Although Suzuki thought there was much to learn from the study of Zen in Japan, he said that it had grown moss on its branches, and he saw his American students as a means to reform Zen and return it to its pure zazen- (meditation) and practice-centered roots. Suzuki died on December 4, 1971, presumably from cancer. A collection of his teishos (Zen talks) was published in 1970 in the book "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" during Suzuki's lifetime. His lectures on the Sandokai are collected in "Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness", edited by Mel Weitsman and Michael Wenger and published in 1999. Edward Espe Brown edited "Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen" which was published in 2002. A biography of Suzuki, titled "Crooked Cucumber," was written by David Chadwick in 1999.