Dōgen watching the moon at Hōkyōji monastery, Fukui prefecture. Circa 1250.
Gallery of Zenji Dōgen
Japan
Portrait of Dōgen.
Gallery of Zenji Dōgen
Japan, 〒910-1228 Fukui, Yoshida District, Eiheiji, Shihi, ５−15 大本山永平寺
An image of a statue representing a spiritual vision that Zen Master Dōgen had while returning to Japan from China. The ship he was on was caught in a storm, and all aboard feared they would die, whereby Dōgen led the grew in the recitation of chants to Avalokiteshwara. A vision of Avalokiteshwara appeared before Dōgen and several of the crew, and afterward, the storm abated and they made it to Japan safely. The vision is memorialized in this statue at a pond in Eihei-ji Temple in Japan.
Japan, 〒910-1228 Fukui, Yoshida District, Eiheiji, Shihi, ５−15 大本山永平寺
An image of a statue representing a spiritual vision that Zen Master Dōgen had while returning to Japan from China. The ship he was on was caught in a storm, and all aboard feared they would die, whereby Dōgen led the grew in the recitation of chants to Avalokiteshwara. A vision of Avalokiteshwara appeared before Dōgen and several of the crew, and afterward, the storm abated and they made it to Japan safely. The vision is memorialized in this statue at a pond in Eihei-ji Temple in Japan.
(301 koan stories collected by Master Dōgen during his yea...)
301 koan stories collected by Master Dōgen during his years in China. Master Dōgen used many of these stories as the basis for his formal lectures in his major work, the Shōbōgenzō; they record conversations between Buddhist masters and their students. Shinji Shōbōgenzō includes many well-known koan stories, with many interesting and less familiar ones, together with the comments of a contemporary Buddhist master renowned for his clear and no-nonsense approach.
(The Wholehearted Way is a translation of Eihei Dōgen's Be...)
The Wholehearted Way is a translation of Eihei Dōgen's Bendōwa, one of the primary texts on Zen practice. Transcending any particular school of Buddhism or religious belief, Dōgen's profound and poetic writings are respected as a pinnacle of world spiritual literature. Bendōwa, or A Talk on the Wholehearted Practice of the Way, was written in 1231 A.D. and expresses Dōgen's teaching of the essential meaning of zazen (seated meditation) and its practice. This edition also contains commentary on Bendowa by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, a foreword by Taigen Daniel Leighton, and an Introduction by Shohaku Okumura, both of whom prepared this English translation.
How to Cook Your Life: From the Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment
(In the thirteenth century, Zen master Dogen - perhaps the...)
In the thirteenth century, Zen master Dogen - perhaps the most significant of all Japanese philosophers, and the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen sect - wrote a practical manual of Instructions for the Zen Cook. In drawing parallels between preparing meals for the Zen monastery and spiritual training, he reveals far more than simply the rules and manners of the Zen kitchen; he teaches us how to "cook," or refine our lives. In this volume, Kosho Uchiyama Roshi undertakes the task of elucidating Dogen's text for the benefit of modern-day readers of Zen. Taken together, his translation and commentary truly constitute a "cookbook for life," one that shows us how to live with an unbiased mind in the midst of our workaday world.
(The Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki consists largely of brief talks, ...)
The Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki consists largely of brief talks, hortatory remarks, and instructional and cautionary comments by the Soto Zen Master Dōgen. Translated, Shōbōgenzō means "the eye of the true law." Roughly translated, Zuimonki means "easy for the ears to understand," or "simplified."
(Dōgen is known for two major works. The first work, the m...)
Dōgen is known for two major works. The first work, the massive Shōbōgenzō (Treasury of the True Dharma Eye), represents his early teachings and exists in myriad English translations; the second work, the Eihei Kōroku, is a collection of all his later teachings, including short formal discourses to the monks training at his temple, longer informal talks, and koans with his commentaries, as well as short appreciatory verses on various topics. The Shobogenzo has received enormous attention in Western Zen and Western Zen literature, and with the publication of this watershed volume, the Eihei Koroku will surely rise to commensurate stature.
