Academy of Zen and the Ways

Honoring D.T. Suzuki and Trevor Leggett

Dr. Daisetz Suzuki (D.T. Suzuki) (1869-1966) was one of the most prolific writers and foremost authorityof Buddhism and studied original works in Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese, and Japanese and was fluent in German, French, and English.  Studying Zen at Engakuji under Soyen Shaku Roshi, he left Japan in 1896 to work with Dr. Paul Carus in Chicago and decided to dedicate his life to bringing Zen to the world.  The late Christmas Humphreys, former president of the London Buddhist Society, writes that “excepting Kaiten Nukariya’s Religion of the Samurai (Luzac and Co., 1913), nothing was known of Zen as a living experience, save to readers of the Eastern Buddhist (1921-1939) until the publication of his [D.T. Suzuki’s] Essays in Zen Buddhism in 1927.”

Mr. Trevor Leggett was a translator and author of over thirty books on Eastern and far Eastern yoga and Zen.  He was awarded the 1984 Third Degree of the Order of the Sacred Treasure by his majesty the Emperor of Japan, in recognition of his services to cross-cultural relations between East and West, through broadcasting, translation and other books, and through the active introduction of aspects of Japanese culture to the West.  In 1987 he was awarded the Bukkyo Dendokai Cultural Award (All-Japan Buddhist Association Literary Award) for translations of Japanese.  From 1946-1970, Mr. Leggett was the head of the BBC Japanese Service.  He trained in Zen at Daitokuji, Judo at the Kodokan.  He received 6^th dan in Judo from the Kodokan, and is 5^th dan in Shogi (Japanese chess).  He was the student of Dr. Hari Prasad Shastri to whom he continues to dedicate his books on spirituality and yoga.

Both D.T. Suzuki and Trevor Leggett knew Omori Sogen personally as well as professionally.  It was D.T. Suzuki who recommended that Omori Sogen be the teacher to the Crown Prince of Japan.  Mr. Leggett visited Omori Sogen in Japan and later wrote the introduction to the English translation of Omori Sogen’s Sanzen Nyumon, and Introduction to Zen Training, and edited the biography Omori Sogen: Art of a Zen Master.  Through the Academy, we are honoring these men who have dedicated their lives to mastering and teaching the Way for all humanity.

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