Summary

The Preface by Huston Smith appeared in the first paperback printing of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. In it, Smith compares Shunryu Suzuki, the author of Zen Mind, to Daisetz Suzuki. He states that Daisetz Suzuki brought Zen to America 50 years before Shunryu Suzuki came to America. He claims that DT Suzuki’s Zen was dramatic while S. Suzuki’s Zen was ordinary. Smith recalls asking S. Suzuki why he did not emphasize satori, the expression of immediate enlightenment. Suzuki explained that satori was not the part that needed to be stressed.

Smith explains that Suzuki lived in America only 12 years, and even though he was unassuming and without ego, he established the first Soto Zen Monastery in the West, the Zen Mountain Center at Tassajara. He also established the Zen Center in San Francisco and he left this book.

Smith describes...