This is a file in the correspondence of Thomas Merton under the heading: "Sasaki, Ruth Fuller".
Ruth Fuller Sasaki was a Zen practitioner and author on Zen from Kyoto, Japan. She began Zen practice in 1941 at the Nanzen-ji Monastery in Kyoto under Nanshinken Roshi and later Goto Zuigan Roshi (with some interim interruptions causing her to move to New York to study under Sokei-an Roshi). She writes to express interest in Merton's Mystics and Zen Masters and to introduce Merton to her books The Zen Koan and Zen Dust. She questions Merton on some statements he makes about "do-it-yourself" Zen and the question of practicing Zen without the guidance of a Zen master.
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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.
This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.
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# | Date | From/To | First Lines | Pub ✓ | Notes |
| y/m/d | Merton | | Scan ✉ | |
1. |
1967/09/03 |
TLS to Merton |
May I introduce myself as the Ruth Sasaki who, with Miura Roshi, is a co-author of The Zen |
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[Sasaki writes while on vacation in Colorado Springs, Colorado]
«detailed view» |
2. |
1967/09/25 |
TL[c] from Merton |
I want to thank you for your good and cordial letter of the 3rd, and I hope my reply reaches you |
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«detailed view» |
3. |
1967/10/01 |
HLS to Merton |
How very kind and generous of you to ask me to be a friend of you whose friends much be almost |
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[on stationery of "The Drake" hotel in New York City]
«detailed view» |
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