I began practising Zazen when I was 12 and studying various martial arts regimens. Then when I was 19 years old; I began Taoist meditations, branched off into various forms of guided meditations. Then in 1999 I began experiecning makyo (This is a mental state where one experiences visual and audible halucinations) every time I sat to meditate; that I was unable to meditate for about 3 years; then I decided to go back to my roots (Zazen).

I had tried to understand several Zen books; but they were written at a level that I could neither understand or appreciate. Then I found THIS AWESOME BOOK!

Mr. Katsuki Sekida was a ZEN master who wrote a training manual for ZEN that was comprehensible.

Here is a list of Zen books I recommend.

"Zen Training: Methods And Philosophy" Katsuki Sekida
"The Three Pillars Of Zen" Phillip Kapleau
"Zen: Lessons From A Modern Master" Katsuki Sekida
"Taking The Path Of Zen" Robert Aitken
"Zen Meditation in Plain English" John Daishin Buksbazen

These are the only Zen books I can recommend in good conscience.


Am I 100% happy with this book? NO. The Author spoke Japanese as his first language; so English was his second language, and you will find some words and phrases that do not make sence. You will have to dig for the gold nuggets in this book; so please be patient to read and re-read until you get it.

The ONLY two ZEN books in my private library are "Zen Training: Metrhods And Philosophy: by Katsuki Sekida, and "Taking The Path Of Zen" Robert Aitken.

I sincerely believe this book will help you attain the state called "no mind". It did for me!

First of all, I have to say that I've enjoyed reading this book. I am a student of Zen and practice Zazen myself. I found Sekida's discussions of breathing, the tanden, and his approach to the samadhis illuminating and interesting. Specifically, his take that what he calls "absolute samadhi" is actually the center of all Zen training is unique and somewhat compelling. His basic claim is that this state represents extreme wakefulness but with the basic elements of ordinary consciousness (time, space, causality) shorn away. He calls this state "pure existence" and indicates that thoroughly going through this state is the substance or content of the Zen way, it being the ground of kensho.

I have two issues with his work that prevent me from giving it five stars. First is his almost total neglect of presenting Zen in terms of its tradition and philosophy in a satisfying way (he does reference standard Zen themes but introduces them in an off-hand sort of way, and only in the context of his own hypotheses). I am also intrigued but not in any way convinced by his presentation of Zen in terms of philosophy and epistemology. His attempt to cover this ground in terms of the nen-theory, while commendable for novelty, is marked by some frustrating inconsistencies and seems in the end to place the Zen revelation as a return to the naive realism of children. I would be very interested to see what other teachers and masters in the Zen tradition would have to say about his views (indeed, his work seems to be fairly obscure, for some reason or another, perhaps related to the whole biographical ambiguity I discuss below).

This brings me to my second, less important gripe. That is simply that it would be nice to know under whom he studied. He makes reference throughout the text to "we" "our" and a Zendo in Honolulu. Yet, the reader is given no basis to determine who this "we" is. He seems to have been a layman who studied in the Rinzai tradition, but it would really be nice to have a handle on where he's coming from. He is refered to as a "Zen master", in several places, but I can determine no basis for his having this title other than as a sign of respect by some people. This is not necessarily to impugn his accomplishments at all, but it would be nice to know more biographically.

This book has some excellent guidelines for the practical points in Zazen practice, and some intriguing commentary vis a vis samadhi and kensho, and I recommend it to anyone seeking to gain more practical advice in their Zen practice. I would not, however, recommend it to beginners in Zen. For those, the works of D.T. Suzuki, Shunryu Suzuki, Philip Kapleau, Thich Nhat Hanh, and others would be better. Additionally, reading the sutras first-hand is also highly recommended (esp. the Diamond Sutra, and the Platform Sutra of hui-neng). Against a broad Zen background, I think Sekida's work can shine out best.