Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai by Shunryu Suzuki (PDF)

Description

When Shunryu Suzuki Roshi’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind was published in 1972, it was enthusiastically embraced by Westerners eager for spiritual insight and knowledge of Zen. The book became the most successful treatise on Buddhism in English, selling more than one million copies to date. Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness is the first follow-up volume to Suzuki Roshi’s important work. Like Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, it is a collection of lectures that reveal the insight, humor, and intimacy with Zen that made Suzuki Roshi so influential as a teacher.The Sandokai―a poem by the eighth-century Zen master Sekito Kisen (Ch. Shitou Xiqian)―is the subject of these lectures. Given in 1970 at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the lectures are an example of a Zen teacher in his prime elucidating a venerated, ancient, and difficult work to his Western students. The poem addresses the question of how the oneness of things and the multiplicity of things coexist (or, as Suzuki Roshi expresses it, “things-as-it-is”). Included with the lectures are his students’ questions and his direct answers to them, along with a meditation instruction. Suzuki Roshi’s teachings are valuable not only for those with a general interest in Buddhism but also for students of Zen practice wanting an example of how a modern master in the Japanese Soto Zen tradition understands this core text today.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “‘In a sequel to his Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi explores even more deeply the meaning and value of recognizing non-duality in our lives. . . . Suzuki Roshi’s commentary on this difficult work is characteristically insightful. But it is the question and answer exchanges with his students, included at the end of each talk, that reveal his wisdom, humor and warmth to greater advantage.” ― Shambhala Sun”Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness is wonderful, simple, and bottomlessly deep, as Suzuki always is.” ― Tricycle: The Buddhist Review”These 13 talks provide a succinct overview of Suzuki’s views on enlightenment, suffering, the big mind, the dangers of dualistic thinking, and the futility of knowing in the head what Zen is. . . . This is an essential resource for all devotees of Suzuki Roshi.” ― Spirituality & Practice From the Inside Flap “An opportunity to peer even more deeply into Suzuki Roshi’s Zen mind and ponder the true meaning and value of recognizing the non-dual in our ordinary lives. The repartee with his students is by itself a great and unexpected gift, reviving that charming voice and warm wisdom we grew to know and love so well through Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”–Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are and coauthor of Everyday Blessings “Suzuki Roshi’s gentle wisdom shines through these intimate talks on the Sandokai. I am grateful to Mel Weitsman and Michael Wenger for their labor of love.”–Robert Aitken, author of Taking the Path of Zen and Original Dwelling Place “Buddhists and lovers of Buddhism who have read and reread Suzuki Roshi’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind over the years, as well as those who are just discovering the wisdom of this wonderful, profound teacher for the first time, will welcome this new book of lectures on Zen training as a gift we did not expect to receive. Branching Streams should be read slowly and savored.”–Rita M. Gross, author of Buddhism After Patriarchy “Through the poetry of knowing and doing, Shunryu Suzuki points out a path of practical wisdom for Americans today, in a voice so close at hand it can touch their inner experience of the interdependence of existence, open their ears to hear its harmony of difference and sameness, and awaken their willingness to be true to its mystery.”–Stephen Tipton, co-author of Habits of the Heart “A wonderful manifestation of Suzuki Roshi’s fresh insights and teachings–small, pithy, wild nuts delicious to anyone who chooses to taste them.”–Peter Matthiessen “Muryo Roshi,” author of Sal Si Puedes (Escape If You Can) From the Back Cover “An opportunity to peer even more deeply into Suzuki Roshi’s Zen mind and ponder the true meaning and value of recognizing the non-dual in our ordinary lives. The repartee with his students is by itself a great and unexpected gift, reviving that charming voice and warm wisdom we grew to know and love so well through Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”―Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are and coauthor of Everyday Blessings “Suzuki Roshi’s gentle wisdom shines through these intimate talks on the Sandokai. I am grateful to Mel Weitsman and Michael Wenger for their labor of love.”―Robert Aitken, author of Taking the Path of Zen and Original Dwelling Place “Buddhists and lovers of Buddhism who have read and reread Suzuki Roshi’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind over the years, as well as those who are just discovering the wisdom of this wonderful, profound teacher for the first time, will welcome this new book of lectures on Zen training as a gift we did not expect to receive. Branching Streams should be read slowly and savored.”―Rita M. Gross, author of Buddhism After Patriarchy “Through the poetry of knowing and doing, Shunryu Suzuki points out a path of practical wisdom for Americans today, in a voice so close at hand it can touch their inner experience of the interdependence of existence, open their ears to hear its harmony of difference and sameness, and awaken their willingness to be true to its mystery.”―Stephen Tipton, co-author of Habits of the Heart “A wonderful manifestation of Suzuki Roshi’s fresh insights and teachings–small, pithy, wild nuts delicious to anyone who chooses to taste them.”―Peter Matthiessen “Muryo Roshi,” author of Sal Si Puedes (Escape If You Can) About the Author Shunryu Suzuki Roshi came to the United States in 1959, leaving his temple in Yaizu, Japan, to serve as priest for the Japanese American congregation at Sokoji Temple in San Francisco. In 1967 he and his students created the first Zen Buddhist monastery in America at Tassajara in the coastal mountains south of San Francisco. Suzuki Roshi died in 1971 at age 67, a year and a half after delivering his teaching on the Sandokai. He may have had a premonition of his coming death when he said that it was common for Zen teachers in the Soto tradition to lecture on the Sandokai near the end of life.Mel Weitsman is the former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center and current abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. Michael Wenger is Dean of Buddhist Studies at the San Francisco Zen Center. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This was a great, well written, sophisticated book on Zen that has made a difference in my life. It is based on the “Sandokai” — a poem orginally written by the 8th century chinese Zen master Sekito. But, although it is “written” by a Japanese monk talking of traditional teachings, it is highly readable and understandable. In addition, and most importantly, it speaks to the heart and the core of Zen.However, it is probably not a for novice reader: “Zen Mind, Begginner’s Mind”, and “Not Always So” are excellent prerequsisites to this book. Although it is understandable, the ideas and teachings are rather advanced. The intro mentions that these teachings on the Sandokai are often the last that a Dharma teacher will undertake in his lifetime — and this series of lectures was Suzuki’s take on it shortly before he passed away.It took me an entire summer to read — and I would frequently have to read a chapter 3 or 4 times before I felt that I had absorbed the trur meaning of what he was trying to say. That is, the teachings it presents can be absorbed on many different levels from superficial to very deep. It is up to the reader how deep they are willing and able to go…

