An Introduction to Zen Training

An Introduction to Zen Training is a translation of Sanzen Nyumon, a key text by one of the foremost Zen teachers of the twentieth century.

Written to provide a solid introduction to the physical nature of Zen training, this text discusses breath, pain, posture, drowsiness, state of mind, and physiology, as well as the context in which this training takes on meaning.

An Introduction to Zen Training also addresses many of the questions that arise naturally when Zen training begins—ranging from how long to sit at one time to how to keep mindfulness when not sitting—and concludes with commentaries on two fundamental Zen texts, Zazen Wasen (Song of Zazen) and the Ox-Herding Pictures.

Omori Sogen (1904—1994) began his formal training in Zen, kenjutsu (traditional swordsmanship), and calligraphy in his early twenties, and was a widely respected sword teacher and advisor to the Japanese Cabinet. After WWII, he entered the priesthood in the Tenryu-ji Rinzai lineage. For the next forty years he continued to teach swordsmanship, calligraphy, and Zen, while also writing twenty books and serving as a court magistrate, eventually becoming President of Hanazono Daigaku, the principle Rinzai university in Japan. He established the International Zen Dojo in Hawaii and founded Daihonzan Chozen-ji in Honolulu—the first headquarters temple in Rinzai Zen established under canon law outside Japan.

Sanzen Nyumon was translated from the Japanese by Hosogawa Dogen Roshi--Abbot of Daihonzan Chozen-ji and a dharma successor of Omori Sogen Rotaishi—and Roy Yoshimoto.

With an introduction by Trevor Leggett, author of A First Zen Reader, Zen and the Ways, and many other books on Zen, Taoism, and Asian philosophy.