Author Guide · Zen Buddhism
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In 1945 Philip Kapleau, a court reporter from New Haven, Connecticut, took down the testimony at the Nuremberg trial of the Nazi leaders as its chief Allied reporter; afterwards he covered the war crimes trials in Tokyo. In 1953 he sold his court-reporting business and went to Japan to train in Zen, and stayed thirteen years, first at the monastery of Hosshin-ji under Harada Roshi and then with Yasutani Roshi. He came back with a manuscript, The Three Pillars of Zen, the first book in English to show what Zen training actually involves, and in 1966 founded the Rochester Zen Center in New York State. This guide covers his seven key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 7 key books · 1965–2001 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Philip Kapleau wrote or edited seven key books. The best known is The Three Pillars of Zen (1965); the others include Zen: Dawn in the West (1979), The Wheel of Life and Death (1989) and Straight to the Heart of Zen (2001). Start with The Three Pillars of Zen, still in print and translated into twelve languages. Read on for what each book covers and how the revised editions fit in.
Where to Start with Philip Kapleau
If you want the classic that started it
→ The Three Pillars of Zen (1965) — lectures, interviews and first-hand accounts of awakening.
If you want Zen adapted to Western life
→ Zen: Dawn in the West (1979) — his case for changing the forms but keeping the essence.
If you want a guide to dying and grief
→ The Wheel of Life and Death (1989) — practical as well as spiritual.
If you want his later talks on koans
→ Straight to the Heart of Zen (2001) — eleven koans, explained for lay students.
7 Philip Kapleau Books, in Order
The Three Pillars of Zen
Kapleau compiled, translated and edited the book in Japan. It opens with Yasutani Roshi’s introductory lectures on Zen training and records of his private interviews (dokusan) with ten Western students; Kapleau was the first Westerner allowed to observe and record them. It also has letters and a sermon by the medieval master Bassui, eight contemporary accounts of enlightenment by Japanese and Western practitioners, and illustrations of sitting postures. It is still in print and has been translated into twelve languages.
The Wheel of Death
A short anthology, edited by Kapleau with the help of Paterson Simons and published by Harper & Row, of writings on death from Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu and Western teachers. It includes instructions and rites for guiding the mind of a dying person through death and the intermediate state that follows, and sections on karma and rebirth.
Zen: Dawn in the West
Published by Anchor Press, the book introduces Zen philosophy and practice to American readers and argues that Buddhist teachings and ceremonies should be adapted to twentieth-century Western life. Kapleau revised and expanded it ten years later as Zen: Merging of East and West (1989).
To Cherish All Life
A short book, first published by the Rochester Zen Center, arguing that the Buddhist principle of not harming living beings calls for vegetarianism. Kapleau draws on Buddhist texts and on religious, humanitarian and scientific reasons. He dedicated it to three animals he knew. A later edition carried the subtitle A Buddhist Case for Becoming Vegetarian.
The Wheel of Life and Death
A 370-page guide, published by Doubleday, that treats dying as a change of state on a continuum of life and death. It covers fear of death, pain, grief, the choice between cremation and burial, funerals as rites of passage, karma and rebirth, with breathing and meditation exercises and appendices on hospices and living wills. Shambhala reissued a revised edition in 1998 as The Zen of Living and Dying.
Awakening to Zen
Previously unpublished teachings from about thirty-two years of teaching, edited by Polly Young-Eisendrath and Rafe Martin and published by Scribner. The talks are arranged as guidance for everyday life, for Buddhists and non-Buddhists, and show the influence of his own teachers, Harada and Yasutani.
Straight to the Heart of Zen
Eleven chapters, each on one koan: three from the life of the Buddha, three from great Zen masters and five traditional koans. The text comes from talks given over about twenty-five years at the Rochester Zen Center, edited by Rafe Martin and published by Shambhala. Kapleau adds the historical background on the people and setting that the short original accounts leave out.
In What Order to Read Philip Kapleau
The books do not depend on each other, so you can read them by subject: Zen practice (The Three Pillars of Zen, Zen: Dawn in the West, Awakening to Zen, Straight to the Heart of Zen), death and dying (The Wheel of Death, The Wheel of Life and Death) and ethics (To Cherish All Life).
Several titles were revised and renamed, so check which edition you have. Zen: Dawn in the West became Zen: Merging of East and West (1989), and The Wheel of Life and Death became The Zen of Living and Dying (1998). The Three Pillars of Zen appeared in a revised and expanded 35th-anniversary edition from Anchor Books in 2000.
A reading path
1. The Three Pillars of Zen (1965)
2. Zen: Dawn in the West (1979)
3. Awakening to Zen (1997)
4. Straight to the Heart of Zen (2001)
5. The Wheel of Life and Death (1989)
Revised Editions of Philip Kapleau’s Books
Beyond the 7 key books: 3 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Revised and renamed editions
3
3 books · 1989–2000
- 1989Zen: Merging of East and Westrevised and expanded edition of Zen: Dawn in the West
- 1998The Zen of Living and Dyingrevised edition of The Wheel of Life and Death, published by Shambhala
- 2000The Three Pillars of Zenrevised and expanded 35th-anniversary edition, published by Anchor Books
The years · 1912–2004
Quick facts about Philip Kapleau
- Known for
- Philip Kapleau is known as one of the first Americans to train for years in a Japanese Zen monastery and to bring that training home, through The Three Pillars of Zen and the Rochester Zen Center.