(A remarkable collection of essays, Shōbōgenzō, "Treasury ...)
A remarkable collection of essays, Shōbōgenzō, "Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching," was composed in the thirteenth century by the Zen master Dōgen, founder of the Sōtō Zen school in Japan. Through its linguistic artistry and its philosophical subtlety, the Shōbōgenzō presents a thorough recasting of Buddhism with a creative ingenuity that has never been matched in the subsequent literature of Japanese Zen. With this translation of thirteen of the ninety-five essays, Thomas Cleary attempts to convey the form as well as the content of Dōgen's writing, thereby preserving the instrumental structure of the original text. Together with pertinent commentary, biography, and notes, these essays make accessible to a wider audience a Zen classic once considered the private reserve of Sōtō monks and Buddhologists. Readers from many fields in the sciences and humanities will find themselves richly rewarded.
Dōgen was a leading Japanese Buddhist during the Kamakura period. He introduced Zen to Japan in the form of the Sōtō school. A creative personality, he combined meditative practice and philosophical speculation.
Background
Dogen was born on January 19, 1200, in Kyoto, Japan into an aristocratic family. He was an illegitimate child of Minamoto no Michitomo, who served in the imperial court as a high-ranking ashō (亞相, "Councillor of State"). He was said to have been a prodigy who learned to read both Japanese and classic Chinese by the time he was 4. At the age of seven, Dogen lost his mother - who at her death earnestly asked him to become a monastic to seek the truth of Buddhism. According to early authors that in the midst of profound grief, Dogen experienced the impermanence of all things as he watched the incense smoke ascending at his mother’s funeral service. This left an indelible impression upon the young Dogen. Later, he would emphasize time and again the intimate relationship between the desire for enlightenment and the awareness of impermanence. His way of life would not be a sentimental flight from, but a compassionate understanding of, the intolerable reality of existence.
Education
Dōgen was adopted by an uncle who was a powerful, highly placed adviser of the emperor of Japan. Young Dogen received a good education, which included the study of important Buddhist texts. Dogen read the eight-volume Abhidharma-kosa, an advanced work of Buddhist philosophy when he was 9.
When he was 12 or 13 Dogen left his uncle’s house and went to the Tendai Center on Mount Hiei, where another uncle was serving as a priest. This uncle arranged for Dogen to be admitted to Enryaku-ji, a temple of the Tendai school, where, at age 13, Dogen received monk ordination and studied without, however, fully satisfying his spiritual aspirations. (Dogen was troubled by one particular question: if all human beings are born with Buddha Nature, why is it so difficult to realize it?) Disappointed, he sought for the answer elsewhere, so he went and studied with Eisai, a Rinzai master, who told him it was a delusion to think in such dualistic terms as Buddha Nature. With this answer Dogen experienced Satori. After Eisai’s death, Dogen continued to practice under Myozen, Eisai’s successor at Kennin-ji Temple. After training for nine years, in 1223, Dogen (accompanied by Myozen) made the difficult journey to China, where he studied koans for two years, then - after Myozen’s death - he went to study under Master Tendo Nyojo (Ju-Tsing) in the Soto Zen lineage at Keitoku-ji Temple.
Nyojo was practicing a different kind of Chan, just sitting – shikantaza – and Dogen took it to the extremes. The story goes that, one day, Master Nyojo was scolding another monk for sleeping during the period of sitting practice, saying, "The practice of Zazen (Sitting Meditation) is the dropping away of body and mind. What do you think dozing will accomplish?" Upon hearing these words, Dogen became fully Enlightened. He suddenly understood that Zazen is not just sitting still, but it is the "I" opening up to its own Reality. At that time he was 26 years old. He trained himself after enlightenment for two more years, and in the spring of 1228, he received the transmission of the Dharma from Nyojo. But years later, when Dogen returned to Japan, he said, "I have come back empty-handed. I have realized only that the eyes are horizontal and the nose is vertical."
