An introduction to Zen Buddhism

PREFACE

T„HE articles collected here were originally written for
theJ^ewEast,whichwaspublishedinJapanduringthe 191

4

WarundertheeditorshipofMr.RobertsonScott.The editor

suggested publishing them in book-form, but I did not feel

likedoingso at thattime. Later, theywere madethebasis

oftheFirstSeriesofmyJ^enEssays (1927), which, therefore,

naturallycovermoreorlessthesameground.

Recently,theideacametomethattheoldpapersmightbe

after all reprintedinbook-form.The reason isthat my^en

Essaysistooheavyforthosewhowishtohavejustalittlepre-

liminaryknowledgeofZen.Willnot, therefore,whatmaybe

regardedasanintroductoryworkbewelcomedbysomeofmy

foreignfriends?

WiththisinviewI havegoneovertheentire MS., and

whateverinaccuraciesIhavecomeacrossinregardtodiction

aswellasthematerialusedhavebeencorrected.Whilethere

arequiteafewpointsIwouldliketoseenowexpressedsome-

whatdifferendy,Ihaveleftthemastheystand,becausetheir

revisioninevitablyinvolves therecastingoftheentirecontext.

Solongastheyarenotmisrepresenting,theymayremainas

theywerewritten.

Ifthebook reallyservesas asortofintroductiontoZen

Buddhism,and leadsthereaderuptothestudyofmyother

works,theobjectisattained.Noclaimismadehereforascholarly

treatmentofthesubject-matter.

The companion book. Manualof^en Buddhism,is recom-

mendedtobeusedwiththisIntroduction.

D. T.S.

Kamakura,August 1934