The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

MERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH:
Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro, 1870-1966

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Descriptive Summary

Record Group: Section A - Correspondence

Dates of materials: 1959-1965

Volume: 16 item(s); 23 pg(s)

Scope and Content

Merton began corresponding with D. T. Suzuki to ask some questions about Zen and to send him some quotes from the 4th Century Desert Fathers. These quotes would eventually go into Merton's book The Wisdom of the Desert. He asks Suzuki for his reactions and a possible introduction to the work, seeing a bond between Zen writings and the wisdom of the Christian monks of the desert. Suzuki's text would later be published in Merton's book, Zen and the Birds of Appetite.

Biography

Daisetz T. Suzuki was one of the most influential scholars in bringing Zen Buddhism to the West. He was born in Kanazawa, Japan. He taught at universities in Europe, Japan and the United States. Merton rarely traveled during his years at Gethsemani Abbey, but received permission in 1964 to visit Suzuki at Columbia University in New York. (Source: The Hidden Ground of Love, pp. 560-561.)

Usage Guidelines and Restrictions

Related Information and Links

See also published letters from Merton to Suzuki in The Hidden Ground of Love, pp. 560-571.

Other Finding Aids

If the person in correspondence with Merton has full text records in the Merton Center Digital Collections, there will be a numeric link to them below.
   

Series List

This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.

Container List

SeriesDateTypeTo/FromFirst LinesPubFull TextNotes
 1959/03/12 (#01)TL[x]from MertonPerhaps you are accustomed to receiving letters from strangers. I hope so, because I do not wishYes  
 1959/03/12 (#02)other[x]from MertonExcerpts from "What Should I Do? - Saying from the Desert Fathers" [-] 1- Abbot Pambo questioned   
 1959/03/31 TLS[x]to MertonThank you for your letter of March 12 which interests me very much. Kindly send your MS and allow   
 1959/04/11 TL[x]from MertonWhat a pleasure to receive your kind reply to my letter. I was very happy to learn that myYes  
 1959/09/25 TLS[x]to MertonThank you very much for your letter of recent date. I came back late in August from Honolulu after   
 1959/10/10 TLS[x]to MertonI am in the midst of writing my promised paper for your contemplated book on the Desert Fathers.   
 1959/10/20 TL[x]to MertonAfter much delay my paper is finally going under separate cover by this mail to you. I trust my   
 1959/10/24 TALS[x]from MertonYour article arrived very promptly - yesterday when I returned to the monastery it was already here.Yes  
 1959/11/22 (#01)TALS[x]from MertonThank you very much for your sympathetic paper. As you say, one's "intellectual antecedents" are   
 1959/11/22 (#02)other[x]from MertonI am not well acquainted with all of the Christian literature produced by the learned, talented,  ["Final Remarks" by Suzuki]
 1959/11/30 TL[x]from MertonI am so glad that you have added a few comments to your article. They are both very wise and I doYes  
 1964/06/01 HLS from Okamura, Mihoko / to MertonDr Suzuki has asked me to inform you that he will be coming to New York, arriving June 6th  [Mihoko Okamura was Suzuki's secretary]
 1964/06/11 TAL[c]from MertonI am really delighted to hear that you are in this country and that it is possible for me to meetYes  
 1964/10/14 TAL[c]from MertonTwo packages of books have arrived and I am most grateful to you for them and for the kindYes  
 1965/03/04 TL[c]from MertonThis year's Sengai Calendar reached me somehwat [sic] late with its intimations of the treasure shipYes  
 1965/05/03 TL[c]from MertonI have been reading a remarkable passage in a Syrian Christian thinker of the 5th century,Yes  
        

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