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(★)(A manual of self-instruction in Zen? Until the appearance of the present book the idea would have seemed improbable. But ´Zen Training´ manages to demystify religion without debunking it, to explain hitherto esoteric practices in lucid, everyday terms. It offers concrete guidelines especially to the sine qua non of all Zen training --zazen, seated meditation. Posture, breathing, the function of the abdominal muscles, muscle tone, and the mechanisms of wakefulness and attention are clearly and scientifically explained, so that one learns what actually happens in doing zazen, why it leads to certain psychological experiences, and what their significance is. There is also a chapter on koans that goes far to clarify what for many has seemed one of the most frustrating and baffling aspects of Zen. Again, the reader is told how actually to deal with koans and how they operate as catalysts of enlightenment. Mental operations and states of consciousness are retionally examined as well. The author´s brilliant analysis of the mechanism of cognition in terms of the interplay of three kinds of ´nen´ or ´thought impulses´ sheds valuable light on mental activities, both normal and pathological, and on the nature of cognition, self-awareness, and levels of consciousness. The author also draws many significant parallels between Zen and Western philosophy and psychology, comparing traditional Zen concepts with the theories of being and cognition of such thinkers as Heidegger and Husserl. ´Zen Training´ departs from the bulk of Western Zen literature in its critical reevaluation of the enlightenment experience called kensho, which the author believes has often beed emphasized at the expense of other important aspects of Zen training. The aim of zazen is seen not as the achievement of such experiences as satori or kensho but as the attainment of absolute samadhi, that condition of utter stillness in which thought is cut off, the mind is empty, yet one is in a state of extreme wakefulness and awareness. Absolute samadhi is considered the precondition of any kensho experience of lasting value, and indeed as ´the foundation of all Zen activities.´ Another new feature of this book is its detailed description of not only the earlier stages of Zen training that may lead to kensho, but also the more advanced stages : what happens after kensho, and above all, how one lives as well as trains in Zen. ◆Katsuki Sekida, born in 1893 in Japan´s Kochi Prefecture, was by profession a high-school teacher of English until his retirement in 1945. But Zen has been his lifelong preocupation. He began his Zen practice in 1915 and trained at Empuku-ji in Kyoto and Ryutaku-ji in Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture. He taught at the Honolulu Zendo and Maui Zendo from 1963 to 1970 and at the London Zen Society from 1970 to 1972. He now lives near Kochi City and is completing an annotated translation of the great Zen classic ´Hekiganroku.´ A.V. Grimstone, born in London in 1933, is Lecturer in Zoology at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. He met Mr. Sekida first in Hawaii and later in England, when he was asked to undertake the editing of this book. His training in science, his experience as an editor, and his close rapport with the author have peculiarly suited him for the demanding task of working closely with Mr. Sekida on the final preparation of this book.) |
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