ARTICLES The Echo of William James in the Thought of D. T. Suzuki

D. T. Suzuki, the Japanese Buddhist thinker who popularized Zen in the West, is being reassessed. Recent scholarship moves beyond earlier controversies—where he was seen either as an authoritative conduit for Buddhist teachings or as presenting a skewed, Japan-aggrandizing version of Zen—to recognize him as an innovative thinker and international figure. Suzuki deeply absorbed Western learning and set it in conversation with Japanese tradition, producing a new elucidation of Buddhism suited to modernizing Japan and spiritually curious Western audiences. He is now characterized as a forerunner of the global Buddhism unfolding worldwide.

Study at a glance

Abstract

the Japanese Buddhist thinker and great popularizer of Zen 禅 in the West, has been changing over the last decade.!e publication in 2015-21 of the four-volume Selected Works of D. T. Suzuki 1 marked a shift from the controversies of the past to a reexamination of his historical signi9cance.During the mid-twentieth century many people considered him a perfect conduit for Buddhist teachings, conveying them to an English readership without distortion or interpretative 9ltering.His writings were treated as an authoritative articulation of the profundities of Japanese Buddhism, and they largely set the contours for its reception and understanding in the West. 2 But in the late twentieth century, criticisms arose that Suzuki's ideas in fact presented a skewed image of Buddhism that aggrandized Japan and its version of Zen and that reinforced cultural biases and stereotypes. 3!oughstrong arguments have persisted on both sides of this controversy, scholarship has begun to move on in its treatment of Suzuki.More and more, he is held up as an innovative thinker and a unique international 9gure in the twentieth century.Suzuki deeply imbibed Western learning, and he set it in conversation with various forms of Japanese tradition.!e result was a new elucidation of Buddhism that was well suited both to Japan as it underwent the trauma of modernization and to a spiritually curious Western audience.Today Suzuki might best be characterized as a forerunner of the global Buddhism that is currently unfolding in manifold streams worldwide.I .,)* 4 * to Michiko Yusa, Robert Rhodes, and an anonymous reviewer for suggestions and insights that have improved this article.