⭐This is the only Shunryu Suzuki book that I’ve read that went over my head. I think I’ve read all of his books and loved them all. I may read it again later sometime.

⭐I wanted this book for a class. It arrived timely for my study needs.

⭐Not a book for beginners! This is very different from Shunryu Suziki’s first book, “Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind” which I loved and is great for all levels of readers. “Branching Streams…” is a commentary on a very advanced Zen Buddhist Text, the “Sandokai” and should be studied seriously in a group with a teacher and / or after a lot of other study and practice in Buddhist meditation and philosophy. If you are ready for it, it can be very enlightening and bring the eight century writings of Zen master Sekito Kisen to life, if not it will just confuse you.

⭐This is a collection of talks about the Sandokai, an ancient Chinese poem that is regularly chanted in Zen circles. The poem itself is quite obscure when you first read it and the talks are similarly obscure at first. The rational mind finds it difficult to understand how you can, to take one of his examples, kill earwigs without violating the Buddhist precept against killing. Shunryu Suzuki uses such examples to try to help us move past our usual dualistic thinking.And, somehow, it works. By the end of the book when the poem is repeated in Suzuki’s translation, it makes sense. He has successfully lead us into a place of darkness, that is a place beyond intellectual understanding.A book to be read slowly, in small doses, and to be contemplated, rather than analyzed and thought about.

⭐Publication of “Branching Streams,” the commentary on the Sandokai by Shunryu Suzuki is a great benefit to those of us learning about Zen, and life, here in the West. Also, to those of us who “practice” or try to learn about Zen without benefit of teachers, and the guided life of a monastery. With this book we are there with Zen monks, sitting in the Dharma Hall learning the wisdom passed down by the “ancient sages” from the golden age of Zen.Of course, this is also a great benefit to those, such as monks, living a life dedicated to enlightnenment and living the Way. I can’t begin to explain the Sandokai itself, or Master Suzuki’s insightful commentary–suffice it to say that its true wisdom presented in a skillful way to help anyone living the most more mundane and ordinary life.

⭐Zen practitioners recite the venerable Chinese poem “Identity of Relative and Absolute” on a regular basis, but comprehending its paradoxes seems out of reach to many. This book is a compilation of talks given by Shunryu Suzuki, founding Roshi of the San Francisco Zen Center, a year before his death. Suzuki Roshi breaks down the poem into two- or four-line stanzas and discusses each one with a group of students, with a question-and-answer section at the end of each chapter. Although the reader may not come away with instant understanding, there is plenty of food for contemplation. Suzuki Roshi’s profound wisdom and humor make this a one-of-a-kind book on Zen.

⭐If you liked Zen mind beginners mind, or crooked cucumber, you love this. Much more accessible and simplified compared to the other two books. It’s almost like a book of poetry, passages similar to dao teh ching.

⭐Shunryu Suzuki is mostly known through the book “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”.This book brings more transcripts of his talks. I love to read them because he was such a good Zen teacher: an ordinary man, compassionate and friendly, but firm on the subject. This book contains talks on the Sandokai, a Chinese poem from the eighth century, emphasising direct experience of reality.”Our effort in Zen is to observe everything as-it-is.”Suzuki Roshi came originally to San Francisco to serve as a priest to the Japanese American congregation there. When more and more Americans came to listen to and practice with him, the San Francisco Zen Centre was established.In his talks I find the freshness of someone who talks from experience, like he says: “rely on your voiceless voice… Listen to the tongueless teaching”. It shines through. I recommend his talks to anyone interested in Zen: get inspired by his words, get encouraged to do Zen practice.

⭐Wonderful book – very good condition.

⭐Good product delivered promptly

⭐This is also average book, looks very similar to zen mind beginner’s mind and Not always. I would suggest for deeper understanding on Soto Zen Buddhism after reading Zen mind beginners mind book, please read Bendowa the wholehearted Way of Dogen with commentary by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, Then Realizing Genjokoan: The Key to Dogen’s Shobogenzo by Shohaku Okumura.

⭐Um ótimo livro. Tradução de fácil compreensão. O Sandokai é um texto de grande importância para o budismo Soto Zen. Comentário de um grande mestre contemporâneo. Recomendado.

⭐

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