29 SEPTEMBER 1950, Page 20

trim four essays in this book should be read only

by those who Nave already some acquaintance with the Zen system. In the first Professor Suzuki considers at some length the Koan exercise, by which some fanciful paradox or non-sequitur is thrown to the intellect as a means of breaking down logical processes of thought to make way for an intuitional and emotional apprehension of reality. This method he compares with the Nembutsu, the con- tinuous recitation of a single name or.phrase, intended to serve a similar purpose, and related psychologically, no doubt, to the Perpetual Prayer of Rusian mystics. The relation between Zen thought and the creative arts is stressed by the reproduction of several paintings on Zen subjects, and by the quotation of various gnomic poems by masters who have attained. The fourth essay on passivity in the Buddhist life also raises problems of cardinal interest to Westerners. Professor Suzuki has chosen quotations from St. Augustine, St. Bonaventura, Mme. Guyon, Molinos and others to illustrate the differences between the Christian conception of good- ness and the parallel Buddhist doctrine of " emptiness." He has a considerable knowledge of Western thought, and tells his queer, paradoxical anecdotes concerning the Zen masters and their pupils in good, economical English. He is prone, however, to overcharge his text in places with parallel terms in Japanese, Chinese and Sanscrit, while referring in other places quite arbitrarily to sects and doctrines which will only be familiar to the expert reader. He lays claim to a scholar's knowledge of the subjects he discusses. Christmas Humphreys, on the other hand, in his introduction speaks of Suzuki's direct knowledge of spiritual things. The truth would appear to lie half-way between these two claims.