When Shunryu Suzuki Roshi's "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" was published in 1972, it was enthusiastically embraced by Westerners eager for spiritual insight and knowledge of Zen. The book became the most successful treatise on Buddhism in English, selling more than one million copies to date. "Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness" is the first follow-up volume to Suzuki Roshi's important work. Like "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind", it is a collection of lectures that reveal the insight, humor, and intimacy with Zen that made Suzuki Roshi so influential as a teacher. "The Sandokai" - a poem by the eighth-century Zen master Sekito Kisen (Ch. Shitou Xiqian) - s the subject of these lectures. Given in 1970 at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the lectures are an example of a Zen teacher in his prime elucidating a venerated, ancient, and difficult work to his Western students. The poem addresses the question of how the oneness of things and the multiplicity of things coexist (or, as Suzuki Roshi expresses it, 'things-as-it-is'). Included with the lectures are his students' questions and his direct answers to them, along with a meditation instruction. Suzuki Roshi's teachings are valuable not only for those with a general interest in Buddhism but also for students of Zen practice wanting an example of how a modern master in the Japanese Soto Zen tradition understands this core text today.
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"Shunryu Suzuki Roshi came to the United States in 1959, leaving his temple in Yaizu, Japan, to serve as priest for the Japanese American congregation at Sokoji Temple in San Francisco. In 1967 he and his students created the first Zen Buddhist monastery in America at Tassajara in the coastal mountains south of San Francisco. Suzuki Roshi died in 1971 at age sixty seven, a year and a half after delivering his teaching on the Sandokai. Mel Weltsman is the former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center and current abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. Michael Wenger is Dean of Buddhist Studies at the San Francisco Zen Center. "That same 'there-is-no-problem-here' voice that we first heard in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind comes through beautifully once again.... However simple and gentle he sounds, Suzuki is not giving us a dumbed-down self-help book. This is very sophisticated instruction." - Kobal Scott Whitney, Parabola "The fact that one text can inspire a book's worth of philosophical thought and practical advice is testimony both to Buddhism's depths and to Suzuki Roshi's considerable gifts." - Donna Seaman, Booklist "An eloquent, humorous series of lectures on the Sandokai. [The question-and-answer sessions] offer some of the most fascinating parts of an already excellent book." - Publishers Weekly "Read and relax with Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness, which offers an enlightening look at your place in the universe." - New York Times special supplement, "The Best of the Season" "Wonderful, simple, and bottomlessly deep, as Suzuki always is." - Tricycle
About the Author
Shunryu Suzuki Roshi came to the United States in 1959, leaving his temple in Yaizu, Japan, to serve as priest for the Japanese American congregation at Sokoji Temple in San Francisco. In 1967 he and his students created the first Zen Buddhist monastery in America at Tassajara in the coastal mountains south of San Francisco. Suzuki Roshi died in 1971 at age 67, a year and a half after delivering his teaching on the Sandokai. He may have had a premonition of his coming death when he said that it was common for Zen teachers in the Soto tradition to lecture on the Sandokai near the end of life. Mel Weitsman is the former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center and current abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. Michael Wenger is Dean of Buddhist Studies at the San Francisco Zen Center.
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Sekito Kisen (Ch. Shitou Xiqian, 700-790), author of the Sandokai, was born in Guangdong Province in southern China in the beginning of the eighth century. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Sekito Kisen (Ch. Shitou Xiqian, 700-790), author of the Sandokai, was born in Guangdong Province in southern China in the beginning of the eighth century. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
As the follow-up to "Zen mind, beginners mind" it is a gem. Having also read "Crooked Cucumber" and being a bit of a Suzuki "fan" I must say the book is everything you would expect. While dealing with the Sandokai, it manages to touch upon many of the vital aspects of Zen. Great book made better by the background provided in "Crooked Cucumber". Like "Zen mind, Beginners mind" one you can read over and over again - and still get something new from it.
By Nish Pfister
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Shunryu Suzuki is mostly known through the book "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind".
This book brings more transcripts of his talks. I love to read them because he was such a good Zen teacher: an ordinary man, compassionate and friendly, but firm on the subject. This book contains talks on the Sandokai, a Chinese poem from the eighth century, emphasising direct experience of reality.
