D. T. Suzuki: On Technology & Individuality

D. T. Suzuki (1870-1966)

Stories of the Human Spirit

D. T. Suzuki (1870-1966):

On Technology & Individuality (1909)

Edited by Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

On Technology & Individuality

Technology and science are quite splendid, but they tend to create
an attitude of indifference toward the value of the individual.
Individuality is much talked of in the West, but it is in legal
or political terms that it is prized. In terms of religion or faith,
however, concern among Westerners with regard to individuality is
extremely weak. Furthermore, with industrialization or mechanization,
man comes to be used as a thing, and, as a result, the unbounded
creativity of mankind is destroyed. Therefore, in order to emphasize
the importance of true individuality and human creativity, I consider
it necessary to write about Zen more and more.

Man is a thinking reed but his great works are done when he is not
calculating and thinking. "Childlikeness" has to be restored with
long years of training in the art of self-forgetfulness. When this
is attained, man thinks like showers coming down from the sky;
he thinks like the waves rolling on the ocean; he thinks like
the stars illuminating the nightly heavens; he thinks like the
green foliage shooting forth in the relaxing spring breeze.
Indeed, he is the showers, the ocean, the stars, the foliage.

D. T. Suzuki (1870-1966),
An Autobiographical Account
M. Abe (Ed.), A Zen Life: D.T. Suzuki Remembered,
Weatherhill, New York & Tokyo, 1986, p. 25 & backcover quote