Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Far from a beginner’s book to understanding the practice of Zen. Much of Suzuki’s lectures seem to be attempting to transfer the ungraspable nature of the world into more concrete forms for our understanding. This, of course, proves difficult. Instead we are left with short parables that present the novice Zen learner with contradiction after contradiction. Practice zazen but don’t practice zazen, enlightenment is here but not here, you are not you but also entirely you. Zen often leads itself to this type of phraseology, but having it occur so frequently in such a condensed book makes the reader want to throw up their hands in despair.
However, there were a few passages that helped better elicidate basic Zen tenants. One passage used the movie screen as a analogy for enlighlentment. We watch horror, sad dramas, and a variety of movies which provoke difficult feelings in us. Yet, we still enjoy these movies and seek them out. We do this because we are aware that beneath the scary or depressing scenes is a white screen. Our enlightenment is the same as this baseline white screen. All the suffering we experience daily can be viewed differently if we remember the emptiness that is at the root of everything. We can then “enjoy” the diffculties we are confronted with.
There are a few short lectures like this scattered throughout the text. Mining them from the rest of the writing made this book a bit of a chore. Still, it is a very quick read, so don’t let my rather harsh rating discourage you.