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Zen: The Authentic Gate<\/em><\/a>, by Koun Yamada Roshi (1907\u20141989;\u00a0<\/span>pictured above), is an essential text for any student of Zen interested in a clear expression from the source of the Zen reformation that unfolded in the 20th Century and continues to shape Zen practice today.<\/p>\n Yamada Roshi is a towering figure in 20th century Zen. His great enlightenment was first presented in a cloaked manner in Three Pillars of Zen. <\/em>Here\u2019s David Loy from the Foreward of Zen: The Authentic Path<\/em>\u00a0framing Yamada Roshi kensho and quoting \u00a0from\u00a0Three Pillars of Zen:<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMost interesting, however, were the \u2018Contemporary Enlightenment Experiences\u2019 toward the back of the book. The first account was by \u2018Mr. K. Y., a Japanese businessman.\u2019 He was reading on a train when he came across something D\u014dgen wrote after his own awakening (quoting an early Chinese text): \u2018I came to realize clearly that mind is nothing other than rivers and mountains and the great wide earth, the sun and the moon and the stars.\u2019 Sleeping later that night, Mr. K. Y. suddenly awoke and that quotation flashed into his mind:<\/p>\n \u2018Then all at once I was struck as though by lightning, and the next instant heaven and earth crumbled and disappeared. Instantaneously, like surging waves, a tremendous delight welled up in me, a veritable hurricane of delight, as I laughed loudly and wildly: \u201cHa, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! There\u2019s no reasoning here, no reasoning at all! Ha, ha, ha!\u2019 The empty sky split into two, then opened its enormous mouth and began to laugh uproariously: \u201cHa, ha, ha!'\u201d<\/p>\n Yamada Roshi, along with his teacher Yasutani Roshi, and his teacher\u2019s teacher, Sogaku Harada Roshi, brought enlightenment to the center of Zen practice. As many reformers in the past, including Dogen Zenji, Yamada Roshi frames his Zen as authentic \u2013 as opposed to what? \u00a0Here\u2019s Yamada Roshi:<\/p>\n \u201cBoth [Sogaku] Harada Roshi and Yasutani Roshi deplored how, in modern Zen, the Rinzai sect tends to cling to the aspect of stages in practice and forget the solemnity of \u2018no stages,\u2019 and the S\u014dt\u014d sect is content with the \u2018no stages\u2019 Zen of little consequence and neglects the arduous stages of practice (p. 142).\u201d<\/p>\n Stages and attainment or no stages and no attainment? Yamada Roshi\u2019s Zen is all about these two foci in intimate conversation. However, he is often criticized in Soto Zen circles for teaching a one-sided, desperate for kensho, hungry ghost Zen \u2013 stages and attainment Zen \u2013 and dismissed as a Rinzai wanna-be.<\/p>\n A careful reading by an open-hearted reader of Zen: The Authentic Gate<\/em> will dispel that characterization. Indeed, Yamada Roshi seems to see himself primarily in the tradition of Dogen Zenji as we can see from the references he utilizes in Zen: The Authentic Gate<\/em>:\u00a0Dogen Zenji (35), Sogaku Harada Roshi (9), Yasutani Roshi (8),\u00a0Hakuin Zenji (7).<\/p>\n Indeed, although Yamada Roshi quotes and comments on Dogen Zenji more frequently, one of the valuable contributions of Zen: The Authentic Path, <\/em>lies in\u00a0those nine first-time-in-English references from the seminal Sogaku Harada Roshi.<\/p>\n Yamada Roshi\u2019s Zen is about the perfection of character, not an ego Zen of either \u201cmy enlightenment\u2019s so pure I\u2019ve never had kensho,\u201d or \u201cmy kensho\u2019s bigger than your\u2019s:\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough in Zen training we must all pass through the stage where \u2018there are no beings to save,\u2019 if we remain stuck in that emptiness, enjoying solitary bliss, then the desire to save all beings will never arise. We may end up as self-authorized egotists who have cut ties with other sentient beings (p. 37).\u201d<\/p>\n and<\/p>\n \u201cAnother aspect of delusion after seeing into one\u2019s own nature is found in statements like, \u2018Life is equally empty whether rich or poor, so it\u2019s enough to become one with your poverty and live with it if you are poor.\u2019 Someone who sees only the side of emptiness and overlooks the benefits of sowing good fortune may look askance at anyone with wealth. Or someone might say, \u2018If you are suffering from illness, just become suffering; when suffering, you become one with the whole universe, and then there is no more suffering.\u2019 For one caught up in this one side of reality, the heart of compassion that seeks to relieve a sick person of their suffering closes. Such a person is a prisoner of one-sided enlightenment. The ancients warned against this, calling it \u2018the deep abyss of liberation (p. 131).\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Yamada Roshi\u2019s themes also reflect a groundedness in the actual conditions of our human predicament. Here\u2019s a selection of chapter titles: \u201cSuffering and Modern-Day Humanity,\u201d \u201cDepth of Enlightenment,\u201d \u201cDeceptive Phenomena,\u201d \u201cBelief, Understanding, Practice, Realization, and Personalization,\u201d and \u201cZen Practice for People of Other Religions.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to his great enlightenment and teaching, Yamada Roshi is also an important figure in our contemporary Zen world because he is one of the few lay people in all of Zen history that not only received full dharma<\/a> transmission, proving definitively that this work can be accomplished while fully engaged in the world, but also in that his lineage has continued to flourish several generations down the line with\u00a0Sanbo Zen<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the Diamond Sangha<\/a>, and various wild flowers like\u00a0Pacific Zen Institute<\/a>, Boundless Way<\/a>, Empty Sky Sangha<\/a>, Great Heartland Buddhist<\/a> Temple of Toledo<\/a>, and our own little projects, Great Tides Zen<\/a> and Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training<\/a>.<\/p>\n