Ten Dogen themes
We can identify ten recurrent themes in Dogen's teaching, and becoming familiar with them helps us tie his writings together as we study. These themes are completely interpenetrated and represent one coherent worldview; each one builds on the others and points out some specific aspect of reality. We’re simply looking at the same reality through multiple windows.
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Nonduality
Uchiyama Roshi says that in the Shobogenzo, all words should be understood as meaning “beyond dichotomy.” We don’t need to set them in comparison with or relative to each other: life and death, poverty and wealth, happiness and unhappiness. Dogen is constantly collapsing duality, which is not the same as denying that forms exist. A and B both exist, but it’s also true that they are not separate and therefore their existence as apparently unconnected things isn’t the whole story. Five individual fingers exist, and one hand also exists. These two aspects of reality are completely interpenetrated. Once we’ve understood that, we also have to go beyond the idea that there is A-and-B and beyond-A-and-B, because if we hold to these two sides, we’re just perpetuating discrimination between things. We have to keep looking more deeply and letting go of assumptions. When we understand emptiness, then we can see that on one hand, things have characteristics and seem to be solid and permanent, and on the other, nothing has a fixed and permanent self-nature. As soon as we give something labels and descriptions, it’s changed and those ideas don’t apply. Thusness is the aspect of the world before we distinguish individual forms and try to describe them. Dogen’s world is not a world of either/or; it’s a world of yes/and. There isn’t only one right answer to a question or a koan, and multiple answers don’t cancel each other out. Things can coexist in his world that to us seem mutually exclusive; thus practice and enlightenment are not separate, and things in the world and absolute reality are not separate (that’s the genjo koan). Imagine seeing the world not as a series of choices between this and that, which is what we habitually assume needs to happen--light vs dark, winning vs losing, delusion vs awakening, like vs dislike, good vs bad--but instead as a series of elements that aren’t actually opposed to each other. What if each thing simply is what it is, without fighting for its place against something opposite? Those opposites are just our own creations based on our perception. This is what Dogen is trying to show us with the non-linear language devices he uses in his writings. Authentic transmission
Authentic transmission Dogen saw his teaching / practice as the one true Buddhism rather than as a distinct sect within a larger tradition - wasn’t trying to create something to compete with other sects; he didn’t really like dividing up Buddhism into branches and schools - his feeling was: it’s not that your way is wrong because mine is more effective; it’s that my way is better because it’s more authentic to Buddha’s teachings - he would have been happy if everyone had joined in under the same big tent of authentic, legitimate Buddhism He saw all incarnations or manifestations of Buddha, past, present and future, as Shakyamuni - we still preserve this teaching today in one of our morning ekos when we dedicate merit to Daion Kyoshu Honshi Shakamuni Butsu Daiosho - (The great benefactor, the Founder of the Religion, Original Teacher, Sakyamuni Buddha the Great Monk) - Shakyamuni is the historical Buddha, as opposed to Maitreya or Vairocana or Amida - so he’s not a figure that someone imagined or an idealized person Dogen also sees himself as teaching Buddhism as it existed before division into Theravada and Mahayana - and of course Shakyamuni predates that kind of split - so uninterrupted transmission of the dharma starting from Shakyamuni is critically important There’s a very tight relationship between awakening and authenticity or verification - what’s being authentically transmitted is nothing other than the expression of awakening itself - when we practice we verify awakening and because of awakening we practice and live in a certain way - awakening is what it is, so it doesn’t undergo historical development across space and time - true Buddhism just preserves Shakyamuni’s wisdom -- his awakening -- and hands it down through the lineage Dogen thinks the dharma he received from his own teacher was the complete true treasury of the dharma eye - the real ancient ways of the Buddhas and ancestors - and since Rinzai (and other sects) no longer preserve these ancient ways, Dogen’s only link to Buddha’s awakening is his own teacher, Nyojo - he also puts the most store by Shakyamuni, Bodhidharma, Hui-neng and later ancestors in his own lineage - his emphasis on the supremacy of his own lineage gathers steam in the last dozen or so years of his life and it’s tied to the development of his training temples and his emphasis on deportment In the Fukanzazengi, which is an early writing, he says that all five houses of Chan “equally hold the