Daju Suzanne Friedman

Daju Suzanne Friedman was a Zen teacher in the Hollow Bones Rinzai Zen Sangha. Having first encountered Zen at the Nagaoka Zen Juku, a Rinzai Zen monastery in Japan, she went on to become a doctor and professor of Chinese medicine doctor and professor, as well as a scholar or Daoism, and a qigong master. Daju taught Daoist qigong and spirituality at two Chinese medicine schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. She lead Hollow Bones Zen meditation and services in San Francisco as well. She twice survived cancer, and studied and played the shakuhachi (Japanese Zen bamboo flute) as a meditative practice. Suzanne passed away in March of 2014.
Books, Courses & Podcasts
Zen Cancer Wisdom
With a much-needed sense of levity, Daju Suzanne Friedman teaches the art of keeping one’s body, mind, and spirit together while living with cancer.
“Layman Wang once asked his attendant,‘What would you do if a dragon suddenly arrived here?’ His attendant answered, ‘I wouldn’t pay attention to anything else.’ This is how it feels when you’ve been diagnosed with cancer. Your attention and focus shift dramatically towards just this one thing. While single-minded focus can be beneficial, it is also important to remember that you are more than your diagnosis, and that there is more to life than being a patient.”
—from the introduction
In Zen Cancer Wisdom, Daju Suzanne Friedman—Zen teacher, Chinese medicine doctor, and Qigong specialist—shares the inspirations, insights, and humor that helped her to continue to live fully in the face of cancer. With sections devoted to soothing the spirit, harnessing the mind, nourishing the body, and qigong stretches for soothing aches and pains, Friedman provides thoughtful guidance on topics ranging from hair loss and constipation to coping with stress and learning to laugh again. Each chapter begins with an anecdote drawn from the Zen tradition, followed by personal reflection, and a brief guided practice specifically for cancer patients. Pocket-sized, with short, buoyant chapters, and meditation exercises designed to be practicable anywhere in only a few minutes time, Zen Cancer Wisdom is the perfect companion book for cancer patients.
Related Content
Dogen’s Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki
Discover the teachings of the preeminent Zen Master Dōgen in his own words, written down by his Dharma successor, Koun Ejō. This edition includes both the Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki and translations of and commentary on Dōgen’s luminously evocative waka poetry.
Distinct from Dōgen’s similarly titled magnum opus (simply called the Shōbōgenzō), the Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki can be read as a highly practical manual of Buddhist practice. Consisting of straightforward and accessible teachings and making more limited use of the allusion, wordplay, and metaphor that characterize the essays in the Shōbōgenzō, this work is an essential read for any student of Zen Buddhism. Among the many topics covered, Dōgen especially emphasizes the following points: seeing impermanence, departing from the ego-centered self, being free from greed, giving up self-attachment, following the guidance of a true teacher, and the practice of zazen, specifically shikantaza, or “just sitting.” Additionally, this translation of the Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki has extensive notes, which help to provide you with a new way of approaching the text.
The collection of waka poems included in this volume are a beautiful artistic expression of the Dharma. Rarely seen in this large of a collection or with commentary, this poetry offers unique insight into an important expression of Dōgen’s teachings.
By the spring wind
my words are blown and scattered
people may see them
the song of flowers
These teachings, which have informed teachers and practitioners alike throughout the centuries, will deepen your knowledge, understanding, and experience of the Sōtō Zen tradition.
Mind Sky
“In Zen meditation, anything that comes in your mind will eventually leave, because nothing is permanent. A thought is like a cloud moving across the blue sky. Nothing can disturb that all-encompassing vastness. This is the Dharma.”
In a collection of talks and anecdotes, Jakusho Kwong-roshi, a Dharma successor of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, presents his approach to Buddhist teaching. Containing photos of Kwong-roshi with his teachers, as well as a selection of his vibrant calligraphy, Mind Sky explores the profound beauty of Zen history and practice, nature, and the philosophy of the ancient Zen master Eihei Dōgen.
