Shambhala Press has republished David Chadwick's
Thank You and OK! An American Zen Failure in Japan, originally put out by Penguin in 1994. As you might surmise from the title,
Thank You and OK! details American Zen student David Chadwick's journey to study Zen in the more "authentic" setting of Japan.
Followers of Zen literature should know the Texas-born Chadwick from
Crooked Cucumber, his insightful, even-handed biography of Shunryu Suzuki, the great American Buddhist priest under whom he studied at the San Francisco Zen Center (Chadwick was actually a cook at SFZC).
In fact, David Chadwick has provided many valuable resources on the life and teachings of SFZC founder Shunryu Suzuki, whose
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind is the first book I would recommend to anyone interested in any sort of spiritual practice. Chadwick maintains the website
cuke.com, which contains obscure talks and biographical information on Suzuki, and in addition to
Crooked Cucumber, he has published
To Shine One Corner of the World: Moments with Shunryu Suzuki.
Thank You and OK! is the one work of Chadwick's I haven't read, and I'm glad to see it's once again been made available by the fine folks at Shambhala.
Purchase Thank You and OK! at Powell's.
posted by Matt Borondy on 5/24/2007 
