Donald W. Mitchell 
Masao Abe a Zen Life of Dialogue 

Masao Abe: A Zen Life of Dialogue is a compilation of essays that cover the life and work of Masao Abe, perhaps one of the greatest Zen Buddhist communicators of the twentieth century.


Masao Abe has opened up a rich dialogue between Japan and the West. He is considered the leading living Zen figure in the Kyoto School of Buddhist thought and the successor of D.T. Suzuki, his early mentor, as the foremost exponent of Zen Buddhism in the West.


Through stories and recollections, thirty-five leading intellectual figures explore Abe’s encounter with the West, including his work on interfaith dialogue as a basis for world peace as well as his comparative philosophical scholarship over the past thirty years. This book is a retrospective and an extra ordinary step ahead in the encounter between Zen and the West.

About the author

Donald W. Mitchell is a professor of comparative philosophy of religion at Purdue University in India. He is the author of
Spirituality and Emptiness: The Dynamics of Spiritual Life in Buddhism and Christianity.