Rating: 
Summary: Start Where Ever You Are ... You Are Here Now ... Read On
Review: This book ... of all books about Zen, makes it perfectly clear that the whole purpose of Zen is to help you see reality more clearly ... that is all. However, *that* is saying a lot ...One of the interesting features of this book is the author was a direct descendent of the 13th C. spiritual master, Dogen. However, the author does not write based on this relationship -- instead, he writes based on his *experience*. The book is well organized into three parts, "Right Practice" (action) and "Right Attitude" (frame of mind) adn "Right Understanding" (self-explanatory). The author describes how posture, control, breathing, mind waves and mind weeds affect our reality when practicing 'zazen'. No matter what arises in the mind we need to continue our efforts ... the power lies in our ability "to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable." This is one huge pronouncement ... While it is considered "nothing special" to meditate in this manner ... the ability to track one's mind and release duality occurs with "right practice." Repetition and maintaining a "single-mindedness" is the effort that brings results --"cultivating one's spirit" one can attain equanimity and overcome many obstacles.. The overall effect is to communicate and express one's self from a point of truth. One begins to realize how effort, energy, and outcome arise from moment to moment ... *IF* there is a sense of being driven to attain "enlightenment", perhaps, the practice driven by "karma" and one is wasting their time. The direction of effort needs to be pointed within ... developing readiness, mindfulness, without a true sense of a goal. It is difficult but that seems to be the true art of zen practice. Discovering a weed is a treasure for zen students ... because that is an opportunity for learning and growth to occur. Highly recommended book. Erika Borsos (erikab93)
Rating:
Summary: The more you read it, the better it gets
Review: I first read these lectures about 2 years ago and wasn't particularly impressed. It seemed dull and uninspired, always deemphasizing satori. Since then I've been doing zazen about every day. Recently, I read an excerpt of the book again and was struck by its insights. What originally seemed weak and intellectually dull is in reality the best guide to Zen Buddhism I've read. It is an extremely rich source of wisdom that communicates at many levels. I simply didn't have the experience to appreciate it. As others have said, the lectures make more sense as your practice deepens. I am beginning to dimly perceive that zazen truly is enlightenment. His later lectures in Not Always So are equally as valuable.
Rating: 
Summary: Pop-psychology self-help, not Orthodox Buddhism whatsoever
Review: This book is about western pop-psychology for depressed materialists who are seeking some form of "spiritual" self-help in the guise of "religion". Shunryu Suzuki's book appeals to a certain class of Guru-loving types. This book is entirely devoid of any content whatsoever as concerns scriptural Buddhism and what it did or did not teach by the historical Gotama circa 550 BCE India, Ganges river valley.
If you threw Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism, Japanese spiritual materialism and western psychology-cultism into a blender, THIS book would be the result. If your interested in Buddhism, as it exists in ITS teachings, purchase a non-secular translation of the Nikayas/Suttas published by CAF Rhys Davids thru the British Pali Text Society or read the Upanishads to learn about the Monism that was and is Buddhism.
Buddhism was a 5th century BC Sramanism, or commentarial school of Vedanta (Upanishads). Sadly so say, those American who DO want to actually learn about Buddhism see stuff like "this" on the bookshelves rather than the teachings of the Buddha. Sadly to say for this book "Zen mind beginners mind", Buddhism, after 100 schizms and passing thru both china, Tibet and finally into Japan 1400 years later,...this is far removed from the oldest texts and philosophy we have to say what is or is not the "doctrine of the Buddha". If you want to know about Buddhism, get Dr. Coomaraswamy "The Living Thoughts of Gotama Buddha", and avoid the pop-psychology books written in the ilk of Japanese Zen, which is 179 degrees from Buddhism.
Rating: 
Summary: Informal Talks On Zen Meditation And Practice
Review: After I read Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind I looked at the front cover for some inspiration for writing my thoughts on it and noticed - for the first time - that it says "Informal talks on Zen meditation and practice" and that's exactly what it is - and it's very important to keep that in mind as you're reading. I've never been to a Zendo, but this book is exactly what I imagined the chats or talks that are done after meditation would be like. Shunryu Suzuki has a wonderful perspective and shares easily about what the practice is. I left this book with a different view on meditation as the practice - as the actual doing of the practice. I liked that there's no smoke and mirrors that you tend to get with Zen content. This is very straightforward and exceptionally helpful for those who are doing or thinking of doing the practice - meditation.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book
Review: Shunryu Suzuki was an excellent teacher and has a very impressive Dharma heir living among us today, Jakusho Kwong-roshi. The book is quite thorough and saturated in practice. The title of the book, in essence, almost conveys the entire meaning of the book. The sections on posture are helpful, as are the various other areas the book addresses. The book is probably the most popular in the history of Zen, and I guess rightfully so. I personally have found more kinship to other teachers along the way, but Roshi Suzuki was always at the very least-and excellently insightful teacher. I simply have more of an affinity to, for one reason or another, his succesor Jakusho Kwong-roshi, or Zen Masters Seung Sahn and Taizan Maezumi. Regardless, the book is excellent, so please buy it! Enjoy:)
Rating:
Summary: Great Place to Start
Review: I loved the simple but clear presentation on Zen Buddhist practice. This book would be helpful even to those with no interest in Zen practice.
Rating:
Summary: a zen classic...a book you can always come back to
Review: Weather you don't know anything about Zen or have been practicing for twenty years, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" will always give you something new. Out of all the Zen books I own, this is the one I am constantly going back to and re-reading. For many American Zen students, this is the book that started it all. "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" is a collection of lectures given by Shrunryu Suzuki given to his students in Los Atlos, CA. They deal with the fundamentals of practice in the Soto Zen tradition started by Dogen in Japan. However it would be wrong to limit this book to just a tradition. I believe no matter what your beliefs or practices are, this book and the practice of zazen can help you. Suzuki emphasises strongly on practice which in Zen, its easy to get carried away with false ideas and I think that is what makes this book so helpful with my practice. So pick up this book and a Zafu and take the lotus position and be prepared to be changed forever.
Rating:
Summary: This book makes you want to try better
Review: This book isn't just an introduction to Zen, it is a how - to, that doesn't need supplementation. Give it a read and you'll have a simple system of finding out what really matters, and you can stop relying on other people and books to tell you what is right.
Rating:
Summary: A 20th Century Spiritual Classic
Review: No praise is sufficient to what Suzuki Roshi accomplished in his life, and in this book. It is the kind of book that becomes a part of your life: you carry it around, you read it again and again, scribbling in its margins, writing down some of the stories so you can tell them to others, and marveling always at the graceful humility of this extraordinary man's expression. Like Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, this book is fit for any audience and any religious or professional orientation: it works as well for the general or the businessperson as it does for the Zen student or the spiritual seeker. It is everything that Zen was, should, and could still be: small, modest, inexpensive, and unfathomably rich in the simplicity and directness of its expression.
Rating:
Summary: How could anyone not like this book?
Review: This book is a collection of essays written by a "simple monk" who used a sense of humor and mindfulness on nearly every page -- no, nearly every sentence.
I first read this book shortly after it came out, and I was privileged to meet Suzuki Roshi in 1970. I can scarcely recall a better correlation of the author with the person. It's hard not to think of him smiling somewhere and wondering "what fools these mortals be, but what blessed fools and how much more like the gods than they realize."
| 
