“Seasoned practitioners will find Manifesting Zen an exciting invitation to drop any vestiges of complacency, to investigate further, to enter into “no-conflict samadhi,” and to realize that we cannot dwell there. Beginning students will be inspired to find out for themselves what it means to go beyond ideas and concepts, to rely upon their own inner light, as the Buddha called us to do, and to continue on the path with a no-knowing mind. The Introduction by editor Kendō Hal Roth, who practiced under Jōshū Rōshi for forty-two years, is a masterful presentation of key Buddhist principles, as well as a personal tribute to Jōshū Rōshi’s original, unconventional way of teaching. . . .

Jōshū Rōshi’s articulation of the process of expansion and contraction in Dharma activity suggests nuclear fission and fusion. He exhorts us to dive into the manifestation of the vibrant self that is liberated from personality, to break through the usual constraints and fixed perspectives of human consciousness. With uncompromising yet compassionate directness, he says his intention as a teacher is ‘to give birth to a lot of people who do not make themselves sick’ by holding onto the incomplete self, ‘the self that has will and desire.’ . . . Thank you, Kyōzan Jōshū Sasaki, for encouraging us all to dissolve the self and, in so doing, manifest the complete self. Thank you, Kendō Hal Roth, for your diligent work in making these radical teachings available to Zen students everywhere.”