SOURCE: “Zen for the West,” in Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D. T. Suzuki, edited by William Barrett, Doubleday, 1956, pp. vii-xx.

In his introduction to Suzuki's Zen Buddhism, originally published in 1956, Barrett describes the relationship between Zen Buddhist philosophy and the philosophies of the West.

Zen Buddhism¹ presents a surface so bizarre and irrational, yet so colorful and striking, that some Westerners who approach it for the first time fail to make sense of it, while others, attracted by this surface, take it up in a purely frivolous and superficial spirit. Either response would be unfortunate. The fact is that Zen, as Dr. Suzuki demonstrates, is an essential expression of Buddhism, and Buddhism is one of the most tremendous spiritual achievements in human history—an achievement which we Westerners probably have not yet fully grasped. We have to remember how recent it is that we have sought out...