mind seal” - but he changes his mind over time and attacks Rinzai in particular, not because of illegitimacy but because of practitioners’ conduct - again, it might be part of the re-education of his Darumashu monks - it might also be because a book of Nyojo’s teachings arrived in Japan and either Dogen re-encountered his teacher through this book, - or he thought the compilers of the book had misunderstood Nyojo’s teachings and he’s trying to correct them Authenticity is what’s important, and authenticity is Buddha’s awakening - so we see “sho” or “true” being used a lot, not only Shobogenzo (as in true dharma eye) - but also true vehicle, true gate, true awakening -- those aren’t casual terms, it’s all about the authenticity - the famous phrase “to forget the self is to be verified or authenticated by the 10 thousand things” - IOW, the awakening that comes with dropping off body and mind is authentically Buddha’s awakening In the Bendowa. Dogen says you don’t have to debate the relative merits of various teachings and doctrines, all you have to know is whether the practice is authentic or not - so again, this is not about effectiveness, it’s about legitimacy Dogen says that the way to become a legitimate dharma heir is to study the actions and stories of one’s ancestors - this is how one receives the true dharma - and then one has a duty oneself to transmit the true dharma to one’s students and future generations - and the only way to do this was to enter the training temple and take up the lifestyle of the ancestors - that means observing the rules and embodying the dharma in your deportment - so now we see the relationship between Dogen’s belief in authentic transmission and the importance he put on bringing the monastic institution from China While he’s in China he manages to examine five “secret” lineage charts and in SB Shisho he wrote: In the Buddha Way, whenever the Dharma is inherited there must be a document of succession. Unless the Dharma is handed down, the heresy of spontaneous enlightenment arises . . . For one to become a buddha, there must be the document of succession that is transmitted from buddha to buddha. Nonin, leader of Darumashu, was said to have awakened alone, without a master - given Dogen’s belief in authentic transmission, we can see another of the reasons why he attacked this sect These days we know that lineage is apocryphal and sutras were often constructed after Shakyamuni’s death - but Dogen didn’t know this so he relied on them and quoted them frequently in his writings - emphasizing authentic transmission So today there’s some creative tension for us between the idea that Dogen got the only authentic Buddhism from his Chinese teacher - and the idea that Dogen created something new or “invented” Soto Zen - he thought he was restoring authentic doctrine and practice in a world where Buddhism had been corrupted by stuff creeping in from other traditions or from people’s imaginations - but of course he was practicing as a Japanese in Japan, not as an Indian in India, so it couldn’t possibly have been identical -- it had to be something new I can’t help but see a parallel with what we sometimes try to do in the 21st century West, - stripping Buddhism of its Asian “trappings” or “superstitions” and thinking that rather than creating something new we’re going back to the “authentic” practice of Shakyamuni - but that’s a conversation for another time :-) Buddhanature
Buddhanature Dogen’s original question really asked what is BN: if all beings have BN, why is there delusion and suffering? - in the West we call this the problem of good and evil: if God exists, why does He allow evil in the world? Historically the problem goes back to a question of whether or not there were beings who were inherently incapable of awakening - they would be condemned forever to go around and around on the cycle of samsara and rebirth - the Mahayana response was that because the self is empty of any fixed and permanent nature (what we call no-self), there was nothing that could be inherently capable or incapable of awakening - another response was the tathagata-garbha doctrine: that what beings had was the potential to become Buddha - in China people started thinking of this as “Buddha-nature” This is where Dogen’s great doubt begins: if we all have BN, then why is practice necessary? Everything we do already expresses BN. - the Tendai school taught original enlightenment (hongaku), rather than acquired enlightenment But that led to two related positions: - on the one hand, whatever happens is my karma and I’m resigned to it -- there’s nothing I can do - and on the other hand, whatever I do is already a manifestation of BN so I can do whatever I want regardless of rules or ethics - and of course Dogen clearly lays out his Great Doubt in the opening passage of the Fukanzazengi - he says the Way is already perfect and doesn’t need anything from us, so what are we doing? And yet there is clearly suffering and delusion and the need to make effort in our practice - to resolve this paradox, Dogen both takes apart the various understandings of what BN is