"Our effort in Zen is to observe everything as-it-is."
Suzuki Roshi came originally to San Francisco to serve as a priest to the Japanese American congregation there. When more and more Americans came to listen to and practice with him, the San Francisco Zen Centre was established.
In his talks I find the freshness of someone who talks from experience, like he says: "rely on your voiceless voice... Listen to the tongueless teaching". It shines through. I recommend his talks to anyone interested in Zen: get inspired by his words, get encouraged to do Zen practice.
This book brings more transcripts of his talks. I love to read them because he was such a good Zen teacher: an ordinary man, compassionate and friendly, but firm on the subject. This book contains talks on the Sandokai, a Chinese poem from the eighth century, emphasising direct experience of reality.
"Our effort in Zen is to observe everything as-it-is."
Suzuki Roshi came originally to San Francisco to serve as a priest to the Japanese American congregation there. When more and more Americans came to listen to and practice with him, the San Francisco Zen Centre was established.
In his talks I find the freshness of someone who talks from experience, like he says: "rely on your voiceless voice... Listen to the tongueless teaching". It shines through. I recommend his talks to anyone interested in Zen: get inspired by his words, get encouraged to do Zen practice.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars
9 reviews
50 of 54 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A long wait
4 Jan 2000
By John Elliott
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This is an excellent little book. It is based on the a series of talks that were given by Shunryu Suzuki in a sesshin lead by him, as it happened near the end of his life. The book in my view would be suited to a more advanced practitioner rather than a beginner. However all would benefit by reading it.
The book gives a line by line explanation of the "The Identity of Absolute and Relative" sutra. This sutra along with the "Heart Sutra" are the two main sutras chanted in Zen Buddhist services.
As practitioners we hear this sutra over and over again and it is easy to think of it as just a simple and poetic piece(even dare I say it, tune out to some extent with our own familarity), which it is. Suzuki's explanation of the sutra shows that considerably more can be gleaned from studying/meditating on this important zen work.
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A wealth of insight to be found
5 Oct 2000
By L. Cornell
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is largely a well-executed editing effort of a number of talks that Suzuki Roshi gave of the Sandokai, a poem written in the early zen years. The poem, written by the Eighth Ancestor in China, Sekito Kisen, was intended to bridge a perceived (and I am hesitant to say) 'philisophical' gap between two zen schools of the time. One appealed to the 'clever', and the other appealed to the 'dull'. The Sandokai reveals that Buddha-nature transcends all such interpretations.
Each talk addresses a different section of the poem. Each chapter begins with the section of the poem that will be discussed. At the end of each talk there is discussion, consisting of questions from the students followed by the Roshi's response.
While superficially, bridging the gap between the "northern school" and the "southern school" was the impetus, we learn from the Roshi the poem's many deeper meanings. By reading the talks one begins to realize the great import of this poem as a primary and essential work.
Anyone who has read Suzuki's first book can attest to the Roshi's keen ability to impart the most complex subjects on a simple and understandable level. He does so in a way that also recognizes the limitations of such talks.
While this text was clearly not intended to be an introduction to practice, those who regularly practice will find it an invaluable work, and those, such as I, who have worn out the covers of 'Zen Mind Beginner's Mind' over many, many years won't be disappointed. The Sandokai is addressed by the Master in a most refreshing, sometimes humorous, and most enlightening way.
I look forward to wearing out this book as much as the first.
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful teacher, though a different book from Zen Mind
12 Jun 2000
By Peter Abbott
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I have no doubt that Shunryu Suzuki will be a great influence on American Buddhism for many years to come. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (though not "written" by Suzuki-roshi--it's edited from lectures) has been a work that I have turned to again and again through-out my years of practice, finding new levels of insight each time. Branching Streams is a deserving continuation to the publication of Suzuki-roshi's teaching (it is, of course, also based on lectures, coming almost thirty years after his death). But it is a little more slow-going than Zen Mind and probably won't be as accessible to those without some experience of Zen. But, like Zen Mind, there are some beautiful, even poetic moments in the text. If you are just getting started in Zen and haven't read Zen Mind, you should definitely start with that before moving on to this. But if you have read ZM, BM and couldn't get enough, you will enjoy revisiting the Master.
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4.8 out of 5 stars
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