Through Sōenʼs connections—and soon after Suzukiʼs satori in Zen practice—he traveled to LaSalle, Illinois, in America in 1897. There he eventually became an assistant to Carus, who was the editor-in-chief at Open Court, a publisher of books, journals, and translations on philosophy, religion, and Asian thought. Suzuki worked there for eleven years, mostly copyediting, translating, proofreading, and handling correspondence and miscellaneous tasks. This was a period of deep and extensive learning for Suzuki as he was exposed to all manner of writings. Under their influence he gradually shifted his interpretation of Buddhism from that of a religion of reason and science to one of personal, internal, non-rational experience. During this time Suzuki began publishing in English, including a translation of the Daijō kishinron 大乘起信論 (Aśvaghoṣaʼs Discourse on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana, 1900) and his book Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism (1907). Both elevated the reputation of Mahayana in Western scholarship, which had tended to treat it as derivative and inferior to Theravāda 上座部, considered then to be the original and true form of Buddhism. In 1909 Suzuki returned to Japan after spending one year in Europe en route.

In Japan Suzuki took a position as an English professor in the preparatory division of Gakushūin 學習院 in Tokyo, where he taught for twelve years. During this period he spent as much time as possible in Kamakura continuing his Zen training with Shaku Sōen and also assisting him in the publication of a new journal, Zendō 禪道. Also, in the early 1910s Suzuki produced a book-length study and four Japanese translations of the major works of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), the influential theologian and mystic whom Suzuki had learned about in America. In 1921 Suzuki was offered an appointment as professor of English and Buddhist studies at Ōtani University 大谷大學 in Kyoto. This was negotiated by Sasaki Gesshō 佐々木月性 (1875–1926), an important figure in the Seishinshūgi 精神主義 movement of Jōdo Shinshū 淨土眞宗, with whom Suzuki had collaborated in 1910. At Ōtani Suzuki established The Eastern Buddhist, an international journal focusing on Mahayana, which was co-edited with his American wife, Beatrice Lane Suzuki (1875–1939). During the next two decades Suzuki published his best-known works in English: Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra (1930) and the translation The Lankavatara Sutra, A Mahayana Text (1932); Essays in Zen Buddhism, Series One, Two, and Three (1927, 1933, 1934); An Introduction to Zen Buddhism (1934); The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk (1934); Manual of Zen Buddhism (1935); and Zen and Its Influence on Japanese Culture (1938). These solidified Suzukiʼs international reputation as an authority on Buddhism, and they largely introduced Zen to the West. In 1939 when his wife died, Suzuki went into semi-retirement in Kamakura. During the war years he published primarily in Japanese on Zen, Pure Land, and Japanese Buddhism: Bankei no fushō Zen 盤珪の不生禪 (Bankeiʼs Unborn Zen, 1940); Jōdokei shisōron 淨土系思想論 (Interpretations of Pure Land Thought, 1942); and Nihon teki reisei 日本的靈性 (Japanese Spirituality, 1944). In the postwar period Suzuki gained a high public profile after presenting lectures to the Japanese Emperor and Empress in April, 1946, published soon thereafter in English as The Essence of Buddhism (1946). He also wrote additional works on reisei 靈性 as a theme for Japanʼs renewal, criticizing nationalistic Shintō 神道 as a failure. In addition, he continued to write on Zen, especially in its formative period in China from Bodhidharma 達摩 to Huineng 慧能 (Zen shisōshi kenkyū Daini 禪思想史硏究 第二, 1951)—taking into account Dunhuang 敦煌 documents that were not available to him when he wrote his earlier works on Zen. Also from this period, and continuing for the rest of his life, Suzuki took an interest in semi-literate exemplars of Shin Buddhist faith, especially the figure Asahara Saichi 淺原才市 (1850–1932), in such works as Myōkōnin 妙好人 (The Wondrous Good Man, 1948). In addition, he published a new introductory text on Zen in English for foreigners, Living by Zen (1949). Suzuki was inducted into Japanʼs Order of Culture (Bunka Kunshō 文化勳章) in November, 1949.

Beginning in 1949 Suzuki spent nine years in America, mostly affiliated with universities: the University of Hawai`i, Claremont Graduate School, and, most prominently, Columbia University in New York. Though he was already elderly—in his eighties—he was very active, teaching courses and giving public lectures as well as interacting with scholars and professionals of all types. This was precisely when the Zen boom occurred in America and Europe, inspired partly by Suzukiʼs earlier writings, so he was in high demand and quickly rose to fame as a celebrity intellectual. His main publications from this period were in English, partly in response to the interests of his Western audience: Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist (1957); Zen and Japanese Culture (1959, a revised and expanded version of his earlier Zen Buddhism and its Influence on Japanese Culture); and Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis (1960). Suzuki also planned to produce translations of many Chinese Zen classics and also a major interpretive study of Zen and Kegon 華嚴 based on his Columbia lectures, but because of constant invitations he was not able to complete these projects. In 1958, at the age of 88, Suzuki moved back to Japan and took up residence at the Matsugaoka Bunko 松ヶ岡文庫, the research library in Kamakura that he had established two decades earlier. He continued to work on Zen projects, but again was inundated with requests. One was to translate the Kyōgyōshinshō 教行信證 by Shinran 親鸞 (1173–1262), published in 1973 as Shinranʼs Kyōgyōshinshō, The Collection of Passages Expounding the True Teaching, Living, Faith, and Realizing of the Pure Land. Another was to produce an annotated edition of ink drawings by the Zen priest Sengai 仙厓 (1750–1837), which appeared in 1971 as Sengai: The Zen Master. Many of Suzukiʼs planned works on Zen in English remained unfinished. He did leave behind a long manuscript on Chinese Zen in the period immediately following Huineng, which was published posthumously as Zen shisōshi kenkyū Daisan 禪思想史硏究 第三 (1968). Suzuki died in 1966 at the age of 95.

References:

Dobbins, James. 2022. “D.T. Suzuki.”  In Bruntz, Courtney, ed. Oxford Bibliographies in Buddhism. Oxford University Press.

Kirita, Kiyohide. 2005-2015. “D.T. Suzukiʼs English Diaries.” Matsugaoka Bunko kenkyū nenpō 松ヶ岡文庫研究年報  19–29 

----, ed. 2005. Suzuki Daisetsu kenkyū kiso shiryō 鈴木大拙研究基礎資料 . Kamakura:  Matsugaoka Bunko.

Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro. 1949. Essays in Zen Buddhism, First, Second, and Third Series. London:  Rider.

Suzuki, Daisetsu . Hisamatsu, Shin’ichi , Shōkin  Furuta,  Susumu Yamaguchi, eds. 1999. Suzuki Daisetsu zenshū 鈴木大拙全集 . Tokyo:  Iwanami Shoten. vol. 40

Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro. Jaffe, Richard M., ed. 2014. Selected Works of D.T. Suzuki. Oakland:  University of California Press. vol. 4