that are around him - and then comes to his own understanding of what BN really is - this is a big job; it’s probably not a coincidence that the Bussho fascicle is the longest one in the Shobogenzo - it’s going to take three genzo-e for Hojo-san to cover it in its entirety In the end, Dogen’s conclusion is that BN isn’t a thing: a state, a potentiality, essence, power or substance - BN is being, but not in the sense of existing or not existing - BN is functioning: anything that is, is changing and functioning; being is not a static condition - BN is all beings or all dharmas simply doing what they do as part of universal functioning - so the ultimate truth is not some timeless principle, but what is actually going on around us All beings are BN because they are reality of impermanence, always changing / functioning / arising / perishing - there’s nothing about forms that we can grasp; they’re not solid, permanent entitues - by their nature, they are empty and impermanent That means that BN is not limited to “sentient” beings - rocks and trees and soda cans and sneakers are all BN - this is why non-sentient beings preach the dharma, simply by being and doing what they are and do So BN is not about what we create out of our perceptions and processing minds - Dogen is careful to say that BN is also not the self or your consciousness or some psychological element - it’s not enlightenment or awakening, or anything like a permanent essence or soul - it’s not anything we can have an idea about and then grab onto; it’s non-substantial - not limited to the mind or the body, or to an object of meditation (I’m going to meditate in order to achieve BN) We don’t “have” or “acquire” BN for two reasons: - one is that it’s already here and there’s nothing to get - the other is that from the point of view of the absolute, there is no BN and no one to acquire it; - there’s already no separation between an individual being and BN - so any conception of BN as “something,” particularly “something out there” misses the mark It’s not necessary to even talk about BN; when we say beings, BN is already included BN is not something that’s going to manifest at some future time - if we want to see it, we just need to see the reality of impermanence and interconnection - when we do, we also see nonseparation or non-duality -- all beings are BN and on that basis, not separate But that seeing requires aspiration and effort -- it requires practice! (aha) - we’ll see shortly why the need for total exertion was one of Dogen’s themes It may be that one of the reasons that the nature of BN shows up repeatedly in Dogen’s writings is that the monks who came to him from Darumashu had a different understanding of it - Darumashu taught what came to be known derisively as the “Senika heresy”: the view that there was a permanent spirit or essence in the body that was did the work of making distinctions between phenomena as soon as it encountered or perceived them - when the body dies, then this spirit ecapes and is reborn somewhere else, and in that way it’s permanent and never perishes So mind is permanent and material form is impermanent under this teaching - the body was the source of delusive desire but the mind was the same as buddha nature - clearly, this is not Dogen’s view, and he works hard to dispel this idea His interpretation of the saying Mind itself is Buddha does not mean that the human mind is the same as BN as opposed to the physical body - his understanding is that Mind as the total functioning of the universe is the same as BN Oneness of practice and awakening
Onenesss of practice and awakening (shusho itto) This theme is the result of Dogen’s Great Doubt, the question that drove him to practice with a number of teachers and finally leave Japan for China - again, his question is: if all sentient beings without exception have buddha nature, why do we need to practice? - and while practicing with his teacher in China he sees that practice and awakening aren’t two separate things - we don’t practice to become Buddha, we practice because we are Buddha You may know that the elements of the eightfold path are grouped together in three categories: prajna (wisdom), sila (ethics) and samadhi (concentration or for us, zazen) - prior to Dogen, sila or an ethical life was a prerequisite for samadi - and samadhi or concentration was a prerequisite for prajna or wisdom - so first you established a moral life, then you started a sitting practice, and then you acquired wisdom Dogen says prajna is the basis for everything - without prajna we don’t know how to make right effort - and we don’t have any desire to do zazen, because zazen is simply a manifestation of prajna - so practice and awakening aren’t just separate beads on linear string, with each thing leading to the next thing In the Bendowa he says: Thinking that practice and enlightenment are not one is no more than a view that is outside the Way. In Buddhism, practice and enlightenment are one and the same. Because it is the practice of enlightenment, a beginner’s wholehearted practice of the Way is exactly the totality of original