A companion volume to Shunryu Suzuki's first book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, this is a collection of thirty-five lectures taken from the last three years of Suzuki's life. It has been masterfully edited by Edward Espe Brown, bestselling author and one of Suzuki's students. Not Always So is framed in Suzuki's own inimitable, allusive, paradoxical style, rich with unexpected and off-center insights. Suzuki knew he was dying at the time of the lectures, which gives his thoughts an urgency and focus even sharper than in his earlier book. Wise and inspirational, Not Always So is a wonderful gift for anyone seeking spiritual fulfillment and inner peace. Zen master Shunryu Suzuki (1904 - 1971) was a much beloved spiritual teacher. Born the son of a Zen master, Suzuki began his Zen training as a youngster in Japan. Suzuki came to San Francisco in 1959, and established the Zen Center in San Francisco with a training temple at Tassajara--the first such temple in the West.

After a lengthy illness, he died of cancer in December, 1971. Edward Espe Brown was ordained as a Zen priest in 1971 by Shunryu Suzuki, who gave him the name Jusan Kainei, "Longevity Mountain, Peaceful Sea." While a student at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, he wrote two best-selling books, The Tassajara Bread Book and Tassajara Cooking. "Transcriptions that both read well on the page and capture the style, humor, and solid grasp evident in his first volume. But this is no Zen Mind sequel, and will prove highly valuable to anyone, rank novice or Zen master."--Publishers Weekly.