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| Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen | 
 enlarge | Authors: Shunryu Suzuki, Edward Espe Brown, Zen Center San Francisco
Publisher: HarperOne
Category: Book
List Price: $11.95
Buy New: $6.49
You Save: $5.46 (46%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 38091
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.2
ISBN: 0060957549
Dewey Decimal Number: 294
EAN: 9780060957544
ASIN: 0060957549
Publication Date: June 1, 2003
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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
Product Description
Practising the true spirit of Zen. Not Always So is based on Shunryu Suzuki's lectures and is framed in his own inimitable, allusive, paradoxical style, rich with unexpected and off–centre insights. Suzuki knew he was dying at the time of the lectures, which gives his thoughts an urgency and focus even sharper than in the earlier book. In Not Always So Suzuki once again voices Zen in everyday language with the vigour, sensitivity, and buoyancy of a true friend. Here is support and nourishment. Here is a mother and father lending a hand, but letting you find your own way. Here is guidance which empowers your freedom (or way–seeking mind), rather than pinning you down to directions and techniques. Here is teaching which encourages you to touch and know your true heart and to express yourself fully, teaching which is not teaching from outside, but a voice arising in your own being.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 Suzuki is The Master October 19, 2008
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.
Short essays for more advanced students February 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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 back up and get more out of it.
That being said, the essays are short and wonderful and even though I didn't "get" all of them, there were a lot of great little nuggets inside. For the price, this book is packed with great stuff, I'm just not sure it's for beginners.
Just sitting will "Kill the Buddha!"-- not reading about him December 12, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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." (page 151). "Just sit for the the sake of zazen" (page 152).
But you won't make a best-seller with: Just sit. Just sit. Just sit., page after page. Sazuki's best-seller "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" was already too much more than enough to get across the simple idea that Zen is what happens to you when you sit still and follow or count your breaths. And what happens to you cannot really be put into words and ideas.
I give the book four stars for the interesting personal stories, philosophical and psychological discussions. But for the real practice itself-- sitting and meditating in Zen fashion--it was entirely unnecessary.
Be a frog... November 29, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
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, just as if he gave me a personal teisho.
It is a thin book, but would you expect anything less from someone who could say one word and hold everything in it?
If you are new to Zen or an old master there is probably something wonderful to find in here for you.
Heart-felt truths November 14, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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 emptiness--empty, white paper."
This is as clear as it gets;
the essence of the connection between breath, body, mind and emptiness.
Thank you very much.
Other concepts are also explained nicely.
For example:
Suzuki explains the meaning of the koan of "Jumping Off the 100-foot Pole,"
starting at page 16. (Myself, I've never really understood this one. I've always pictured myself reaching the top of the Pole and then trying to decide what to do next.)
Suzuki explains that this is precisely where I make my big mistake--stopping at the top of the pole and thinking. He says that the secret is just to say "Yes!" and jump off from there--forget the top of the pole and extend your practice.
One last example:
In the Chapter "Stand Up by the Ground" (page 139)
Suzuki explains "Immo,"
which can also mean a questioning, "What is this?"
A very subtle point here.
"What" or "It" is both something very definite ( "What" is "it"? may refer to that specific table right over there, and at the same time something beyond description and comprehension, maybe this table has only one leg and functions more like a chair and is merely drawn by an artist to symbolize some basic human emotion.)
Oh boy, my mind really runs wild with kind of "stuff."
Maybe Ed Brown will write a new book, giving his own commentary on these concepts.
Didn't Zen successors always write commentaries on scriptures?
Well, maybe "not always so."
Yet this book is like a Zen scripture.
Thank you very much Mr Brown.
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