Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Shambhala Library)

by Shunryu Suzuki

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Book cover for Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

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"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few." So begins this most beloved of all American Zen books. Seldom has such a small handful of words provided a teaching as rich as has this famous opening line of Shunryu Suzuki's classic. In a single stroke, the simple sentence cuts through the pervasive tendency students have of getting so close to Zen as to completely miss what it's all about. An instant teaching on the first page. And that's just the beginning.

In the thirty years since its original publication, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind has become one of the great modern Zen classics, much beloved, much re-read, and much recommended as the best first book to read on Zen. Suzuki Roshi presents the basics—from the details of posture and breathing in zazen to the perception of nonduality—in a way that is not only remarkably clear, but that also resonates with the joy of insight from the first to the last page. It's a book to come back to time and time again as an inspiration to practice.
  • ISBN10 0834800527
  • ISBN13 9780834800526
  • Publish Date 1 June 1970
  • Publish Status Out of Stock
  • Out of Print 16 March 2011
  • Publish Country US
  • Publisher Shambhala Publications Inc
  • Imprint Weatherhill Inc
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 144
  • Language English