Shunryu Suzuki, Ntozake Shange
Sep. 29th, 2009 01:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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50books_pocnew tags: a: suzuki shunryu
34. Shunru Suzuki, Zen Mind: Beginner's Mind
I've heard this described as an ideal entry-level beginner's book on zen. It is certainly not that. I can't imagine anything more bewildering to someone who knows nothing at all about Buddhism or zen. This is a collection of dharma talks given by Shunryu Suzuki, who established the San Francisco Zen Centre, and was instrumental in bringing Zen Buddhism to a white American audience. As such, the talks are given to people already practising zen in a sangha (a Buddhist community). For that purpose, it is very good, although it's sometimes confusing to read the talks written out without context.
I was interested in why Suzuki chose to teach Westerners in particular. He states several times in the book that he finds them more receptive to zen, a statement that I find uncomfortable to say the least. He doesn't really go into why that is, or what that means about his opinion of his own compatriots. He does talk a bit about the need for a specifically Western style of zen to come about over time, as other countries have in the past adapted zen to their own cultural context, but he does place this in the context of how Western zen practicioners should not pick and choose which bits of the dharma to follow.
I would like to read more about Western Buddhism and cultural appropriation - does anyone have any links or book recs?
35. Ntozake Shange, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf
Short but powerful. According to Wikipedia, there's going to be a new film version of this choreopoem released in 2010. I look forward to it, and am interested in whether they'll update it or leave it as is.
Sometimes while reading this I felt like I was eavesdropping, like this book was black women's safe space and I was intruding.
The line "I found God in myself/ and I loved her/ I loved her fiercely." wrung my heart.
34. Shunru Suzuki, Zen Mind: Beginner's Mind
I've heard this described as an ideal entry-level beginner's book on zen. It is certainly not that. I can't imagine anything more bewildering to someone who knows nothing at all about Buddhism or zen. This is a collection of dharma talks given by Shunryu Suzuki, who established the San Francisco Zen Centre, and was instrumental in bringing Zen Buddhism to a white American audience. As such, the talks are given to people already practising zen in a sangha (a Buddhist community). For that purpose, it is very good, although it's sometimes confusing to read the talks written out without context.
I was interested in why Suzuki chose to teach Westerners in particular. He states several times in the book that he finds them more receptive to zen, a statement that I find uncomfortable to say the least. He doesn't really go into why that is, or what that means about his opinion of his own compatriots. He does talk a bit about the need for a specifically Western style of zen to come about over time, as other countries have in the past adapted zen to their own cultural context, but he does place this in the context of how Western zen practicioners should not pick and choose which bits of the dharma to follow.
I would like to read more about Western Buddhism and cultural appropriation - does anyone have any links or book recs?
35. Ntozake Shange, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf
Short but powerful. According to Wikipedia, there's going to be a new film version of this choreopoem released in 2010. I look forward to it, and am interested in whether they'll update it or leave it as is.
Sometimes while reading this I felt like I was eavesdropping, like this book was black women's safe space and I was intruding.
The line "I found God in myself/ and I loved her/ I loved her fiercely." wrung my heart.
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Date: 2009-09-28 03:38 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, Tyler Perry is attached to the movie version. I have yet to stop weeping in terror.
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Date: 2009-10-01 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-01 04:05 pm (UTC)