Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism | Seminar retreat

D.T. Suzuki (1870–1966) is a seminal figure in the Western reception of Buddhism, especially Zen, and his Outlines of Mahāyāna Buddhism was one of the first comprehensive accounts of its subject written in English. However, as an early commentator, Suzuki fell prey to several interpretive traps in attempting to shed light on Buddhism for a Western audience, many of which continue to bedevil accounts today. It is these flaws that Sangharakshita exposes, in part to inoculate us against making the same mistakes.

In his penetrating seminar, Sangharakshita uses Suzuki’s pioneering but flawed work as the occasion to clarify his own synthesis of the key features of Mahāyāna Buddhism. This includes an incisive critique of some of its metaphysical excesses. Tracing the contours of Suzuki’s work, Sangharakshita offers distinctive and refreshing interpretations of a wide range of topics that include karma, anatmān, and the dharmakāya. He proposes that ‘The arising of the Mahāyāna was not the arbitrary founding of a sect but the whole process of Buddhism becoming richer over the course of centuries.’

In examining selected extracts from the edited seminar, we will begin to capture Sangharakshita’s rigorous and illuminating approach to the analysis of complex and problematic material, and learn how to apply his hermeneutic toolkit to contemporary accounts of Buddhist topics.

Understanding new concepts relies heavily on comparison and analogy. Without robust scrutiny of our interpretive process, we risk developing unfruitful understandings. Consequently, with Sangharakshita’s help, we will approach Suzuki’s writings as a mirror, using them to determine if we’ve fallen prey to poor interpretive habits and thus internalized distorted readings of key Buddhist notions.