With an elegant simplicity, Kwong-roshi shows how Zen is experiential rather than intellectual. And with persistent practice, realization is already yours.
Beyond Distraction
The mind can be a potent tool, used to guide extraordinary achievements, inspire good works, and incline your spiritual path toward peace and awakening. But the mind can also produce thoughts that lead to suffering. For many people, thoughts run rampant and seem to oppress or control their lives. Even the Buddha tells us that before his enlightenment, he sometimes found his mind preoccupied by thoughts connected with sensual desire, ill will, and harm. But he figured out how to respond to thoughts skillfully and developed a step-by-step approach to calm the restless mind. Now, Insight Meditation teacher Shaila Catherine offers an accessible approach to training the mind that is guided by the Buddha’s pragmatic instructions on removing distracting thoughts. Drawing on two scriptures in the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, Shaila shows you how to overcome habitual modes of thinking, develop deeper concentration, and discover the insights into emptiness that are vital for a liberating spiritual path.
Following the Buddha’s pragmatic approach, Shaila guides you through five steps for overcoming distraction and focusing the mind:
- Replace unwholesome thoughts with wholesome thoughts.
- Examine the dangers of distracting thoughts.
- Avoid it, ignore it, forget it.
- Investigate the causes of distraction.
- Apply determination and resolve.
Each chapter includes exercises and reflections to help you cultivate the five steps to deeper concentration. You’ll learn about your mind and develop your ability to direct your attention more skillfully in meditation and daily activities. And ultimately, you’ll discover for yourself how these five steps boil down to one key realization: In the moment you recognize that a thought is just a thought, you will find yourself on the path to a life of remarkable freedom.
Alejandro Chaoul on Body Buddhism (#135)
This episode of the Wisdom Podcast features an interview with Dr. Alejandro Chaoul, who has studied Tibetan yoga for thirty years with the tradition’s greatest masters, including Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Dr. Chaoul and host Daniel Aitken explore
- Tsa Lung Trul Khor (“channel/wind obstacle-clearing techniques”) yoga practice and its place in Dzogchen meditation;
- the practice of “Body Buddhism,” integrating the body with the mind and breath;
- the benefits of purification practices like Tsa Lung Trul Khor and the subtle body;
- practices to help restore “dimmed awareness” to clarity;
- quick techniques that can be applied immediately in practice and daily life for balancing;
- his book with Wisdom, Tibetan Yoga: Magical Movements of Body, Breath, and Mind;
- and more.
Remember to subscribe to the Wisdom Podcast for more great conversations on Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness. And please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show—it’s a great support to us and it helps other people find the podcast. Thank you!
A Peaceful Piggy’s Guide to Sickness and Death, Sadness and Love
When someone we love gets sick, we little piggies worry! It can feel scary when a person we care about is sick or in a hospital. Luckily, there is one good thing we peaceful piggies can do: meditate.
This is a story about love.
Experiencing a loved one’s illness or death is challenging for both children and their grownups. With three distinct sections to choose from—when someone we love is sick, dying, or has died—this guide will help you easily find soothing and practical mindfulness activities focused on what your young one needs in order to guide them through their big emotions and questions. These practices will help calm and empower children—and their grownups—as they discover they can still be with their loved ones through their heart connection, no matter where they are.
Pamela Weiss: Real Health, Real Freedom, and Fierce Feminine Buddhism (#131)
This episode of the Wisdom Podcast features an interview with Pamela Weiss. Pamela is the author of A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism, a teacher in the Insight tradition, and has received Dharma transmission from Teah Strozer at the Brooklyn Zen Center.
Pamela and host Daniel Aitken discuss
- how she found Buddhism through illness, and the vital role of self-compassion on her path;
- key ideas in Zen, such as the practice of “just sitting,” and Pamela’s own journey and insights with these practices;
- her fascinating journey between the world of the monastery and the lay world;
- her recent book;
- and much more.
Remember to subscribe to the Wisdom Podcast for more great conversations on Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness. And please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show—it’s a great support to us and it helps other people find the podcast. Thank you!
