What is Los Altos?

Los Altos is the location of the Zen sitting group where the talks for the book were recorded. It is almost 40 miles south of San Francisco. Suzuki would travel to the sitting group in Los Altos about two times a week. In the Afterword, Chadwick explains how Marian Derby’s father often drove Suzuki from San Francisco to Los Altos. On one of those drives, he asked Suzuki about his personal ambitions for his life. Suzuki responded by saying, “I’d like to write a book” (144).