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seanfarrell's review against another edition
4.0
D.T. Suzuki is arguably the most prolific popularizer of Zen in West from the early to mid twentieth century and The Zen Doctrine of No-Mind is among his best. Though criticized for his lack of experience in practice and his very Western education, I'd argue that this puts him in a strong position to provide scholarship to a Western audience unfamiliar with the often difficult and cryptic teachings of Zen Buddhism. In this work, Suzuki analyzes Hui-Neng's Platform Sutra, an early, pivotal Chan/Zan text that formalized the shift in thought and practice, away from practices and thinking promoting a gradualist view of awakening to those promoting sudden awakening. The dichotomy between these two paths would go on to characterize much of Zen thinking and practice up through the present day.