A ZEN LIFE

THE D.T.SUZUKI DOCUMENTARY PROJECT
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REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS

Tikkun
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Review by Katje Richstatter

"Suzuki saw Western thought as overly enamored with scientific studies, and continued to destroy any ideas his students had of using Zen as a commodity, something they could get to change their lives. Suzuki taught Zen as fundamentally ungraspable, an eternal negation; any cherished idea had to be destroyed, and any thought of accomplishment had to be abandoned. But as he lived between Japan and the United States, he understood the special amount of psychological discomfort these concepts caused in the West."

The Japan Times
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Review by Eric Prideaux

"Suzuki's exotic message, after all, wasn't easy for a Western mind -- or any mind, for that matter -- to grasp. But then, Western society, until that time so locked into its Christian beliefs that it made little room for other spiritual perspectives, was undergoing a peculiar transformation. Its doors of perception were opening. Some of those doors were in the hallways of academe... Zen would find a receptive audience outside the ivory tower, too. During the 1950s, a counterculture opposed to the prevailing conservatism of American society began taking shape, dedicated to such values as pacifism, racial integration, and nonconformity."

Gyaku
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Interview of Michael Goldberg
by Chris Salzberg and Hanako Tokita

"He had all sorts of people around him who called themselves his 'deshi' (apprentices). But he was adamant: 'Washi-ni, deshi-ga oran' (I have no apprentice). When he was on his death bed, there were people in the hospital lounge waiting for his last words. His physician, Dr. Hinohara, Shigeaki, who's Christian, asked Dr. Suzuki if he wanted to see any of them, and he replied: 'No, I want to be alone.' Only his secretary, Mihoko Okamura was there at the end. He never gave a last word to any of them."

Kyoto Journal
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Review by Katje Preston Houser

"...despite the contradictions inherent in attempting to film the unfilmable or articulate the inarticulate, the viewer feels spiritually and intellectually cleansed which, in our media drenched age, is no small feat. Despite Suzuki's admonition to Donald Richie that 'you can't put such a big object [Zen] into such a small package [representation, form, or film],' Goldberg has nevertheless confronted this overwhelmong challenge with grace and poise. Highly recommended."

Journal of Buddhist Ethics
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Review by Wayne Yokoyama

"When the war ended with Japan's defeat in 1945, Suzuki was a widower who had spent much of the war years establishing a Buddhist library known as the Matsugaoka Bunko in Kamakura. He was seventy-five at the time and his life had come full circle. However, within a few years, a host of remarkable men, many brought to Japan by the American Occupation, including Richard DeMartino, Dr. Albert Stunkard, Donald Richie, and Robert Aitken Roshi, began to make their way to the door of Suzuki's Engakuji residence. It was through engaging in long discussions with them and seeing their genuine hunger for Zen that Suzuki realized that America was ready for his message."

SF360
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Review by Robert Avila

"...Suzuki's fascinating life serves ultimately as vehicle for conveying the sense and trajectory through Western culture of Zen's key concepts such as Satori or 'enlightenment.' One of Goldberg's achievements here is the clear and concise way 'A Zen Life' traces these lines, while affectingly elucidating ideas inherently subtle and elusive. Anyone interested in the impact of Zen Buddhism in the West, or the life of one of its most distinguished representatives, will be intrigued and affected by the film's alluring intersection of biography, history, and transformative ideas."

ABC Radio (Australia)
Audio (MP3): 16 mins. Text Only

Interview of Michael Goldberg
by Rachael Kohn

"When I started this project... one of the problems was the fact that so many of the very well known - great people as we might say - who knew Suzuki well and studied under him or befriended him, were close to him, are gone. I decided that I had better start recording and documenting with my TV camera the people who are left. There are those who are no longer with us, such as Father Thomas Merton or Eric Fromm. I could only search for remnants if you will, like an archaeologist, trying to find old recordings, old films, old TV programs."

Vancouver Coop Radio
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Interview of Michael Goldberg
by Farah Nazarali

"...in the early days of Zen Buddhism, all of the practices we have now didn't exist. The Koans (Zen riddles which have no logical answer) weren't codified. We now have thousands of these Koans which have been written up in books that students and monks study, and you have to 'pass your Koans.'   All these didn't exist. Actually, those Koans were based on the specific relationship between a sensei (teacher) and a disciple. It was something the master said that related directly to that disciple's needs at that time that brought them a Kensho - their first enlightenment experience."

3e millénaire
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Review by Samir Coussa (en francais)

"Ses positions lui valurent beaucoup de critiques. Certains le considérèrent comme un simple érudit, un vulgarisateur. Les moines le critiquent de trop parler et de trop ecrire, car un "vrai pratiquant" se consacere a la meditation et la transmission. Des academiciens mettaient en doute son oeuvre, car ses travaux ne s'effectuaient pas dans le cadre d'une institution universitaire reconnue. D'autres, enfin, comme Alan Watts, Hubert Benoit, Christmas Humphreys et surtout des autorités comme Heinrich Dumoulin le soutinrent et reconnurent leurs dettes envers lui. Mais tout le monde reconnaît son rôle crucial dans l'introduction du Zen."

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