FROM OUR EDITORS

The first introduction of Zen Buddhism to the West written by a master who neither baffles nor bores the reader.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Zen Master Soyen Shaku's vivid explanations of Buddhist beliefs are published here together with the Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters in lucid translations by his most famous pupil, D.T. Suzuki. This Sutra was the first collection of Buddha's sayings to be introduced from India into the Far East. Appropriately, the first introduction of Zen Buddhism into the West was based on the Buddhist beliefs found in this Sutra. The first words from the Buddhist East to the West are perhaps the best words to introduce Zen.

These lectures by Zen Master Soyen Shaku, plus several of his essays written later especially for an American audience, draw Westerners into the Zen frame of mind. Zen Master Soyen Shaku is a powerful, poetical writer who inspires simplicity and ease of movement in all our thinking and doing. Reading his description of the Buddhist idea of God, of Karma, or of reincarnation, is like resting in a Japanese garden: there are no excesses, every feature blesses you with radiant tranquillity.

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