In time, Rujing recognized Dōgen's realization by giving him a teacher's robe and formally declaring Dōgen to be his dharma heir. Dogen returned to Japan in 1228, and Rujing died less than a year later. Myozen had also died while in China, and so Dōgen returned to Japan with his ashes.
Dōgen returned to Kennin-ji and taught there for three years. However, by this time his approach to Buddhism was radically different from the Tendai orthodoxy that dominated Kyoto, and to avoid political conflict he left Kyoto for an abandoned temple in Uji. Eventually, he would establish the temple Kosho-horinji in Uji. Dōgen again ignored orthodoxy by taking students from all social classes and walks of life, including women.
But as Dōgen's reputation grew, so did the criticism against him. In 1243 he accepted an offer of land from an aristocratic lay student, Lord Yoshishige Hatano. The land was in remote Echizen Province on the Sea of Japan, and here Dōgen established Eiheiji, today one of the two head temples of Soto Zen in Japan.
Dōgen fell ill in 1252. He named his dharma heir Koun Ejo the abbot of Eiheiji and traveled to Kyoto seeking help for his illness. He died in Kyoto in 1253.
Dogen Zenji is considered to be the founder of the Sōtō Zen School. Dōgen is also considered the founder of one of the Kamakura period "new schools" that rebelled against the Heian establishment Tendai and Shingon schools. His influences include both traditional Mahayana teachings and the Chinese Chan tradition, in both of which he was extremely well versed. Historically, from the century after his death, his writings were read only by Sōtō priest scholars until they were popularized in the early 20th century. Translations of Dōgen’s writings and spread of Sōtō practice centers have been important to the spread of Buddhism in the West, accompanied by a plethora of contemporary writings about Dōgen.
(Dōgen is known for two major works. The first work, the m...)
1252
Religion
Some of Dōgen's major philosophical ideas emphasize that the philosophy of religion must reflect the personal experience of transient existence based on an awareness that the ultimate reality of the universal Buddha-nature is not beyond but is conditioned by impermanence. Impermanent reality is characterized by a fundamental unity of being-time (uji ) in that all beings occur as temporal manifestations and time is manifested through each aspect of existence. Dōgen maintains that religious practice, or training, and spiritual realization, or the attainment of enlightenment, occur simultaneously and are inseparable in the experience of liberation known as "the casting off of body-mind" (shinjin datsuraku ) that is achieved through the methods of zazen meditation and kōan interpretation, which are equally conducive to realization. He also stresses that the naturalist dimension of being-time and impermanence-Buddha-nature is expressible through poetry and aesthetics but reminds that karmic causality or moral conditioning and retribution are inherent to, rather than outside of, the attainment of enlightenment.
Politics
Dōgen, even though he came from a politically prominent family, didn't seem to have any political involvement or influence during his lifetime.
Views
Buddha was said to have reached Enlightenment while he was engaged in zazen - seated meditation. Dōgen conceived the practice of seated mediation as the essence of Buddhism. Dōgen conceptualized the primacy of zazen as Shikandaza (Sheer Seated Meditation): Shikan means "utmost" or "fervently" or "simply;" da means "hitting" in the sense of "throwing oneself;" za means "sitting." Shikandaza basically means "to throw oneself to and fervently do zazen."
Dōgen interpreted zazen not as a separate means to reach the goal of Enlightenment, but as a manifestation of Enlightenment itself. Seated mediation is often interpreted as a practical method to reach the state of the Enlightenment. Dōgen developed the idea of the oneness of practice and embodiment; becoming and being; doing and attainment. Based on this concept of the unity of being and doing, he presented authentic zazen as the presence and the working of Buddha-nature. Buddha-nature is also conceived not only as a static essence but also as a dynamic working principle.
