Zen: The Authentic Gate

by Yamada Koun

Overview

Whether a beginner or at the highest level of practice, learn Zen from one of the greatest masters of the twentieth century.

Why practice Zen? What sets Zen apart from religion? What are its different practices?
These questions, and more, are examined and answered by Zen Master Koun Yamada, whose Dharma heirs include Robert Aitken, Ruben Habito, and David Loy. Through compelling stories and a systematic approach, he guides the reader through creating and sustaining a lifelong practice. Warm and ecumenical in tone, Koun uses the insights of Zen to bring a deeper understanding of faith.
Zen: The Authentic Gate is an easy-to-follow guide to creating an effortless and natural practice regardless of background, tradition, or religion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614292654
Publisher:	Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date:	07/14/2015
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Koun Yamada (1907—1989) became a dharma successor to the renowned Zen master Haku’un Yasutani while maintaining a prominent career in business and public health. He guided the Zen practice of many students including a large number of Roman Catholic priests, monks, and nuns. His successors include Robert Chotan Gyoun Aitken, Ruben Keiun-ken Habito, and David Tetsuun-ken Loy.

Table of Contents

Foreword David R. Loy vii

Preface to the English Edition Joan Rieck Henry Sbukman xi

Second Preface to the English Edition Ryoun-ken Masamichi Yamada xiii

Author's Preface to the Japanese Edition Koun Yamada xv

Zen: The Authentic Gate

1 Suffering and Modern-Day Humanity 3

2 The Zen View 11

3 The Principle of Salvation in Zen Buddhism 19

4 The Three Great Aims of Zen 39

5 Types of Zen Practice 59

6 Koan Practice and Just Sitting 67

7 Finding an Authentic Teacher 91

8 Depth of Enlightenment 97

9 Cause and Effect as One 119

10 Deceptive Phenomena 125

11 Belief, Understanding, Practice, Realization, and Personalization 133

12 Eight Great Tenets of Mahayana Buddhism 143

13 On Private Interview 163

14 Three Necessary Conditions for Zen Practice 169

15 Zen Practice for People of Other Religions 173

16 The Actual Practice of Zazen 177

17 Practical Matters 187

Translator's Afterword 201

Table of Japanese Names 207

Notes 209

Index 213

About the Author 227

Editorial Reviews

05/11/2015
Though Yamada is considered an influential teacher for American Zen practitioners, there has been only one published work, The Gateless Gate, attributed to him. This compilation, which for many years was distributed solely in manuscript form, shows how Yamada’s approach differs from his contemporaries’: his teaching strongly relies on tradition and mindfulness even while it maintains the iconoclastic Zen attitude towards words and concepts. Yamada uses the history and rich cultural heritage of Chinese/Japanese Zen to flesh out difficult ideas such as emptiness, non-self, and enlightenment. Through the textual support of Zen giants such as Hakuin, Dogen, and his teacher, Yasutani Roshi, he provides a superb but humble synthesis of the intellectual and intuitive strains of Zen thought and practice. Yamada’s determined faith in the importance of meditation and koan practice is admirable, and his willingness to admit a lack of objective knowledge (such as the reality of reincarnation or karmic rebirth) is a teaching in itself. Though late in coming and sometimes disorganized, Yamada’s introduction to Zen is nonetheless a welcome and dense primer that has much to offer novices as well as experienced practitioners. (July)

Publishers Weekly

An authoritative, convincing and readable insider's view of the path of awakening, by one of the great Zen Masters of the twentieth century.

Ruben L.F. Habito

As Yamada clearly enunciates, the heart of Zen is realization and actualization, or awakening and practice, in more familiar terms. Zen in the West is still learning that this awakening/practice is timeless, nothing but the endless journey taken together with all suffering beings, not an end result. Yamada continues to take this journey with each of us, step by step, forever and ever and ever. He bows to us, and we are moved to bow in return.

Mark Unno