Rating: 
Summary: Always Be a Beginner!!!
Review: Some 2 years after having read and enjoyed this book, what has stayed with me is one simple saying of Suzuki roshi's that I hadnt encountered in other books, but which has lately seemed to me to be a deep insight into the reality of many-worlds: (but I wont spoil it for you, in stereotypical Zen fashion. :) The comments by another reader about possible ADD symptoms ring a bell, and I wonder how much is due to the practice itself, which, after all, is quite abnormal in many respects. This book reads very easily and is appropriately somewhat more reverent than 'Thank You and OK'. I did think that the subject of Suzuki roshi's Dharma-heirs did not get enough attention, though it is understandable. Yet, particularly in the Zen tradition, one's heirs seem to be as important, even more so, than the body of one's 'teachings'. It would be valuable for Baker roshi, Sojun roshi, or Jakusho roshi, for example, to write their reminiscences as well, though Chadwick does have some anecdotes from them included here. Anyway, this book will help a lot in demystifying the mystique of 'enlightenment', Zen or otherwise, the projection of which Zen teachers are perennially cursed with. It's a hard life in more ways than one.
Rating:
Summary: Does zen have a history?
Review: The story of a zen master and his surroundings. Zen has no history and neither does Suzuki. He is a steady point in a play of parents, zen masters, second world war, man slauther and funny american zen students. He was a down to earth person but still a light house, a kind of a buddha next door. The book is half his japanese and half his american story, well researched and well written and therefore to recommend throughout.
Rating:
Summary: 5 STARS FOR SUZUKI'S HUMANITY
Review: This book does not, as one or two have complained, over-glorify Shunryu Suzuki. In fact, it's for exactly the oppostite reason that this book is so inspiring: because Suzuki is shown to be an ordinary man with ordinary human flaws, but who aspires always to be a better person. We can relate to him so much more than many other spiritual teachers because he is so much more like us, not some lofty being residing atop a mountain, or a Dalai Lama isolated by a retinue of followers from the every-day hum-drum, mundane world the rest of us have to live in--punching clocks and explaining to our boss why we're ten minutes late from our lunch-break. Suzuki's life was on the whole pretty normal. Yes, he grew up in a temple, something most of us don't do, but he had his share of flaws and moments of self-doubt, and he was eventually faced with all the ordinary concerns and hardships of making money and providing for a family that most of us have. Yet amidst it all he holds his spirituality as the central focus of his life, and tries his best to bring all these other worldly things into accordance with his spiritual ideals, just as we do. If you want to be inspired to be a better person, a happier person, in THIS life--as opposed to shutting yourself away in a monastery somewhere--then read this book.
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