by Kikan Michael Howard

Dainin Katagiri Roshi (roshi means “distinguished teacher”) was one of the prominent Zen masters who brought Sōtō Zen Buddhism from Japan to the United States. With the assistance of the people who recorded and preserved his dharma talks, Katagiri Roshi – whether intentionally, or as a byproduct of his wholehearted practice – left behind what is essentially an online university in Zen Buddhism, addressed to English-speaking Americans. Audio recordings of many of his talks are made available by Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, but because Katagiri Roshi was a non-native English speaker, his speech can be difficult to understand. On this website, I carefully transcribe these talks as an aid to their study.

In his teachings, Katagiri Roshi makes connections to the whole of Buddhism, and to many topics in Western science, philosophy, and poetry. But his primary focus is the teachings of Zen Master Eihei Dōgen, which are discussed or at least mentioned in almost every talk. Thus, perhaps the best place to begin with Katagiri Roshi’s teachings is where he discusses the foundations of Dōgen Zenji’s teachings. I offer the “Fundamentals of Zen” series as a collection of talks where many of the basics are approached. Beyond that, other fundamentals include the series of talks on Bendōwa (“A Talk on Pursuing the Way”), “Principles of Practice” (Gakudō-yōjinshū), and of course, Fukanzazengi, Dōgen Zenji’s “Universal Recommendation for Zazen.” While we do not currently have access to all the talks that Katagiri Roshi gave specifically on Fukanzazengi, this lack is partly addressed by the “Annotated Fukanzazengi” found here.

On close listening, it becomes apparent that Katagiri Roshi frequently backed up and corrected his choice of English words and grammar as he spoke. I attempt to apply his own in-stream self-corrections in a style of intelligent transcription. My intent is to stay as true as possible to Katagiri Roshi’s actual, complete words, while also honoring what he was intending to say. This generally has the effect of smoothing out the grammar a bit, making the talks easier to read and understand. Each talk requires multiple listens over many hours to carefully process in this way. That said, please be aware that this entire transcript archive is an ongoing work in progress. No transcript here is every completely finished; the corrections just get smaller and less frequent. (I hope.)

Words where I am unsure of the best transcription, or where I am adding words to make the meaning more clear, are usually presented in brackets, [like this]. Significant nonverbal sounds are noted [in brackets with italics]. Sections that are unintelligible are marked [unintelligible], or sometimes […], depending on what makes the text more readable. And comments adding additional information are placed in parentheses, (like this). The timecodes embedded in the transcripts generally serve as section breaks, in addition to helping match up the text to the audio recording.

Katagiri Roshi’s talks are being used with permission of Minnesota Zen Meditation Center. For more information, visit The Katagiri Project Home Page.

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