The Three Pillars of Zen (Roshi Philip Kapleau)
Classic Rinzai Zen Text
[My 4-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment” by Philip Kapleau.]
The Three Pillars of Zen is a classic Zen text that I first read forty years ago and recently perused again. Along with a few other classic Zen texts—The Way of Zen, Zen Mind, Beginners Mind, The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui Neng, and The Zen Teaching of Huang Po—it inspired me to practice Zen for a few years before I moved on to Tibetan Dzogchen, Hindu Kashmir Shaivism, Christian Hermeticism, and Daism.
The Three Pillars of Zen contains: useful basic information for newbies (sections on: zazen postures, an analysis of the Ten Oxherding Pictures, a Zen glossary); moving and inspiring personal accounts of students striving and suffering to glimpse enlightenment (kensho, satori); and educational roshi interviews, commentaries and letters. The book stresses Rinzai Zen (the practice of koans and intense seeking for kensho/satori) as opposed to Soto Zen, which emphasizes just sitting and be-ing (and thus naturally experiencing and expressing your Buddha-nature). If you read both this book and Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind, by Suzuki Roshi, a classic Soto Zen text, you’ll get a real feel for the differences between the two schools.
Although I recommend The Three Pillars of Zen to my spiritual students, I do not give the book five stars because it lacks esoteric depth and I am not a fan of the aggressive Rinzai approach and emphasis on kensho/satori. Nonetheless, this book is a worthwhile read for Zen beginners and anyone looking to gain a greater understanding of the Rinzai tradition.
[My 4-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment” by Philip Kapleau.]
The Three Pillars of Zen is a classic Zen text that I first read forty years ago and recently perused again. Along with a few other classic Zen texts—The Way of Zen, Zen Mind, Beginners Mind, The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui Neng, and The Zen Teaching of Huang Po—it inspired me to practice Zen for a few years before I moved on to Tibetan Dzogchen, Hindu Kashmir Shaivism, Christian Hermeticism, and Daism.
The Three Pillars of Zen contains: useful basic information for newbies (sections on: zazen postures, an analysis of the Ten Oxherding Pictures, a Zen glossary); moving and inspiring personal accounts of students striving and suffering to glimpse enlightenment (kensho, satori); and educational roshi interviews, commentaries and letters. The book stresses Rinzai Zen (the practice of koans and intense seeking for kensho/satori) as opposed to Soto Zen, which emphasizes just sitting and be-ing (and thus naturally experiencing and expressing your Buddha-nature). If you read both this book and Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind, by Suzuki Roshi, a classic Soto Zen text, you’ll get a real feel for the differences between the two schools.
Although I recommend The Three Pillars of Zen to my spiritual students, I do not give the book five stars because it lacks esoteric depth and I am not a fan of the aggressive Rinzai approach and emphasis on kensho/satori. Nonetheless, this book is a worthwhile read for Zen beginners and anyone looking to gain a greater understanding of the Rinzai tradition.
