"A ZEN LIFE - D.T.
Suzuki" is a 77-minute documentary about Daisetz
Teitaro Suzuki (1870-1966), credited with
single-handedly introducing Zen Buddhism to the West.
D.T. Suzuki was highly successful at getting
Westerners to appreciate the Japanese mentality, and
Japanese to understand Western logic. The effect he
had on Western psychoanalysis, philosophy, religious
thinking, and the arts was profound. His numerous
writings in English and Japanese serve as an
inspiration even today. Dr. Suzuki message is all the
more important now, in light of contemporary
conflicts stemming from divergent ways of thinking.
Gary Snyder calls Dr. Suzuki "probably the most
culturally significant Japanese person in
international terms, in all of history."
Along with Gary Snyder, there are exclusive
interviews of many people, respected in their own
right, who knew D.T. Suzuki in person, including
Huston Smith, Mihoko Okamura, Dr. Albert Stunkard,
Elsie Mitchell,
Robert Aitken, Donald Richie, Wm. Theodore de Bary,
and rare footage of Thomas Merton, John Cage, Erich
Fromm, and Suzuki himself.
The DVD contains an additional 10-minutes from a
hitherto unknown interview of Daisetz Suzuki by
Huston Smith. There is also a printed "Supplementary
Text" inserted in the case, with quotes from Dr.
Suzuki's talks in English never before published.
"A ZEN LIFE - D.T. Suzuki" can be ordered at:
www.martygrossfilms.com