Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki

Shin is the uniquely Japanese flowering of the type of Buddhism known as "Pure Land." It originated in the thirteenth century with the charismatic and prophetic figure Shinran (1172-1263), whose interpretation of the traditional Pure Land teachings was extremely influential in his own lifetime and remain so today. In a period when Japanese Buddhism was dominated by an elitist monastic establishment, Shinran's Shin teaching became a way of liberation for all people, regardless of age, class, or gender. Although Shin is one of Japan's greatest religious contributions--and is still the most widely practiced form of Buddhism in Japan--it remains little known in the West. In this book, based on several lectures he gave in the 1950s, D. T. Suzuki illuminates the deep meaning of Shin and its rich archetypal imagery, providing a scholarly and affectionate introduction to this sometimes misunderstood tradition of Buddhist practice.

"The works of the Rinzal Zen master Gibbon Sengai (1750-1837) are among the most renowned of all Japanese art. Here are 128 examples of great teacher's ink paintings and drawings, accompanied by D. T. Suzuki's commentary on each piece's context and meaning. Sengai's art was his Zen teaching, giving expression to the ineffable with energy, humor, and breathtaking simplicity. To behold it is to encounter that teaching - as fresh for us today as it was for Sengai's students two hundred years ago."--BOOK JACKET.

Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941) was an English writer and pacifist who became famous for her numerous works on religion and spiritual practice, in particular mysticism. In the English-speaking world, she was one of the most widely read writers on these matters in the first half of the twentieth century, especially for this book "Mysticism" published in 1911. It sold so many copies that no other book of this type was able to meet with the same great success until Aldous Huxley came out with The Perennial Philosophy in 1946.