The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment
by Philip Kapleau Roshi
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Book Summary Information
Author: Philip Kapleau RoshiEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1989-02-27
ISBN: 0385260938
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Anchor
Book Reviews of The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment
Book Review: There it is!
Summary: 5 Stars
Truly a Masterpiece. Mine is the 35th Anniversary Edition. I am grateful for the previous reviews covering this book. The only other Zen book I have read is The Way of Zen by Alan Watts that of which Philip Kapleau references with criticism as being a false work in many respects. Shakyamuni Buddha's first words upon achieving enlightenment seem to have been "Wonder of Wonders! Intrinsically all living beings are Buddhas, endowed with wisdom and virtue, but because people's minds have become inverted through delusive thinking they fail to perceive this." The nature of every entity is without flaw. "Yet human beings, restless and anxious, live half-crazed existences because their minds, heavily encrusted with delusion, are turned topsy-turvey. We need therefore to return to our original perfection, to see through the false image of ourselves as incomplete and sinful, and to wake up our inherent purity and wholeness."
"Through the practice of Bompu Zen you learn to concentrate and control your mind. It never occurs to most people to try to control their minds, and unfortunately this basic training has been left out of contemporary education, not being what is called the acquisition of knowledge."
Thus Zen training works towards the "realization of our true nature" by using tools such as ZaZen and Koans to directly point towards Self realization. These tools work towards removing all delusive thought. The Roshi or Zen priest is the catalyst to be used by the Zen student to achieve an awakening and ultimately enlightenment. For Zen water represents universal consciousness. Our minds have become clouded with impure delusions. The goal is to remove the impurities that exist as delusions in our mind in order to see our true or Buddha nature.
What I truly enjoyed from this book is the confidential discussions between Roshi and students made public with student/Roshi consent. Specifically that these students for the most part were common laypersons NOT monks. Not just easterners but westerners. It was truly a joy to read about the struggles to reach satori (enlightenment) and the subsequent peace that is sustained in each of their lives.
In one discussion from a Roshi to a student; "It is true that the majority of people think of themselves as a body and a mind, but that doesn't make them any the less mistaken. The fact is that in their essential nature all sentient beings transcend their body and their mind, which are not two but one. The failure of human beings to perceive this fundamental truth is the cause of their sufferings. As I said in my lecture this morning, human beings are forever seeking and grasping. Why? They grasp for the world because intuitively they long to be rejoined with that from which they have been estranged through delusion."
And finally from the "Afterward" section of the book, Bodhin Kjolhede candy coats the ironical American condition; "This core sense of unworthiness would seem to be an outgrowth of our Western notion of the autonomous self (in discussion at East-West conferences, Asian teachers have been unable to grasp what we meant by it). It can be seen as the underside of the American celebration of self, or even the shadow cast by our Judeo-Christian God-concept. It may be masked by grandiosity or self-confidence, but peel away enough layers and, more often than not, there it is."
There it is! What fascinates me most about this book and Zen is how closely it follows the teachings of "A Course In Miracles" or ACIM. To me ACIM is the answer to the delusional Christian belief system. Yet Zen or even Theravada Buddhism has been around for thousands of years. Our True Self is perfect. Only a delusional thought system like Christianity points you towards church every Sunday to convince you that you were born a sinner and that you fall short of the glory with an unhealed healer asking all to bow their heads in prayer (meditation) as it gets impressed into their subconscious mind week after week after year after lifetime.
Summary of The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment
Through explorations of the three pillars of Zen--teaching, practice, and enlightenment--Roshi Philip Kapleau presents a comprehensive overview of the history and discipline of Zen Buddhism. An established classic, this 35th anniversary edition features new illustrations and photographs, as well as a new afterword by Sensei Bodhin Kjolhede, who has succeeded Philip Kapleau as spiritual director of the Rochester Zen Center, one of the oldest and most influential Zen centers in the United States.Buddhism Books
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