Yasutani first traveled to United States in 1962 when he was already in his seventies. He became known through the book The Three Pillars of Zen, published in 1965. It was compiled by Philip Kapleau, who started to study with Yasutani in 1956. It contains a short biography of Yasutani and his "Introductory Lectures on Zen Training". The lectures were among the first instructions on how to do zazen ever published in English. The book also has Yasutani's "Commentary on the Koan Mu" and somewhat unorthodox reports of his dokusan interviews with Western students.