Spreading Indra's Net
The Columbia Lectures of D. T. Suzuki
Published on 26. August 2025
Book
Hardback
384 pages
978-0-231-19286-6 (ISBN)
Description
D. T. Suzuki's 1950s lectures at Columbia University were foundational for the postwar Zen boom. Speaking softly in a bookcase-lined room, Suzuki, then in his eighties, introduced East Asian Buddhism to a rapt audience of the general public, scholars, and students. He offered a distinctive interpretation of Zen, weaving together his understanding of classical Buddhist texts, especially the Flower Garland Sutra, with Christian mysticism, psychology, and twentieth-century European and American philosophy. The freewheeling lectures captivated listeners drawn from the New York intelligentsia and art world-including Carolyn Brown, John Cage, Arthur Danto, Sari Dienes, Erich Fromm, Phillip Guston, Ibram Lassaw, and Dorothy Norman-and catalyzed public interest in Buddhism.
Spreading Indra's Net presents Suzuki's 1952-1953 lectures in full, giving a vivid look at how one of the most important global Buddhist figures of the twentieth century interpreted Zen for an American audience. Drawing on archival research in Japan and the United States, editor Richard M. Jaffe provides an extensive introduction that traces Suzuki's path to Columbia, analyzes the content of the lectures, and surveys their reception. Among the most accessible works of a major figure and a record of a crucial moment in New York history, this book displays Suzuki's gifts as a teacher, scholar, writer, and thinker.
Spreading Indra's Net presents Suzuki's 1952-1953 lectures in full, giving a vivid look at how one of the most important global Buddhist figures of the twentieth century interpreted Zen for an American audience. Drawing on archival research in Japan and the United States, editor Richard M. Jaffe provides an extensive introduction that traces Suzuki's path to Columbia, analyzes the content of the lectures, and surveys their reception. Among the most accessible works of a major figure and a record of a crucial moment in New York history, this book displays Suzuki's gifts as a teacher, scholar, writer, and thinker.
Reviews / Votes
Spreading Indra's Net is a celebration of primary-source research and the use of archives...Jaffe's book sharpens our understanding by focusing on the formative New York community of learners and supporters who were so captured by his teachings. * Tricycle * D. T. Suzuki's legendary Columbia University lectures position Zen as a lively, iconoclastic, art-friendly, and experiential form of spirituality. Scholar-sleuth Richard Jaffe uncovered a set of almost verbatim lecture notes, providing, for the first time, access to one of the key documents in the transmission of Zen to the West, and his well-researched introduction gives us the moment. -- Norman Fischer, poet, Soto Zen priest, and founder of Everyday Zen Foundation Suzuki's momentous 1952-53 seminars on Buddhist philosophy captivated his Columbia University audience, and his unique ideas, insights, and interpretations remain alluring. Now we get to join that audience thanks to Jaffe's fine introduction and labor of love to make these texts available. -- Evan Thompson, author of <i>Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy</i> An illuminating look into D.T. Suzuki's first lectures at Columbia University and a clear biographical vision of this renowned Zen scholar and philosopher. Jaffe offers a path to the mind of the teacher and a thorough read of lectures believed by artists and art historians to be a vital root of creative innovation that deeply influenced the art of the 1950s and beyond. -- Jennie Kiessling, studio artist and art educator Admired by philosophers, artists, literary figures, psychologists, and spiritual seekers, Daisetz Suzuki played a unique role in the dissemination of Buddhism to the modern West. Spreading Indra's Net displays his ingenuity in communicating Zen through the varied idioms of mid-twentieth century thought and the reasons for his enduring appeal. Richard Jaffe's introductory essay is impressive and illuminating and puts into context what made D.T. Suzuki so attractive. -- Jacqueline Stone, author of <i>Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism</i> Jaffe's Introduction, meticulous and most interesting, is just right. The Suzuki lectures are replete with knowledge, conviction, and-of all things-individual charm. This central, largely hidden event in the dissemination of Buddhism in the West is now an event for us all. -- Roger Lipsey, author of <i>Politics and Conscience: Dag Hammarskjoeld on the Art of Ethical Leadership</i>More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
18 figures
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-231-19286-6 (9780231192866)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
D. T. Suzuki | Richard M. Jaffe | Shigematsu Soiku
Spreading Indra's Net
The Columbia Lectures of D. T. Suzuki
E-Book
08/2025
1st Edition
Columbia University Press
€33.99
Available for download
Persons
Richard M. Jaffe is professor of religious studies at Duke University. He is the general editor of the Selected Works of D. T. Suzuki and the author of Seeking Sakyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Modern Japanese Buddhism and Neither Monk nor Layman: Clerical Marriage in Modern Japanese Buddhism.
Shigematsu Soiku is abbot of the Rinzai Zen temple Shogenji in Shizuoka, Japan. He is the editor-translator of A Zen Forest: Sayings of the Zen Masters and the cotranslator of D. T. Suzuki's Columbia University Seminar Lectures into Japanese.
Tokiwa Gishin is emeritus professor at Hanazono University. He is the translator of Zen and the Fine Arts and the cotranslator of D. T. Suzuki's Columbia University Seminar Lectures into Japanese.
Elizabeth Mary Thomas (1907-1986) was an accomplished Egyptologist who regularly attended Suzuki's seminars. The manuscript that she compiled based on her remarkably detailed class notes forms the basis of this book.
Shigematsu Soiku is abbot of the Rinzai Zen temple Shogenji in Shizuoka, Japan. He is the editor-translator of A Zen Forest: Sayings of the Zen Masters and the cotranslator of D. T. Suzuki's Columbia University Seminar Lectures into Japanese.
Tokiwa Gishin is emeritus professor at Hanazono University. He is the translator of Zen and the Fine Arts and the cotranslator of D. T. Suzuki's Columbia University Seminar Lectures into Japanese.
Elizabeth Mary Thomas (1907-1986) was an accomplished Egyptologist who regularly attended Suzuki's seminars. The manuscript that she compiled based on her remarkably detailed class notes forms the basis of this book.
Content
Abbreviations
Editorial Notes
Introduction: A Course with No Beginning
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki's Columbia University Seminar Lectures, 1952-1953
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
Character Glossary
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Editorial Notes
Introduction: A Course with No Beginning
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki's Columbia University Seminar Lectures, 1952-1953
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
Character Glossary
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index