Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness

"Shunryu Suzuki Roshi came to the United States in 1959, leaving his temple in Yaizu, Japan, to serve as priest for the Japanese American congregation at Sokoji Temple in San Francisco. In 1967 he and his students created the first Zen Buddhist monastery in America at Tassajara in the coastal mountains south of San Francisco. Suzuki Roshi died in 1971 at age sixty seven, a year and a half after delivering his teaching on the Sandokai. Mel Weltsman is the former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center and current abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. Michael Wenger is Dean of Buddhist Studies at the San Francisco Zen Center. "That same 'there-is-no-problem-here' voice that we first heard in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind comes through beautifully once again.... However simple and gentle he sounds, Suzuki is not giving us a dumbed-down self-help book. This is very sophisticated instruction." - Kobal Scott Whitney, Parabola "The fact that one text can inspire a book's worth of philosophical thought and practical advice is testimony both to Buddhism's depths and to Suzuki Roshi's considerable gifts." - Donna Seaman, Booklist "An eloquent, humorous series of lectures on the Sandokai. [The question-and-answer sessions] offer some of the most fascinating parts of an already excellent book." - Publishers Weekly "Read and relax with Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness, which offers an enlightening look at your place in the universe." - New York Times special supplement, "The Best of the Season" "Wonderful, simple, and bottomlessly deep, as Suzuki always is." - Tricycle

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi came to the United States in 1959, leaving his temple in Yaizu, Japan, to serve as priest for the Japanese American congregation at Sokoji Temple in San Francisco. In 1967 he and his students created the first Zen Buddhist monastery in America at Tassajara in the coastal mountains south of San Francisco. Suzuki Roshi died in 1971 at age 67, a year and a half after delivering his teaching on the Sandokai. He may have had a premonition of his coming death when he said that it was common for Zen teachers in the Soto tradition to lecture on the Sandokai near the end of life. Mel Weitsman is the former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center and current abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. Michael Wenger is Dean of Buddhist Studies at the San Francisco Zen Center.