This Workshop explores the cultural, religious, and intellectual legacy of Daisetsu Teitaro (D. T.) Suzuki (1870–1966), the preeminent figure who introduced Zen and Mahayana Buddhism to the modern Western world. This event brings together scholars, curators, and practitioners to discuss and reflect on Suzuki’s polymath contributions and their enduring, cross-cultural impact. Discussions will span a broad range of topics, including interpretations and evaluations of Suzuki’s Buddhist philosophy and translations, archival discoveries of his lecture manuscripts and interpersonal correspondence, and his connections with Japanese American communities and local religious institutions.

Generously funded by the UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies, this one-day workshop will feature several highlights: a keynote address by Professor Richard M. Jaffe of Duke University; an exhibition of Buddhist archival materials, including artifacts and manuscripts related to Suzuki’s 1950-60s U.S. sojourns preserved in the UCLA Library Special Collections; and a roundtable dialogue bridging academic research with contemporary spiritual practice and community engagement.

Find the Schedule of the day and register here.

Keynote address: “Promoting Buddhism from West to East: D. T. Suzuki’s California Sojourns”:

Most studies of D. T. Suzuki’s time in the United States focus on his extended residencies in LaSalle, Illinois at the turn of the nineteenth–twentieth centuries and in New York City in the 1950s. California, however, due to its geographic location, particularly in the era before convenient transcontinental air travel and concentration of Japanese Americans, was a convenient way station and source of sustenance for Suzuki each time he traversed the American continent. In this paper, Professor Jaffe explores Suzuki’s trips through and extended stays in California. Using archival documents, some housed in the UCLA Libraries, Jaffe will highlight the many exchanges Suzuki had with Californians as he adapted his presentation of Buddhism for diverse American audiences.

Sponsors: Center for Buddhist Studies, UCLA Library, Center for the Study of Religion.