Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki, also known as D. T. Suzuki, was a Japanese philosopher, writer, and scholar of Buddhism and Zen. He was one of the most influential figures in introducing Zen to the Western world, through his books, essays, lectures, and translations of Buddhist texts. He also contributed to the development of Buddhist studies and interfaith dialogue, and influenced many prominent thinkers, artists, and spiritual leaders of the 20th century. Suzuki was born in 1870 in Kanazawa, Japan, as the fourth son of a physician from a samurai family. He lost his father at a young age and grew up in poverty with his mother, who was a devout Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist. He received a modern education at public schools and later at the University of Tokyo, where he studied philosophy, literature, and languages. He also learned Chinese, Sanskrit, Pali, and several European languages, and became proficient in English. Suzuki's interest in Zen Buddhism began when he was a student at Tokyo University, and he started practicing Zen meditation at Engaku-ji, a famous Zen temple in Kamakura. There he met Soyen Shaku, a renowned Zen master, who became his teacher and mentor. Suzuki became Soyen's disciple and assistant, and accompanied him to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, where he helped translate and present Soyen's speech on Buddhism. This was Suzuki's first exposure to the Western world and its culture and religions. Suzuki stayed in the United States for several years, working as a translator and editor for Paul Carus, a German-American philosopher and publisher. He also traveled to Europe and met with various scholars and thinkers, such as William James, Ernest Fenollosa, and Bertrand Russell. He returned to Japan in 1908 and married Beatrice Erskine Lane, an American Theosophist and Radcliffe graduate, who became his lifelong companion and collaborator. They settled in Kyoto, where Suzuki taught at Otani University, a Buddhist institution, and continued his research and writing on Buddhism and Zen. Suzuki's first major work in English was Essays in Zen Buddhism, published in three volumes between 1927 and 1934. It was a comprehensive and original study of Zen, based on Suzuki's personal experience and extensive knowledge of Buddhist texts and history. It was widely acclaimed and translated into several languages, and established Suzuki's reputation as the foremost authority on Zen in the West. He also wrote other books and articles on various aspects of Buddhism, such as The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk (1934), Manual of Zen Buddhism (1935), and Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra (1930). Suzuki visited the United States again in 1950, and became a visiting professor at Columbia University, where he taught and lectured on Zen and Buddhism until 1957. He also traveled to other countries and participated in many conferences and dialogues on religion and culture. He met with influential figures such as Carl Jung, Thomas Merton, Martin Heidegger, John Cage, and Alan Watts, and inspired many people to explore Zen and Buddhism. He also received several honors and awards, such as the National Medal of Culture from the Japanese government and the nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Suzuki returned to Japan in 1957 and settled in Kamakura, where he continued his scholarly and literary activities until his death in 1966. He was 95 years old and had written more than a hundred books and thousands of essays on Buddhism and Zen. He was buried at Tokei-ji, a Zen temple in Kamakura, where his wife had also been interred. His legacy lives on in his writings and in the many people he influenced and inspired. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest interpreters and ambassadors of Zen and Buddhism in the modern world.