Carus, who had set up residence in LaSalle, Illinois, approached Soyen Shaku to request his help in translating and preparing Eastern spiritual literature for publication in the West.

At this time, around the turn of the century, quite a number of Westerners and Asians (Carus, Soyen, and Suzuki included) were involved in the worldwide Buddhist revival that had begun slowly in the 1880s.

[12] The Society is focused on Mahayana Buddhism and offers lectures and seminars, and publishes a scholarly journal, The Eastern Buddhist.

[13] Suzuki maintained connections in the West and, for instance, delivered a paper at the World Congress of Faiths in 1936, at the University of London (he was an exchange professor during this year).

A professor of Buddhist philosophy in the middle decades of the 20th century, Suzuki wrote introductions and overall examinations of Buddhism, and particularly of the Zen school.

Suzuki produced an incomplete English translation of the Kyogyoshinsho, the magnum opus of Shinran, founder of the Jōdo Shinshū school.

In India, the tradition of the holy beggar prevailed, but in China, social circumstances led to the development of a temple-and-training center system in which the abbot and the monks all performed mundane tasks.

These included food gardening or farming, carpentry, architecture, housekeeping, administration (or community direction), and the practice of folk medicine.

[17] Under Rōshi Soyen, the first master to teach zen Buddhism in America, Suzuki's studies were essentially internal and non-verbal, including long periods of sitting meditation.

Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana), his role in translating and ghost-writing aspects of Soyen Shaku's book was more the beginning of Suzuki's career as a writer in English.

"[22]Many scholars agree that the influence of post-Reformation and Enlightenment values have largely defined some of the more conspicuous attributes of Buddhist modernism.

[24]Buddhist modernist traditions are stated consist of a deliberate de-emphasis of the ritual and metaphysical elements of the religion, due to discousr.

Instead, Buddhist modernists often employ an essentialized description of their tradition, where key tenets are described as universal and sui generis.

In response, partisans of Zen drew upon Western philosophical and theological strategies in their attempt to adapt their faith to the modern age.

[28] McMahan states: In his discussion of humanity and nature, Suzuki takes Zen literature out of its social, ritual, and ethical contexts and reframes it in terms of a language of metaphysics derived from German Romantic idealism, English romanticism, and American transcendentalism.

However, while this approach substantiated Suzuki's authority as one with insider access to the profound truths of the tradition, another result was to increase the confusion in reader's minds.

[30]Although Suzuki became widely recognized as an authority on Zen, he was deeply interested in and consistently wrote about Jōdo Shinshū (True Pure Land Buddhism) throughout his life.

[31] For two decades, he held a professorship at Ōtani University, affiliated with Higashi Honganji, where he and his wife, Beatrice Lane Suzuki, established The Eastern Buddhist academic journal.

[31] His interpretations tended to emphasize religious experience, non-duality, and applications of Shin Buddhist teachings to life in this world instead of focusing on the afterlife in the pure land.

(p. 22) In this book, he also writes admiringly of the myokonin (Shin Buddhist saints):The problem of intellection is its inability to deal with ambiguity and contradiction, which take place in life all the time.

[38][39] Victoria writes, "D. T. Suzuki left a record of his early view of the Nazi movement that was included in a series of articles published in the Japanese Buddhist newspaper, Chūgai Nippō, on 3, 4, 6, 11 and 13 October 1936."

While it is a very cruel policy, when looked at from the point of view of the current and future happiness of the entire German people, it may be that, for a time, some sort of extreme action is necessary in order to preserve the nation."

Dürckheim, also a noted expounder of Japanese Zen philosophy in the West, was a committed Nazi and worked for the German Foreign Office in Tokyo during the war.

Yet perhaps this information, by itself, comprises no appropriate nuance when considering Suzuki's attitudes, and may be counterpoised by the quotation from Kemmyō Taira Satō given in the section below ("Japanese nationalism").

[41] The Japanese government intended to eradicate the tradition, which was seen as a foreign "other", incapable of fostering the nativist sentiments that would be vital for national, ideological cohesion.

[42] These leaders stood in agreement with the government persecution of Buddhism, accepting the notion of a corrupt Buddhist institution in need of revitalization.

The Zen tradition in Japan, in its customary form, required a great deal of time and discipline from monks that laity would have difficulty finding.

[47]Kemmyō Taira Satō does not agree with this critical assessment of Suzuki: In cases where Suzuki directly expresses his position on the contemporary political situation—whether in his articles, public talks, or letters to friends (in which he would have had no reason to misrepresent his views)—he is clear and explicit in his distrust of and opposition to State Shinto, rightwing thought, and the other forces that were pushing Japan toward militarism and war, even as he expressed interest in decidedly non-rightist ideologies like socialism.

These materials reveal in Suzuki an intellectual independence, a healthy scepticism of political ideology and government propaganda, and a sound appreciation for human rights.

These essays made Zen known in the West for the very first time: Shortly after, a second series followed: After World War II, a new interpretation: Miscellaneous: