Dogen (13th century zen master)
It seems quiet on SW at the moment. But I love to waffle. Therapeutic in a funny sort of way.
I have run threads on Dogen elsewhere and this is adapted from one of them. Dogen was a Japanese zen master of the 13th century, known now in the west as the initiator of the Soto Zen lineage (as opposed to Rinzai)
I find him an interesting character. My own home ground is not zen and though Dogen advocates the practice of zazen (a form of meditation), I no longer meditate as such. But I have been dipping into his large corpus of writings on and off for a few years now, as well as various commentaries on them. Dogen in fact is attracting a lot of attention both in his homeland and in the west where his thought comes across to many as offering insight into what could loosely be called "the modern predicament". Obviously, some would assert that there is in fact no "predicament" but there you go. We all make our judgements. Maybe each and every age has its [i]predicament[/i]?
Dogen was dealt his cards like all of us. 13th century Japan, two parents who died fairly early on, Buddhism just a tad corrupt and in decline. Like most of us, after the cards dealt him, he developed his own existential questions, sought then his own answers, his own path and place in the world.
One thing he wrote was:- "Therefore, if there are fish that would swim or birds that would fly only after investigating the entire ocean or sky, they would find neither path nor place."
Those words are very suggestive, at least to me. We must choose, decide, yet cannot know with certainty the direction to take. Yet we do need, even assert strongly in some cases, our very own path, time and place. Seek sometimes to impose them upon others as being the way for all.
But as said, Dogen got dealt his own cards. 13th century Japan, the Buddhism widely prevalent at the time, his mother and father who molded the tiny child. So who was it asked the question:- "Who am I"? Out of the cards dealt him, Dogen sought his very own unique time and place. I think he found it. Reading about him, reading his own words, I have immense respect for him as a human being. He had integrity - perhaps a word now going out of fashion.......do we even know what it means any more in our celebrity culture where, as far as the sheer suffering of our world is concerned, we all have the attention spans of goldfish?
Of course, we can be fools and simply misread him and seek to make Dogen's time and place our own. But that was not his intention. Zazen to Dogen was also part metaphor, metaphor for [i]any[/i] practice that is sincere and authentic.
According to one fine book on Dogen, he was a "mystical realist" (which says much). He was in the zen zone of authenticating everyday existence, this for the "return to the market-place" of common-or-garden life, out of compassion for future generations. Dogen spoke of the dropping of body and mind, which as I understand it is again part metaphor - it is losing the compulsions of the past, its congealed conditioning, and truly being in the present, where the only extension is intensity/authenticity.
One commentator has likened his outlook to that of Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy, of a constant advance into novelty, where everything is always new under the sun.
I have always loved Dogen's view that nothing is concealed . As Hee Jin-Kim, one commentator, says:-
[i]Mystery, in Dōgen’s view, did not consist of that which was hidden or unknown in darkness or that which would be revealed or made known in the future. Rather, it consisted of the present intimacy, transparency, and vividness of thusness, for “nothing throughout the entire universe is concealed” (henkai-fuzōzō). Nevertheless, the mystery of emptiness and thusness had to go beyond this: intimacy had to be ever penetrated (tōkamitsu)[/i] or, as is said, the road goes on forever - the journey itself is home.
So although the "now" is all that there ever is, there is nevertheless, for Dogen, a "movement toward Buddha".
Anyway, whatever. Enough for now.
I have run threads on Dogen elsewhere and this is adapted from one of them. Dogen was a Japanese zen master of the 13th century, known now in the west as the initiator of the Soto Zen lineage (as opposed to Rinzai)
I find him an interesting character. My own home ground is not zen and though Dogen advocates the practice of zazen (a form of meditation), I no longer meditate as such. But I have been dipping into his large corpus of writings on and off for a few years now, as well as various commentaries on them. Dogen in fact is attracting a lot of attention both in his homeland and in the west where his thought comes across to many as offering insight into what could loosely be called "the modern predicament". Obviously, some would assert that there is in fact no "predicament" but there you go. We all make our judgements. Maybe each and every age has its [i]predicament[/i]?
Dogen was dealt his cards like all of us. 13th century Japan, two parents who died fairly early on, Buddhism just a tad corrupt and in decline. Like most of us, after the cards dealt him, he developed his own existential questions, sought then his own answers, his own path and place in the world.
One thing he wrote was:- "Therefore, if there are fish that would swim or birds that would fly only after investigating the entire ocean or sky, they would find neither path nor place."
Those words are very suggestive, at least to me. We must choose, decide, yet cannot know with certainty the direction to take. Yet we do need, even assert strongly in some cases, our very own path, time and place. Seek sometimes to impose them upon others as being the way for all.
But as said, Dogen got dealt his own cards. 13th century Japan, the Buddhism widely prevalent at the time, his mother and father who molded the tiny child. So who was it asked the question:- "Who am I"? Out of the cards dealt him, Dogen sought his very own unique time and place. I think he found it. Reading about him, reading his own words, I have immense respect for him as a human being. He had integrity - perhaps a word now going out of fashion.......do we even know what it means any more in our celebrity culture where, as far as the sheer suffering of our world is concerned, we all have the attention spans of goldfish?
Of course, we can be fools and simply misread him and seek to make Dogen's time and place our own. But that was not his intention. Zazen to Dogen was also part metaphor, metaphor for [i]any[/i] practice that is sincere and authentic.
According to one fine book on Dogen, he was a "mystical realist" (which says much). He was in the zen zone of authenticating everyday existence, this for the "return to the market-place" of common-or-garden life, out of compassion for future generations. Dogen spoke of the dropping of body and mind, which as I understand it is again part metaphor - it is losing the compulsions of the past, its congealed conditioning, and truly being in the present, where the only extension is intensity/authenticity.
One commentator has likened his outlook to that of Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy, of a constant advance into novelty, where everything is always new under the sun.
I have always loved Dogen's view that nothing is concealed . As Hee Jin-Kim, one commentator, says:-
[i]Mystery, in Dōgen’s view, did not consist of that which was hidden or unknown in darkness or that which would be revealed or made known in the future. Rather, it consisted of the present intimacy, transparency, and vividness of thusness, for “nothing throughout the entire universe is concealed” (henkai-fuzōzō). Nevertheless, the mystery of emptiness and thusness had to go beyond this: intimacy had to be ever penetrated (tōkamitsu)[/i] or, as is said, the road goes on forever - the journey itself is home.
So although the "now" is all that there ever is, there is nevertheless, for Dogen, a "movement toward Buddha".
Anyway, whatever. Enough for now.
