841Uif

xiv. / POREWORDof praise in Japan as being, in the words of one commentator, "thebest introduction to Zen Buddhism yet written."1But the book contains another prize that is even more striking. Upto now it has been all but impossible for those who have not themselvesundergone Zen training to get much of an inkling of whattranspires in one crucial phase of the process, namely dokusan-theseries of solemn, private interviews in which the roshi guides thestudent's meditation toward its goal of enlighte111nent-for the substanceof these interviews has been considered personal and not to bedivulged. Now a roshi, convinced that our new age occasions newprocedures, has permitted a series of these interviews to be reproduced.Such material has never appeared even in Japanese; for it to appear inEnglish, in this book, is a major breakthrough.No one but Philip Kapleau could have written this book. He knowsZen from twelve years of ardent practice, three of these years in bothSoto and Rinzai monasteries. He knows the Japanese who have collaboratedto render his translations of little-known material impeccable.He knows the Japanese language well enough himself to haveserved as interpreter for his roshi's interviews with Western students.He s the skill of years of training as a court reporter to have recordedthese interviews rapidly in shorthand as soon as they wereover. And he has a literary style that is lucid and graceful. This assemblageof talents is unique. It has produced a remarkable book that iscertain to assume a permanent place in the library of Zen literature inWestern languages.H USTO N SMITHProfessor of PhilosophyMassachusetts Institute of Technology1 Mn. Ruth Fuller Sasaki, the director of the Fint Zen Institute of America inJapan, at Kyoto.