Koshin Paley Ellison: Making All of Life a Place of Practice (#125)
This episode of the Wisdom Podcast, recorded live as a Wisdom Dharma Chat, features a conversation with Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison. Koshin is an author, Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, and certified chaplaincy educator. Koshin and host Daniel Aitken discuss the Commit-to-Sit: 90-Day Commitment to Practice he ran earlier this year; his most recent book, Wholehearted; his wisdom for making all of life a place of practice, from the bedsides of the dying, to intimate relationships, and to the heart of New York City and beyond.
Remember to subscribe to the Wisdom Podcast for more great conversations on Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness. And please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show—it’s a great support to us and it helps other people find the podcast. Thank you!
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche: Dharma for Difficult Times (#124)
This episode of the Wisdom Podcast, recorded live as a Wisdom Dharma Chat, features a conversation with beloved teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.
Rinpoche and host Daniel Aitken discuss
- practice during lockdown (this episode was recorded in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic),
- working with anxiety and stress,
- how to choose which teachings to follow,
- how to understand the nature of your mind,
- how Rinpoche structures his teachings for his students,
- and much more.
Rinpoche is the author of several bestselling books and oversees the Tergar Meditation Community, an international network of Buddhist meditation centers. He is the son of the renowned meditation master Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and was formally enthroned as the seventh incarnation of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche by Tai Situ Rinpoche when he was twelve years old. When he was twenty years old, Rinpoche was appointed as the functioning abbot of Sherab Ling Monastery. In addition to his extensive background in meditation and Buddhist philosophy, Mingyur Rinpoche has held a lifelong interest in psychology, physics, and neurology. He teaches regularly throughout Europe, North and South America, and Asia.
Remember to subscribe to the Wisdom Podcast for more great conversations on Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness. And please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show—it’s a great support to us and it helps other people find the podcast. Thank you!
The Mindful Menopause Workbook
The Mindful Menopause Workbook will help you bring mindfulness into your day-to-day activities during menopause. The teachings, exercises, and meditations will show you how to recognize and achieve a more balanced, peaceful, and joyful orientation to whatever you experience at menopause and beyond.
A year’s worth of daily teachings will offer you micro-moments of self-care and self-development—mentally, physically, and spiritually. Following each teaching is space for you to journal whatever thoughts, emotions, or sensations arise. The exercise section includes an illustrated guide to yoga postures and outlines sequential poses that foster greater ease and awareness of the body, while the guided meditations and breath exercises promote body-mind unity through expanded peaceful awareness. The book addresses issues common to women during menopause sensitively and gives recommendations for dealing with common complaints such as insomnia, fatigue, low energy and libido, anxiety, depression, hot flashes, physical discomfort, poor digestion, and weight gain.
Together, these teachings, exercises, and reflections will help you approach menopause mindfully, and joyfully, as you deepen your practice and transition into a new stage of life.
“The Mindful Menopause Workbook is an ideal companion for navigating the transitional tidal waves of feminine growth. It is a great resource to rejuvenate the heart, mind, and body as you step into the next phase of life with renewed hope, confidence, and wisdom. Francesca Dupraz-Brossard has mapped out exciting pathways for women to appreciate and connect with their heart, mind, and body with love, compassion, joy, and equanimity, and to rediscover the beauty of their lives.”
—Dr. Charika Marasinghe, PhD, trustee, Vishva Niketan International Peace Centre
Tibetan Yoga
Discover ancient Tibetan yogic practices that integrate body, breath, and mind on the journey to personal cultivation and enlightenment.
Tibetan Yoga offers accessible instructions for performing the ancient yogic techniques of Tibet’s Bön religion. This is Tibetan yoga, or trul khor, a deeply authentic yogic practice. Drawing on thirty years of training with Bön’s most senior masters as well as advanced academic study, Dr. Alejandro Chaoul offers expert guidance on practices that were first developed by Bön masters over a millennia ago, framing them according to the needs of contemporary yoga practitioners and meditators.
