Not Always So

by Suzuki, Shunryu

• ISBN13: 9780060957544
• ISBN10: 0060957549
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-05-12
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Practising the true spirit of Zen. Not Always So is based on Shunryu Suzuki's lectures and is framed in his own inimitable, allusive, paradoxical style, rich with unexpected and offcentre insights. Suzuki knew he was dying at the time of the lectures, which gives his thoughts an urgency and focus even sharper than in the earlier book. In Not Always So Suzuki once again voices Zen in everyday language with the vigour, sensitivity, and buoyancy of a true friend. Here is support and nourishment. Here is a mother and father lending a hand, but letting you find your own way. Here is guidance which empowers your freedom (or wayseeking mind), rather than pinning you down to directions and techniques. Here is teaching which encourages you to touch and know your true heart and to express yourself fully, teaching which is not teaching from outside, but a voice arising in your own being.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Calmness of Mind	p. 5
Express Yourself Fully	p. 8
Freedom from Everything	p. 12
Jumping off the 100-Foot Pole	p. 16
Changing Our Karma	p. 21
Enjoy Your Life	p. 25
Walk like an Elephant	p. 29
Letters from Emptiness	p. 35
Brown Rice is just Right	p. 40
The Zen of Going to the Rest Room	p. 42
Caring for the Soil	p. 47
Everyday Life is like a Movie	p. 49
Resuming Big Mind	p. 53
Ordinary Mind, Buddha Mind	p. 58
Supported from Within	p. 65
Open Your Intuition	p. 69
Find Out for Yourself	p. 72
Be Kind with Yourself	p. 77
Respect for Things	p. 81
Observing the Precepts	p. 85
Pure Silk, Sharp Iron	p. 89
Not Always So	p. 95
Direct Experience of Reality	p. 99
True Concentration	p. 103
Wherever I Go, I Meet Myself	p. 107
The Boss of Everything	p. 111
Sincere Practice	p. 115
One with Everything	p. 120
Wherever You Are, Enlightenment is There	p. 127
Not Sticking to Enlightenment	p. 131
The Teaching Just for You	p. 134
Stand Up by the Ground	p. 139
Just Enough Problems	p. 143
Sun-Faced Buddha, Moon-Faced Buddha	p. 146
Sitting like a Frog	p. 151
Notes about Editing the Lectures	p. 155
Further Reading	p. 159
Acknowledgments	p. 161
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.