To Shine One Corner of the World : Moments with Shunryu Suzuki

Rating:
Summary: I keep coming back to this slim volume
Review: It has a directness and brevity that seem to cut through in a way that longer works do not. I will say that having read other books by Suzuki Roshi, I found extra meaning in some of the shorter quotes that may not be there for all readers.

I was concerned that the book's brevity would detract, but I've come to feel that this is it's real strength. If you are like me, you get more books on subjects like this than you can ever read. This one was so short and pleasant that I did read it. And finish it. And re-read it. Good for a quick dip into it's pages or to read cover to cover.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: To Shine One Corner of the World
Review: Reading this book feels like sitting down for story time with your wise old grandfather on a Sunday afternoon. It's full of questions and full of answers to be excavated and then interpreted by the beholder. There's no dogma here - only stories and moments. If you read with a light heart you'll discover many pearls. Some of the stories will stick to you like honey.

David Chadwick's selection of anecdotes beautifully pieces together a portrait of Shunryu Suzuki, a Soto Zen priest who meant a lot of things to a lot of different people. Through the sharing of these individual experiences with Suzuki, a teaching as well as a sweet story of an unusual man emerges. An added bonus is getting a peek into this spiritual side of San Franciso in the 1960's.

The simplicity of structure works well with this book. You can open up to any page and dig in. You needn't be a Buddhist or a former student of Suzuki's to appreciate what's between the covers. Chadwick's introduction provides enough information about Suzuki to whet your appetite for the stories he shares. He also includes a glossary of Buddhist terms in the back of the book which I found helpful. For those who did know Shunryu Suzuki and his teachings I can imagine this book would be a treasure to keep right next to your family photo albums and personal journals.

I recommend this book to anyone seeking a little pleasure and understanding about everyday life. It's a book I'll keep on my nightstand for a bit of morning inspiration or as a last thought before drifting off at night. It's also a book I plan to share with friends.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Daily Reminder Book
Review: This book's contents is approximately 123 pages long, on each page there is anywhere between 2 to 6 sentences. Very short, yet often insightful, tidbits of wisdom on each page. The way I would recommend reading this book, is to not read it all at once. Rather, pick the book up for those times of great doubts, select any page-and read. It's simplicity is it's best quality. Sometimes we can become so lost down the philosophical or intellectual road, that we need a book like this to say: the tree is a tree. But no, there is more to the book then that.

For anyone interested in further reading into Zen, I would recommend The Compass of Zen by Zen Master Seung Sahn. Seung Sahn delves right into the 3 schools, Hinayana, Mahayana, and Zen (the two latter being the same mostly). The reason why I mention Seung Sahn is because I have a lot of admiration for his teaching style-no one compares. But, that said, Shunryu Suzuki's books, especially Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind-are at the very least-insightful.

The following is an example of the sort of page you may come across in this book:

A student, filled with emotion and crying, implored,"Why is there so much suffering?"

Suzuki Roshi replied,"No reason."

Enjoy this book:)

Rating:
Summary: Just one corner.....
Review: To Shine One Corner of the World - Moments with Shunryu Suzuki
Stories of a Zen Master Told by His Students
Edited by David Chadwick, 2001
Broadway Books
New York

"We say, to shine one corner of the world -- just one corner. If you shine one corner, then people around you will feel better."
Shunryu Suzuki

It has been said that when the student is ready, the master appears. To Shine One Corner of the World brings Suzuki Roshi to us through the gift of his students' recollections as beautifully as if we suddenly turned the corner and he stood before us. The editor of this delightful book, David Chadwick, studied and was ordained by Suzuki Roshi 30 years ago. The success of this small book lies in Chadwick's ability to allow the essence of Suzuki Roshi to shine through each page without extraneous editorializing. The words are those of Suzuki Roshi's students. The humor, the complexity, the mischievous nature of this Zen master is evident from first page to last.