No matter their level of experience, dedicated practitioners of Tibetan yoga will discover their ability to clear away obstacles and give rise to meditative states of mind. In Tibetan Yoga, you’ll learn what it means to practice for the benefit of all beings and to experience your body as a mandala, from center to periphery. These movements help you live in a more interconnected mind-breath-body experience, with benefits including better focus, stress reduction, the elimination of intrusive thoughts, better sleep, and general well-being.
“Alejandro Chaoul offers the gift of his lifelong passion for studying the ancient tradition of Tibetan Yoga so that we may all benefit from these practices. Whether you are looking to heal your heart, body, or mind, this book sets forth a clear path to aid in your journey toward wholeness.”
—Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Change
Save 20% on the Tibetan Yoga online course when you buy this book! Your discount code is at the end of the book.
Awake Where You Are
“Embodied awareness is the way back home—intimacy with where and how we are right now, with what is happening and how we are meeting it. This book will lead you into the heart of your life, into your body, where everything happens—with quality of listening rather than knowledge, of feeling rather than reaction. Practicing in this way is radically transformative.”
—Martin Aylward
Pulled around by desires and distractions, we’re so easily disconnected from ourselves. Life is happening right in front of us, and within us—but still, we manage to miss so much of it.
Awake Where You Are provides the antidote, inviting us to go deep into our own bodies, to inhabit our sensory experience carefully; to learn the art of living from the inside out, and in the process to find ease, clarity, and an authentic, unshakeable freedom.
The practices in the book literally bring us back into our skin, where we can reconnect with a more rich, meaningful, and peaceful life. Aylward writes with sophisticated subtlety, as well as the heart-opening simplicity and clarity born of deep experience.
More than a meditation guide, this book is a guide to living an embodied life. You’ll learn about the following areas and practices:
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- Understanding and liberating our primal human drives.
- Integrating psychological understanding with meditative practice.
- Investigating the nuances of love.
“Martin is a marvelous teacher and offers us the refreshing wisdom of an embodied life.”
—Jack Kornfield, author of No Time Like the Present
Chris Ives: Meditations on the Trail (#115)
This episode of the Wisdom Podcast features a conversation with writer, professor, and Wisdom author Chris Ives. Chris has published two books with Wisdom: Zen on the Trail: Hiking as Pilgrimage and Meditations on the Trail: A Guidebook for Self-Discovery, which came out on May 11, 2021. In this conversation, Chris and host Daniel Aitken explore the idea at the heart of these two books: that the hiking trail and the spiritual path can often be one and the same. When we bring a certain presence to our time in nature—whether it’s a city park or the Appalachian trail—that time can become a profound and spiritual experience. And our time in the outdoors can also lead to insights and wisdom that we can then take with us to the cushion, or wherever our spiritual practice takes place. Topics discussed include
- how to turn preparing for a hike into a mindfulness practice;
- shared values between spiritual practice and hiking, such as simplicity;
- how to prepare a mindful and respectful mind-state for entering the hiking experience;
- how to be more fully present while hiking;
- the difference between various terms that can be helpful for practicing mindful hiking, such as mindfulness, immersing yourself, and presencing;
- and much more.
Remember to subscribe to the Wisdom Podcast for more great conversations on Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness. And please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show—it’s a great way to support us and it helps other people find the podcast. Thank you!
The Dharma of Well-Being
Welcome to The Dharma of Well-Being! In this course, drawn on insights and methods from both the Buddhist tradition and Western psychology and philosophy, Lama Alan Wallace invites you to investigate the causes of both genuine unhappiness and genuine well-being. You’ll start by looking into what genuine well-being is before delving into what it is not as Lama Alan explores the causes of suffering, mental afflictions, and unhappiness, along with the internal factors that often prevent us from being truly happy. He then turns to the causes of genuine happiness and offers skills, practices, and insights that will help you achieve genuine happiness and well-being in your own life.
