Three Ages of Zen

In this volume, Trevor Leggett presents three texts translated from Japanese and compiled to illuminate the three ages of Zen in Japan: the warrior Zen of crisis and war in the thirteenth century; the feudal Zen of eighteenth-century samurai officials, and finally the modern Zen found in 20th-century Japan. Part One presents translations of koans from the secret records of temples in Kamakura, Japan’s first capital city in the East after Kyoto ceased to be seat of government. Part Two is an inspiring essay written for a samurai official by abbot Torei and based on the analogy of the mind as a horse that is basically sound, but has become lazy, dull, and obstinate, and needs a touch of the spur to become ‘Buddha-natured’ again. Part Three contains extracts from the autobiography of Zen master Tsuji Somei, a roshi (an honorific title used for highly venerated figures in Japanese Zen) who trained under Furukawa Gyodo, one of the great Zen figures in 20th-century Japan. This vivid account of Zen training in very severe conditions follows Master Tsuji’s spiritual progress from Kamakura to Russia, where he was a prisoner of war.