Editor's entry
~1 min readEdited transcripts of Shunryu Suzuki’s informal talks at Sokoji in San Francisco and at the Los Altos Zendo in the late 1960s, organised by his students Trudy Dixon and Marian Derby and introduced by his Dharma successor Richard Baker, with a preface by Huston Smith. The thirty-eight short chapters are arranged in three sections — Right Practice, Right Attitude and Right Understanding — and the Sōtō Zen attitude that gives the book its title sits at the front: that the mind of the beginner, open and not-knowing, is closer to awakening than the mind of the expert.
First published by Weatherhill in 1970, then carried forward by Shambhala from 2006, the book has remained the most-circulated Sōtō Zen text in English for half a century. It is short — about 138 pages — but the talks are deliberately repetitive and circular, returning to the same instructions on posture, breath, and intention from different angles. Suzuki died of cancer in December 1971, eighteen months after publication.
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Contents
38 chapters- Prologue: Beginner’s Mind
- Part 1 — Right Practice: Posture
- Part 1 — Right Practice: Breathing
- Part 1 — Right Practice: Control
- Part 1 — Right Practice: Mind Waves
- Part 1 — Right Practice: Mind Weeds
- Part 1 — Right Practice: The Marrow of Zen
- Part 1 — Right Practice: No Dualism
- Part 1 — Right Practice: Bowing
- Part 1 — Right Practice: Nothing Special
- Part 2 — Right Attitude: Single-minded Way
- Part 2 — Right Attitude: Repetition
- Part 2 — Right Attitude: Zen and Excitement
- Part 2 — Right Attitude: Right Effort
- Part 2 — Right Attitude: No Trace
- Part 2 — Right Attitude: God Giving
- Part 2 — Right Attitude: Mistakes in Practice
- Part 2 — Right Attitude: Limiting Your Activity
- Part 2 — Right Attitude: Study Yourself
- Part 2 — Right Attitude: To Polish a Tile
- Part 2 — Right Attitude: Constancy
- Part 2 — Right Attitude: Communication
- Part 2 — Right Attitude: Negative and Positive
- Part 2 — Right Attitude: Nirvana, the Waterfall
- Part 3 — Right Understanding: Traditional Zen Spirit
- Part 3 — Right Understanding: Transiency
- Part 3 — Right Understanding: The Quality of Being
- Part 3 — Right Understanding: Naturalness
- Part 3 — Right Understanding: Emptiness
- Part 3 — Right Understanding: Readiness, Mindfulness
- Part 3 — Right Understanding: Believing in Nothing
- Part 3 — Right Understanding: Attachment, Non-attachment
- Part 3 — Right Understanding: Calmness
- Part 3 — Right Understanding: Experience, Not Philosophy
- Part 3 — Right Understanding: Original Buddhism
- Part 3 — Right Understanding: Beyond Consciousness
- Part 3 — Right Understanding: Buddha’s Enlightenment
- Epilogue: Zen Mind
Reception
editor-collectedThe most-circulated Sōtō Zen book in English and one of the founding texts of American Buddhism — required reading at most Zen centres in the lineage Suzuki founded (San Francisco Zen Center, Tassajara, Green Gulch). His student David Chadwick’s Crooked Cucumber adds the biographical layer the talks deliberately omit. Inside Japanese Sōtō the book is sometimes considered slightly too American; outside it, the simplicity is the point. The post-Suzuki succession crisis at SFZC and the Richard Baker controversies sit in the historical background but do not touch the book itself.
Index reception note
Frequently asked
3 questions- What is Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind about?
- Edited transcripts of Shunryu Suzuki’s informal talks at Sokoji and the Los Altos Zendo in the late 1960s, organised by his students Trudy Dixon and Marian Derby. The thirty-eight short chapters are arranged in three parts — Right Practice, Right Attitude and Right Understanding — and circle around the Sōtō Zen attitude that gives the book its title: that the beginner’s open, not-knowing mind is closer to awakening than the expert’s.
- Who edited the book?
- Trudy Dixon and Marian Derby edited Suzuki’s talks into chapters; Richard Baker, Suzuki’s American Dharma successor, wrote the Introduction; Huston Smith contributed the Preface. The book was first published by Weatherhill in 1970, eighteen months before Suzuki’s death in December 1971.
- Why does it remain influential?
- It is the most-circulated Sōtō Zen book in English and one of the founding texts of American Buddhism — required reading at most Zen centres in the lineage Suzuki founded (San Francisco Zen Center, Tassajara, Green Gulch). Inside Japanese Sōtō it is sometimes considered slightly too American; outside it, the simplicity is the point.
Catalogue record
- Author
- Shunryu Suzuki
- Title
- Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
- Original title
- Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
- Publisher
- Weatherhill
- Year
- 1 June 1970
- Pages
- 138
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9780834800793
- Shelf
- Meditation · Awakening · Non-duality
Availability
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