“I had a good teacher.” These are the words of Les Kaye, spoken about his teacher, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.
Les Kaye’s new book, I Had a Good Teacher, interweaves his Dharma talks with personal stories that illuminate how he integrated Zen practice into a full life of corporate work and family responsibilities.
Les began practicing with Suzuki Roshi in 1966 and was ordained as a priest in 1971.
He later became head of Haiku Zendo in Los Altos, which evolved into Kannon Do Zen Meditation Center. According to his student and editor, Giuseppe Prisco, “Les led a kind of ‘double life’—working at IBM until he retired, while also teaching Zen. Because of the breadth of his experience, his Dharma talks have always been grounded in the real world.”
From Silicon Valley to Italy
After completing his post-doctoral studies in Italy in 2000, Giuseppe Prisco moved to Silicon Valley. Feeling out of balance, he found his way to Kannon Do for zazen instruction, and soon became a regular practitioner. During the next four years, he attended a three-month practice period at Tassajara and was ordained as a Zen priest by Les Kaye.
When Giuseppe returned to Italy in 2012, he continued his practice and, following Les Kaye’s guidance, began sharing it with a small group of friends. “I replicated the Kannon Do schedule,” he says, “sitting early in the morning on weekdays and on Saturdays, adding walking meditation, service, and tea or breakfast. About four years ago, I began offering one-day sittings on the first Saturday of each month from 6 am to 5 pm, just as we did at Kannon Do.”
At the end of one of those daylong sittings, Giuseppe’s students asked to stay and talk about their experience.
“Their questions reminded me of a Dharma talk Les Kaye had given the week before, which I had listened to online. I thought of translating the talk into Italian and sharing it with them. They were interested, so I began translating more of his talks for our retreats. This was very satisfying because those talks really spoke to me.”
Bringing Les’s Voice to a New Audience
Because Les Kaye gave most of the talks at Kannon Do, Giuseppe wanted his own students to have access to the same teachings that had shaped his understanding of Zen. “Les used simple words,” he explains, “without relying on sutras, the philosophy of Zen, or neuroscience. He spoke from his own life experience. That was the type of teaching I knew. I didn’t need to go and study Sanskrit or Japanese to grasp it.”
Giuseppe eventually envisioned a collection of Les’s Dharma talks that would differ from his published books.
“When I first asked Les for his permission, he didn’t like the idea because [he thought] his talks weren’t ‘refined writing.’ That cooled off my idea. However, I had a friend at Kannon Do who kept the transcripts. On one of my annual trips, I was able to download all of Les’s talks from the previous ten years—about 150 of them—and I asked Les to help me choose a sample. He accepted the challenge and chose very quickly.”
Giuseppe also compiled personal and biographical excerpts from other talks to include as a separate section of the book. “When I presented the book to Les, he asked me to write the introduction. It took me six months!”
Bees in the Garden
One of Giuseppe’s favorite talks describes the bees buzzing around Les’s front yard, where they often sat together. “After a period of silence, you begin to notice the bugs in the garden. That talk takes me back to those moments with him. His words come directly from lived experience; they’re genuine. Each talk is an invitation to practice.”
Continuing the Teaching
Due to illness, Les Kaye has not been able to promote I Had a Good Teacher, and Giuseppe has not yet been able to return to the U.S. for book talks or signings. There is hope that perhaps Giuseppe and members of Kannon Do will be able to offer an online program to share the book and Les’s teachings more widely at some point in the future.
I Had A Good Teacher is available for purchase in the SFZC Store.