the spiritual plane, moral life emanates naturally, but moral discipline and intellection will never bring us to this spiritual life. We must transcend the subject-object aspect of existence.” (Pg. 14)
He goes on, “When God created the world outside Himself, He made a great mistake. He could not solve the problem of the world as long as He kept it outside of Himself. In Christian theological terminology, God, to say ‘I am,’ has to negate Himself… and His negation comes in the form of the creation of the world of particulars. To be God is not to be God. We must negate ourselves to affirm ourselves. Our affirmation is negation, but as long as we remain in negation we shall have no rest; we must return to affirmation. We must go out of ourselves and come back. We go out into negation, but that negation must come back into affirmation. Going out is coming back. But to realize that going out is coming back we have to go through all kinds of suffering and hardship, of trials and temptations.” (Pg. 15)
He continues, “Human consciousness is so made that at the beginning there was utter not-knowing. Then there was the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge---the knowledge that consists in making the knower different from what he knows. This is the origin of this world. The fruit separated us from not-knowing---in the sense of not knowing subject and object. This awakening of knowledge resulted in our ejection from the Garden of Eden. But we have a persistent desire to return to the state of innocence prior, epistemologically speaking, to creation, to the state where there is no division, no knowledge---prior to the subject-object division, to the time when there was only God as He was before He created the world. The separation of God from the world is the source of all our troubles. We have an innate desire to be united with God.” (Pg. 15-16)
In a 1953 talk to the Buddhist Society, he cited a Haiku poem, beginning with the line, ‘Oh, Morning glory!’ and he comments: “you can picture to yourself how she stood before the flower, losing herself. There was no flower, no human poet; just a ‘something’ which was neither flower nor poet. But when she recovered her consciousness, there was the flower, there was herself… there was … a bifurcation of subject-object… When she uttered, ‘Oh, Morning Glory!’ the flower was created and along with it herself, but before that bifurcation, that dualization of subject and object, there was nothing. And yet there was a ‘something’ which had not yet … become subject to bifurcation, to discriminative understanding… this is PRAJNA.” (Pg. 23-24)
He continues, “Samadhi is not enough, which is no more than the unification of consciousness. There must be an awakening from this state of unification or uniformity. This awakening is becoming aware of consciousness in its own activities… But as soon as you say ‘I have caught it’ it is no more there. Therefore, satori is not something you can take hold of and show to others, saying, ‘See, it is here!’” (Pg. 25-26)
In a 1958 talk he states, “‘Love your enemy,’ say the Christians, but this is not quite natural. Karuna in a way corresponds to Agape while Eros is human love, but Agape is divine love which has no specified object; it just flows out… In the human world love has its object but in the Prajna world love has no object.” (Pg. 43)
In a 1953 lecture, he explains, “The same analysis applies to self. If there is a self separate from all our sense organs it must more effectively work without them when we take them away. Sense organs limit; therefore, when they are taken away, the self must be more efficient. But when we die the senses are gone, and self seems to be gone also. Now we may say that without some intellectual hypothesis we cannot have what we call self-responsibility… Without the idea of responsibility morality ceases to exist… When the notion of self is destroyed, there will be no individual responsibility … human community becomes impossible. We must in some way have a self, but when a self is analyzed in this way, and the senses and the intellect are taken away, no self is left.” (Pg. 58)
He continues, “It is true that as we see this world, there are things worthy of attachment. But reasoning tells me that as I get older I am about to be changed into a skeleton… But to hold the idea that all is vain is analytical reasoning, and reasoning does not always work effectively. If it worked effectively, we should never have war… we try to reason, and after reasoning we try to love. But such love is a result of intellect and not an appreciation of things beautiful.” (Pg. 60)
In ‘Instruction of the Soto Masters,’ he wrote, “Prajna-knowledge is something which the Godhead has not turned itself into as the God-Creator. This is the kind of knowledge that exists before subject and object come up… This illumination is always used in Zen and many Christians also experience it… [T]hat which is, is reality. Reality knows itself without contacting events. Prajna-intuition is of the utmost suddenness. When you say that something is intimate when presented, that is absolute prajna-intuition.” (Pg. 69)
In 1953, he told a meeting of the Shin Class at the Buddhist Society, “What necessity had God to create the world, and what is the effect of creation? When God moved or thought, that was the very moment when something arose out of unconsciousness. So long as God was all by himself there was no God, but God became himself by thinking his creation. By thinking, God divided himself into two, i.e., he made the world. By making the world, God became God. This is something quite contrary to ordinary Christian ways of thinking but this is the Buddha way.” (Pg. 76)
In a 1953 talk, he says, “Now when we talk of God’s purpose in creating the world, we may say: ‘To build up the Kingdom of Heaven on this earth.’ … if we had the Kingdom of Heaven on earth in actuality, what does it come to after all? If everything is so good, there would be no warfare, no anxiety, we should have real Paradise on earth; but do you think we should be happy? Happiness means that there is something which is not quite conducive to happiness, i.e., happiness always comes along with unhappiness. It is relative.” (Pg. 85)
These short pieces are some of Suzuki’s most interesting and illuminating. (They also contain a surprising amount of discussion of God, and Christian concepts.) This book will be ‘must reading’ for anyone studying Zen.
February 8, 2018
Good overview of Suzuki's work. I enjoyed much of what he had to say. It's a little obscure at some points, which makes sense considering these are unedited talks for the most part. It's not the best introduction, so come into this book with some knowledge of Buddhism, and Suzuki, in general.
August 31, 2025
Solid collection of essays even if dense at times and often repetitive. I personally needed to supplement reading with internet/AI research to better grasp some concepts.
April 17, 2014
This is a collection of talks given by Suzuki in London in the 1950s, so the "chapters" (some put together from listeners' notes) tend to be somewhat repetitious and meandering, introducing topics that get lost in digressions. And as with many books on Zen, he expends a terrific number of words telling you that Zen cannot be described in words. (I guess that's the Great Koan right there.)
Suzuki himself comes across as a warm and wonderful human being, especially in his "Early Memories," where he talks of his initial confusion and incomprehension while trying to understand Zen's non-verbal, direct-experience approach to finding reality. It's particularly relieving to hear him say that the Eastern mind has no less difficulty than the Western in coming to terms with what may be the most abstract of all of approaches to enlightenment.
I probably have too factual and scientific a leaning to be really happy with Zen. I see an underlying arrogance in any claim that one or another method of discovery leads us to the "true reality." I doubt your truth has any more or less value than mine.
Suzuki himself comes across as a warm and wonderful human being, especially in his "Early Memories," where he talks of his initial confusion and incomprehension while trying to understand Zen's non-verbal, direct-experience approach to finding reality. It's particularly relieving to hear him say that the Eastern mind has no less difficulty than the Western in coming to terms with what may be the most abstract of all of approaches to enlightenment.
I probably have too factual and scientific a leaning to be really happy with Zen. I see an underlying arrogance in any claim that one or another method of discovery leads us to the "true reality." I doubt your truth has any more or less value than mine.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews