![]() ![]() Born in Japan in 1904, the son of a Zen priest, he was trained by the best teachers of his generation. His life straddled the ancient and modern worlds. He felt to us like an ancient being from another time and place. The credit, to his mind, belonged not to him, but to the dharma itself, and to us. When the Japanese Soto sect sent him a yellow robe-a high honor-he would not wear it. ![]() But Suzuki Roshi did not like us making something special out of who he was. It all grew from there: the San Francisco Zen Center, Tassajara monastery, the publication of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, many ordained disciples, scores of lay disciples, thousands of followers. He sat zazen every morning in his temple, alone, until gradually some American students began to join him. Yet when he came to San Francisco in 1959, he had no plans, no grand strategy-only a bottomless confidence in the power of the dharma. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi has had an enormous influence on the growth of buddhadharma in the West. ![]()
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