The One Zen Thinker of the West

social media post SEP 2026 (E. Jensen)

        

In 1958, when DT Suzuki and Merton had their dialogue on Buddhism and Christianity, at the end, Suzuki threw up his hands and said, “I can’t help you, Tom. You’re a typical Western dualist. The only outside chance you have of getting Buddhism is to read that one Zen thinker of the West, Meister Eckhart.” And Merton said, “But he’s been condemned by the Church.” Suzuki said, “Well, I can’t help that, can I?”

Merton thought it over, and started to read Zen poetry and Eckhart. And he totally shifted. Merton up to 1958 was a very dualistic, guilt-ridden, Augustinian monk. Merton from 1958 on is confident, he’s Buddhist, and he’s prophetic. And in his journal that he wrote on his last trip to Asia - his only trip to Asia, but his last trip in this lifetime because he died there - he was writing in his journal, “Eckhart is my lifeboat. Eckhart is my lifeboat.” So Eckhart was profound; he brought on the shift in Merton’s whole consciousness.

~  Reverend Matthew Fox

From: "The Lotus and the Rose. A Conversation Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical Christianity"

By Reverend Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo

Namchak Publishing

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki 1870 – 1966, was a Japanese essayist, philosopher, religious scholar, and translator. He was an authority on Buddhism, especially Zen and Shin, and was instrumental in spreading interest in these (and in Far Eastern philosophy in general) to the West. He was also a prolific translator of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Sanskrit literature.

Suzuki spent several lengthy stretches teaching or lecturing at Western universities and devoted many years to a professorship at Ōtani University, a Japanese university of the Ōtani School of Jōdo Shinshū. Suzuki was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963.

Excerpt from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._T._Suzuki