The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment

447 Pages·1989·4.78 MB·English

by  Philip Kapleau

ROSHI PHILIP KAPLEAU
THE THREE PILLARS OF ZEN
Roshi Philip Kapleau, founder of the Zen Center in Rochester, New York, is the author
of Zen: Merging of East and West (formerly Zen: Dawn in the West), To Cherish All Life, The
Wheel of Death, and The Zen of Living and Dying: A Practical and Spiritual Guide (formerly
The Wheel of Life and Death).
In his youth, Kapleau studied law and became a court reporter, serving for many
years in the state and federal courts of Connecticut. At the end of World War II he was
appointed chief reporter for the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, then was
sent to cover the the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo.
In 1953 he gave up his business in America and left for Japan to undergo Zen
training. After five years he came to an awakening, then went on to complete eight
more years of formal study and training. He was ordained by his teacher, Zen master
Yasutani, during that time, and was authorized by him to teach.
Kapleau returned to the United States in 1966 to found the Zen Center in Rochester.
The Center has since grown to include affiliated centers in a number of cities in the
United States, Canada, Europe and Central America. In 1986, after twenty years as
Abbot, Kapleau transmitted the teaching to the Ven. Bodhin Kjolhede and appointed
him his Dharma-successor. Roshi Philip Kapleau is now retired and lives at the
Rochester Zen Center.
O B R P K
THER OOKS BY OSHI HILIP APLEAU
The Zen of Living and Dying:
A Practical and Spiritual Guide
(formerly The Wheel of Life and Death)
The Wheel of Death
To Cherish All Life:
A Buddhist Case for Vegetarianism
Zen: Merging of East and West
(formerly Zen: Dawn in the West)

ANCHOR BOOKS EDITIONS, 1989, 2000
Copyright © 1980 by The Zen Center, Inc.
Copyright © 1965, 1989 by Roshi Philip Kapleau
Afterword © 2000 by Bodhin Kjolhede
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in
the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and
simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in
hardcover in the United States by John Weatherhill, Inc., in 1965. The Anchor Books edition,
first published in 1980 and then again, in 1989 in a twenty-fifth anniversary edition, is a revised
and expanded edition of the original.
Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The three pillars of Zen / [compiled and edited by]
Philip Kapleau.
p. cm.
Includes translations from Zen masters.
1. Zen Buddhism. I. Kapleau, Philip, 1912–
BQ9265.4T48
294.3′927—dc19
0-385-26093-8
eBook ISBN: 978-0-30776357-0
Designed by Cassandra J. Pappas
Author photo © Casey Frank
www.anchorbooks.com
A note on the decorations: The section-heading devices, dating from about one to five centuries
ago, are kao, the fanciful brush-drawn “signatures” or personal ciphers that were often adopted
by Zen priests and other cultured Japanese in their literary and artistic avocations. Kao were only
vaguely related to orthography and are used here, not for meaning, but abstractly, for their
decorative quality. On the title page is the kao of Butcho-kokushi, a seventeenth-century Zen
master.
v3.1
Dedicated with respect and gratitude to my teachers: Harada-roshi,
Yasutani-roshi, and Nakagawa-roshi, all of whom selflessly taught the
truth of the Dharma for the welfare of all beings.
CONTENTS
Cover
About the Author
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword, by Huston Smith
Editor’s Preface
P O • T P
ART NE EACHING AND RACTICE
I YASUTANI-ROSHI’S INTRODUCTORY LECTURES ON ZEN TRAINING
Editor’s Introduction
A Biographical Note on Yasutani-roshi
The Lectures
1 Theory and Practice of Zazen
2 Precautions to Observe in Zazen
3 Illusory Visions and Sensations
4 The Five Varieties of Zen
5 The Three Aims of Zazen
6 Individual Instruction
7 Shikan-Taza
8 The Parable of Enyadatta
9 Cause and Effect are One
10 Oneness and Manyness
11 The Three Essentials of Zen Practice
12 Aspiration
II YASUTANI-ROSHI’S COMMENTARY (TEISHO) ON THE KOAN MU
Editor’s Introduction
The Commentary
III YASUTANI-ROSHI’S PRIVATE ENCOUNTERS WITH TEN WESTERNERS
Editor’s Introduction
The Encounters
1 Student A (Woman, Age 60)
2 Student B (Man, Age 45)
3 Student C (Man, Age 43)
4 Student D (Woman, Age 40)
5 Student E (Man, Age 44)
6 Student F (Woman, Age 45)
7 Student G (Man, Age 25)
8 Student H (Woman, Age 37)
9 Student I (Man, Age 30)
10 Student J (Woman, Age 33)
IV BASSUI’S DHARMA TALK ON ONE-MIND AND LETTERS TO HIS DISCIPLES
Editor’s Introduction
The Talk
The Letters
1 To a Man from Kumasaka
2 To the Abbess of Shinryu-Ji
3 To Lord Nakamura, Governor of Aki Province
4 To a Dying Man
5 To the Layman Ippo (Homma Shoken)
6 To a Monk in Shobo Hermitage (at his urgent request)
7 To the Nun Furusawa
8 First Letter to the Zen Priest Iguchi
9 Second Letter to the Zen Priest Iguchi
10 Third Letter to the Zen Priest Iguchi
11 Fourth Letter to the Zen Priest Iguchi
12 To a Nun
P Two • E
ART NLIGHTENMENT
V EIGHT CONTEMPORARY ENLIGHTENMENT EXPERIENCES OF JAPANESE AND
WESTERNERS
Editor’s Introduction
The Experiences
1 Mr. K. Y., a Japanese Executive, Age 47
2 Mr. P. K., an American Ex-Businessman, Age 46
3 Mr. K. T., a Japanese Garden Designer, Age 32
4 Mr. C. S., a Japanese Retired Government Worker, Age 60
5 Mrs. A. M., an American Schoolteacher, Age 38
6 Mr. A. K., a Japanese Insurance Adjuster, Age 25
7 Mrs. L. T. S., an American Artist, Age 51
8 Mrs. D. K., a Canadian Housewife, Age 35
VI YAEKO IWASAKI’S ENLIGHTENMENT LETTERS TO HARADA-ROSHI AND HIS
COMMENTS
Editor’s Introduction
A Biographical Note on Harada-roshi
The Letters and Comments
1 Evidence of Kensho
2 Evidence of Great Enlightenment
3 Evidence of Deepened Enlightenment
4 Evidence of Direct Experience of the Great Way of Buddhism
5 Evidence of Attaining the Non-Regressing Mind of Fugen
6 Evidence of the Joy and Peace of Being at One with the Dharma
7 Further Evidence of the Joy and Peace of Being at One with the Dharma
8 Presentiment of Death
P T • S
ART HREE UPPLEMENTS
VII DOGEN ON “BEING-TIME”
VIII THE TEN OXHERDING PICTURES WITH COMMENTARY AND VERSE
IX POSTURES
A Zazen Postures Illustrated
B Questions and Answers
Afterword by Bodhin Kjolhede, Abbot of the Rochester Zen Center
Notes on the Anniversary Edition by Kenneth Kraft