- 1912
- Born in New Haven, Connecticut
- 1945
- Chief court reporter at Nuremberg
- 1966
- Founds the Rochester Zen Center
- 2004
- Dies at the Rochester Zen Center, aged 91
- Born
- 20 August 1912, New Haven, Connecticut
- Died
- 6 May 2004, in the garden of the Rochester Zen Center, aged 91
- Before Zen
- Court reporter; chief Allied court reporter at the Nuremberg trial (1945), then at the Tokyo war crimes trials
- Training
- Thirteen years in Japan, under Harada Roshi at Hosshin-ji and then Yasutani Roshi; ordained a priest in 1965
- Founded
- The Rochester Zen Center, New York, in June 1966
- Buried
- At the Chapin Mill retreat center; his gravestone is a millstone
The red mark is 1965: The Three Pillars of Zen, the book that brought Zen training to Western readers.
How Philip Kapleau Writes: Zen Without the Mystique
Kapleau’s first book is closer to a court record than to a treatise, which suits a man who had spent his working life taking down other people’s words. In The Three Pillars of Zen he mostly steps aside: he translates Yasutani’s lectures, transcribes the private interviews between teacher and student, and prints first-person letters by people describing their own awakening. The book shows what happens in a Zen monastery rather than explaining what Zen means.
His later books argue more openly. He believed awakening was open to lay people, not only to monks, and that Zen in the West should drop Japanese forms where they got in the way: at the Rochester Zen Center the Heart Sutra was chanted in English. Zen: Dawn in the West makes that case, while warning against throwing out the essence with the form. To Cherish All Life applies the same plain reasoning to eating meat.
Most of the late books began as spoken talks, edited by his students Rafe Martin and Polly Young-Eisendrath, so they read as direct address: a teacher answering questions in the zendo. His two books on death combine practical matters, such as living wills, funerals and grief, with Buddhist teaching on karma and rebirth.
Frequently asked questions about Philip Kapleau’s books
How many books has Philip Kapleau written?
Seven key books, which he wrote, compiled or edited, from The Three Pillars of Zen (1965) to Straight to the Heart of Zen (2001). Three of them were later revised, two under new titles: Zen: Merging of East and West (1989) and The Zen of Living and Dying (1998).
What are Philip Kapleau’s books in order?
The Three Pillars of Zen (1965), The Wheel of Death (1971), Zen: Dawn in the West (1979), To Cherish All Life (1981), The Wheel of Life and Death (1989), Awakening to Zen (1997) and Straight to the Heart of Zen (2001).
Where should I start with Philip Kapleau?
The Three Pillars of Zen. It sets out the teaching, the practice and accounts of enlightenment in one volume, and it is the book the rest of his work builds on. If you want something shorter and more conversational, try Awakening to Zen.
What is Philip Kapleau’s most famous book?
The Three Pillars of Zen (1965), the first book in English to describe Zen training as it is actually practised. It is still in print, has been translated into twelve languages, and appeared in a revised 35th-anniversary edition in 2000.
Is The Three Pillars of Zen from 1965 or 1966?
Both dates appear. The first edition is dated 1965; a 1966 edition followed, and some sources, including the Rochester Zen Center, give that year. This page uses the first-edition year.
Was Philip Kapleau a recognised Zen master?
His standing is debated. Yasutani Roshi ordained him in 1965 and gave him permission to teach, but Kapleau broke with Yasutani in 1967, over disagreements about how to teach and over his concerns about the conduct of another of Yasutani’s students, Eido Shimano. Yasutani then refused to hold a promised ceremony, and Kapleau never received formal dharma transmission. Kapleau said he had only ever claimed permission to teach. He later gave transmission to his own successors, including Bodhin Kjolhede, the abbot of the Rochester Zen Center.
Was Philip Kapleau at the Nuremberg trials?
Yes. In 1945 he was chief Allied court reporter at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, and he later covered the Tokyo war crimes trials. His contact with Japan there led him to D. T. Suzuki’s lectures and, in 1953, to Zen training in Japan.
Is Philip Kapleau still alive?
No. He died on 6 May 2004, aged 91, in the garden of the Rochester Zen Center, after living with Parkinson’s disease for many years. He was buried at the centre’s Chapin Mill retreat.
Was Philip Kapleau a vegetarian?
Yes, and he argued for it. In To Cherish All Life (1981) he made the case that the Buddhist principle of not harming living beings calls for a vegetarian diet.
What is the difference between The Wheel of Life and Death and The Zen of Living and Dying?
They are the same book. The Wheel of Life and Death (1989) was revised and reissued by Shambhala in 1998 as The Zen of Living and Dying. It is a different book from the earlier anthology The Wheel of Death (1971).
Footnotes
- Philip Kapleau — Wikipedia
- A Pillar of Zen: Roshi Philip Kapleau 1912–2004 — Rafe Martin, Lion’s Roar
- The Frontier Zen of Philip Kapleau and Rochester Zen Center — Lion’s Roar
- The Speechless Speech of Roshi Philip Kapleau — Tricycle, 2016
- Kapleau, Philip 1912–2004 — Encyclopedia.com
- Wheel of Life — Publishers Weekly, 1989
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Zen doesn’t teach us to be bound to anything. The teaching is to experience our innate freedom.”
— Philip Kapleau, interview with Lex Hixon on WBAI’s In the Spirit (1979), published in Tricycle (2016)
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