Not Always So (Paperback)

Shunryu Suzuki was born May 18, 1904. His father, Butsumon Sogaku Suzuki, was the abbot of the village Soto Zentemple His mother Yone was the daughter of a priest and had been divorced from her first husband for being too independent. Shunryu grew up with an older half-brother from his mother's first marriage and two younger sisters. As an adult he was about 4 feet 11 inches (1.5 m) tall. In 1924 Shunryu enrolled in a Soto preparatory school in Tokyo not far from Shogan-ji, where he lived on the school grounds in the dorm. From 1925 to 1926 Suzuki did Zen training with Dojun Kato in Shizuoka at Kenko-in. He continued his schooling during this period. In 1925 Shunryu graduated from preparatory school and entered Komazawa University, the Soto Zen university in Tokyo. On August 26, 1926, So-on gave Dharma transmission to Suzuki. He was 22. Suzuki founded San Francisco Zen Center, which along with its affiliate temples, comprises one of the most influential Zen organizations in the United States. A book of his teachings, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, is one of the most popular books on Zen and Buddhism in the West.He died December 4, 1971 in San Francisco, California, U.S.A.