Chadwick opens with a simple introduction of Suzuki Roshi's journey to the west coast of the United States from his native Japan and his mission to bring Zen Buddhism to the west. The introduction also includes a wonderful, straight forward explanation of the precepts of Zen Buddhism and Suzuki Roshi's teaching method, primarily silence. This leads us to a greater understanding of how, thirty years after his death, his students still recall his words. Chadwick presents these brief moments in time for us to interpret as the lessons appear for us.

Suzuki Roshi may not have spoken large quantities of words, but the words that he did speak were not limited to intensely serious profundity. From the student who received jelly beans after lamenting his snack habit to the student who was told "You get a gold star" when he sought the master's approval to putting a napkin on his head in a New York restaurant, we are shown that the master believed in levity as a powerful teaching tool. And yet, Chadwick also gives us a glance of the complexity of the master as Suzuki Roshi tells a group of students "When I say don't move, it doesn't mean you can't move."

To Shine One Corner of the World offers 122 moments experienced by students present during Suzuki Roshi's lifetime. Each vignette appears on an individual page leaving generous space for your own hand written thoughts as you contemplate the light of the master's words. The contributors to the book are listed in the back of the book so that there is no distraction from your experience of Suzuki Roshi within the pages. This small book shines with peace as the Suzuki Roshi's impish smile looks out from underneath shade trees in a photograph set within the lovely graphic design of a lotus blossom. David Chadwick has given us a jewel to be read again and again throughout all the days of our lives.
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Kathryn Lanier lives in Colorado with her nine year old twins. She is a freelance writer, editor, and review columnist educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the College of Charleston. She is an internationally published author and works world wide with clients from four continents! She can be contacted for services and workshop information through Innerchange Magazine online.


Rating:
Summary: How to "be" the teaching
Review: What a pleasure to read this at a time when bookstores are sporting larger and larger "Buddhism and Zen" sections, bursting with dharma-writing. In this slim, handsome volume (sporting the most beautiful photograph of Suzuki-roshi I have seen - like a sunbeam!) long-time students and practitioners recall moments with their teacher who showed, by example, that when you digest spiritual practice - so that how you hang your laundry is the teaching! - then THIS is the real teacher. When one student asks for a translation of one ancient Japanese chant, the roshi waves away an attendant who begins to locate a helpful book and says, "It means love!"

This is not wiseguy, shoot-from-the-hip Zen; nor is it a collection of erudite dharma speeches drawn from ancient scripture. This is a tribute to a true dharma friend and guide, a kind of friend we feel lonely for until we realize he was only showing us who we are.

Rating:
Summary: How to "be" the teaching
Review: What a pleasure to read this at a time when bookstores are sporting larger and larger "Buddhism and Zen" sections, bursting with dharma-writing. In this slim, handsome volume (sporting the most beautiful photograph of Suzuki-roshi I have seen - like a sunbeam!) long-time students and practitioners recall moments with their teacher who showed, by example, that when you digest spiritual practice - so that how you hang your laundry is the teaching! - then THIS is the real teacher. When one student asks for a translation of one ancient Japanese chant, the roshi waves away an attendant who begins to locate a helpful book and says, "It means love!"

This is not wiseguy, shoot-from-the-hip Zen; nor is it a collection of erudite dharma speeches drawn from ancient scripture. This is a tribute to a true dharma friend and guide, a kind of friend we feel lonely for until we realize he was only showing us who we are.

Rating:
Summary: I love this book
Review: Yet another stunning book from David Chadwick. Though it resembles a classic koan collection, Chadwick deftly skirts the hazard of presenting a collection of "profound stories". Chadwick's own considerable personality is not in evidence, the tone of the book is always sweetly understated, and the reader is not obligated to grapple with worshipful pretensions to piety. What fun.....

Rating:
Summary: I love this book
Review: Yet another stunning book from David Chadwick. Though it resembles a classic koan collection, Chadwick deftly skirts the hazard of presenting a collection of "profound stories". Chadwick's own considerable personality is not in evidence, the tone of the book is always sweetly understated, and the reader is not obligated to grapple with worshipful pretensions to piety. What fun.....