Zen

May 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.