Leo Babauta: Zen Habits (#111)
This episode of the Wisdom Podcast, recorded live as a Wisdom Dharma Chat, features a conversation with simplicity blogger and bestselling author Leo Babauta.
Leo created Zen Habits, a Top 25 blog with over a million readers, when he started writing to chronicle and share what he’s learned while changing a number of habits, including waking early, losing weight, quitting smoking, becoming a runner, eliminating debt, and more. In this wide-ranging conversation, Leo shares some of his approaches to eliminating “bad” habits and developing “good” habits, explaining how bringing awareness to thought and behavior allows for examination of deeply embedded psychological patterns and is thus instrumental in creating sustainable change within oneself.
Remember to subscribe and give the Wisdom Podcast a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show!
Storied Companions
“With my diagnosis of grade IV brain cancer, I no longer observe the truth of impermanence from a critical, analytical distance. I am crashing into it, or it into me.”
Facing a terminal cancer diagnosis, Karen Derris—professor, mother, and Buddhist practitioner—instinctually turned to books. By rereading ancient Buddhist stories with fresh questions and a new purpose in mind, she discovered evolving ways to make them immediate and real. Storied Companions interweaves Karen’s memoir of her lived experiences of trauma and terminal illness with stories from Buddhist literary traditions, sharing with the reader how she found ways to live fully even with the reality that she won’t live as long as she needs—or wants.
Using her knowledge, practice, and imagination, Karen illustrates how placing yourself within narratives can turn them from distant and static sources into companions, and from companions into guides. Reading along with her, you’ll realize how this practice of reading and these ancient narratives can help us come to terms with impermanence, develop empathy and compassion, and realize our own interconnectedness.
Honest, powerful, and insightful, Storied Companions itself becomes an invaluable companion, guiding the reader to discover new ways of facing and experiencing life, death, and impermanence.
Mark Van Buren: Your Life Is Meditation (#107)
This episode of the Wisdom Podcast features an interview with Mark Van Buren, a mindful living trainer, yoga and meditation instructor, personal trainer, and musician who has been promoting health and wellness for over a decade. He’s the author of A Fool’s Guide to Actual Happiness and Your Life IS Meditation.
Mark discusses:
- how it can sometimes feel like everyday life is in opposition to practice, and how we can transform our understanding of this seeming conflict;
- the ways in which he applies mindfulness in daily life, including how driving to work can be like working on a koan;
- how to turn interactions with difficult people into opportunities for practice;
- what it means to experience a “profound okayness”;
- and much more.
Correction: In this episode, Mark mentions 10,000 chants; he meant to say 100,000.
The Complete Illustrated Guide to Zen
The Complete Illustrated Guide to Zen offers a comprehensive overview of Soto Zen Buddhism in a delightfully captivating way. Complete with dynamic, detailed illustrations, Soto Zen Priest Seigaku Amato uses a semi-narrative style to take you on a visual tour of Buddhism and, using specifics to illuminate universals, dives deep into the practices and forms of Soto Zen.
Whether you are just taking your first step or have been practicing Zen for years, this creative and profound book will be a constant companion and guide on your journey as it explores topics such as:
- A brief history of Buddhism
- An iconographic overview of various buddhas and bodhisattvas
- An introduction to the various practices of Zen including meditation (zazen), work practice (samu), and meditative eating (oryoki)
- A what’s what of holidays, ceremonies, temple instruments, and religious vestments
- A how-to guide for setting up a home altar
“This is a cute book! But it’s not just cute, it’s also deep and profound, and is one of the best guides to Zen practice I have ever come across. The illustrations are delightful and the written sections are clear and easy to understand. I give it a million zillion stars!”—Brad Warner, author of Hardcore Zen
“I loved this book and smiled the whole way through. But don’t be fooled by its whimsy! There’s a wealth of experience, knowledge, and devotion behind these illustrations. This book is a perfect guide for a beginning Zen student and makes a delicious snack for the more advanced practitioner.”—Gesshin Greenwood, author of Bow First, Ask Questions Later