In the fascicle of "Being-time" and others in Sobozenzo, Dōgen explicated the temporality of being. His concept of Shikandaza is rooted in his ontology. For Dōgen, the fact of to-be or existence is a temporal event or process where eternal truth is manifested. Existence is an event where eternity and the moment, permanence and change, meet and cross over. Existence is possible only when eternal truth manifests itself in time.
Dōgen comprehended truth not as some kind of object one can possess or lose, but as that which makes all phenomena possible. All phenomena can take place as the work of truth. For example, a flower can blossom by virtue of the work of truth. Thus, the entire world and phenomena are nothing but the manifestation of or the work of truth.
Knowing the truth is therefore not a matter of "having" or "finding" truth as an object. One already exists in truth. When one drops all one’s conscious acts, truth discloses itself. Dōgen’s epistemology is not separate from his ontology and knowing and being are intricately fused within the context of practice.
Enlightenment is the realization of the fact that all being, including the self, exists in truth. The pre-condition for realizing Enlightenment is the elimination of all conscious acts and disturbances in the mind, including conscious acts of attempting to find the truth.
It is an irony of the mechanism of consciousness that the more one tries to calm the consciousness and reaches tranquility, the more it is disturbed. In "The Issue at Hand" of Shobozenzo, Dōgen warns not to attempt to find truth but to prepare oneself so that one can be opened up to truth in the way that the truth shows itself.
Acting on and witnessing myriad things (truth) with the burden of oneself is "delusion." Acting on and witnessing oneself in the advent of myriad things (truth) is enlightenment.
One is enlightened by and opened up to the truth with the advent of truth. Enlightenment is also an experiential or existential realization that the truth is at work in existence, including the existence of the self.
Dōgen’s concept of Enlightenment is comparable with Husserlian phenomenology. Husserl, a twentieth-century philosopher and the originator of phenomenology, initially developed phenomenology as a philosophical methodology that allows one to describe one’s experiences without presuppositions and preconceptions. Early in his career Husserl developed various conceptual devices such as "epoche" (consciously freeing oneself from pre-conceptions and pre-conceived ideas) and defined phenomenology as "presuppositionless" philosophy.
Enlightenment in Zen Buddhism is also an attempt to arrive at the original state of the human condition by liberating oneself from all kinds of prejudices and preconceptions. While Husserl thought that presuppositionlessness was possible by taking a certain mental stance (such as "epoche") within the realm of consciousness, Dōgen disagrees with this idea. Dōgen holds that a presuppositionless state is not possible through any mental action within consciousness and that it requires bodily actions, zazen in particular. Dōgen conceived mind and body in unity as one concept "body-mind," and expressed Enlightenment as "dropping-off-body-mind." This concept is rooted in Dōgen’s insight that one’s consciousness is inseparably fused with the body, and the whole body-mind is also fused with the entire being of the cosmos. Later Husserl realized the limits of his earlier attempt and developed the phenomenology of life world with recognition of the human being’s involvement with the world. As for the realization of the inseparable involvement of the self and the cosmos, Dōgen’s view can be compared with Heidegger’s "being-in-the-world" and Merleau-Ponty’s "body-subject."
Personality
Dōgen always strikes the reader as a paragon of intellect. His insight, dogged pursuit of philosophical questions and his ability to examine questions from every perspective makes him the model Zen thinker. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that his nearest contemporary Western counterpart was the medieval scholastic Thomas Aquinas.
At the same time, Dōgen is the archetypal "serious" personality: dry, aloof, reserved. Dōgen wrote poems, but his poetry lacks the emotional and sensitive perspective that truly animates better poetry. Such sentiment is not romantic but reflective, insightful, and understands the whole with more than the mind alone.
Connections
Being a Buddhist monk Dōgen didn't marry and had no children.