enlightenment. For this reason, in conveying the essential attitude for practice, it is taught not to wait for enlightenment outside practice. As an aside, Dogen also says that because everything arises from wisdom or awakening, imposing a set of precepts on ourselves as something from the outside doesn’t make sense; - they arise naturally from awakening as a description of bodhisattva life rather than being a set of rules about stuff we shouldn’t be doing or have to keep ourselves from doing So: we’re not doing zazen or any other practice in order to get something called awakening at some time in future - or as we say in this dharma family, zazen is good for nothing - not only is there no reward “out there” for zazen, zazen is good, period. Awakening is good, period. - it doesn’t need to be good “for something.” It’s not a tool for human beings. It’s bigger than human beings. We’re doing zazen because it’s the expression or realization of awakening that’s already present - practice is complete as it is in this moment - when he gives us instructions for our practice, Dogen isn’t giving us a formula for acquiring awakening - he’s describing how practice and awakening are the same thing Because practice is the manifestation of awakening, you have to practice all the time - there is no awakening outside of practice (activity) -- not a state that exists out there waiting for you to enter it - just like there is no sesshin without practitioners: we can have a concept of sesshin, but if no one shows up it’s not realized -- it doesn’t exist in the world - emptiness is the emptiness of all things -- without things, there would be no emptiness - there is no Buddha nature without the things that manifest that nature -- thus all beings ARE buddha nature So there’s no awakening other than practice. - as Dogen says, a Buddha is simply someone who practices Buddhahood. HJK: related questions is: what is enlightenment? Cook says Dogen presents enlightenment as the way in which one encounters an event authentically by penetrating thoroughly to its true reality, which is variously symbolized as Buddha, emptiness, and absolute nothingness The unenlightened cannot do this, encountering events as they do from the perspective of the little self that evaluates and categorizes all events in terms of personal meaning. Beause of this problem of limited perspective, an encounter can be authentic only when the limiting and distorting self has been forgotten or “dropped off” in the encounter. (reality is what we encounter in the absence of hindrance fear craving attachment discrimination etc) The nature of time
That brings us to how Dogen understands time -- he sees time from three points of view 1) our usual understanding of a linear time that goes from past to present to future - we’re born, we live a certain number of years and eventually we die 2) time is only this moment “now” which has no length and can’t be cut into segments - as soon as you have a first and second segment, you have before and after and neither is “now” 3) time that doesn’t flow from past to future but is one with past and future - everything from the Big Bang until now is one moment that we divide into segments by our thinking minds - but we are there at the Big Bang and we are as old as the universe For Dogen, anything that appears to be happening in stages is really just multiple aspects of the same reality - he doesn’t say that stages don’t exist, and he doesn’t rank one stage as higher than another - he says that they all arise and exist together in this moment of eternal Now All time exists only in the present, this eternal Now, which is complete in itself - this is the only point in which we can take action -- we can’t act in the past or future - we can remember the past, but the remembering is happening Now - we can plan for the future, or speculate about it, but that planning and speculating is happening Now We can’t step out of Now -- it’s the only point that’s real, and it’s all we’ve got, so everything must be right here - so as the eternal Now is intersected with Being - things can’t Be outside of time -- for Dogen, being and time are the same thing - because everything is constantly changing and impermanent, things can’t exist outside of time So time isn’t a container than exists “out there” separate from our experience or our existence - time is exactly our presence and experience, not a yardstick being imposed on us from outside - and if it’s not just linear, then just like language it actually extends in all directions Our previous experiences have led us to our presence in this moment, and what we do now will influence what arises in the future, so it does feel like there’s some forward momentum - but when we remember and talk about our experience of today in the future, we will create a certain kind of meaning, and we may remember things differently from day to day - which story are we telling today, and what did we tell yesterday, and what will we say nex week? - which of these is the “real” today? Any of them? - can we really disconnect the Now of Now and the Now that we remember or anticipate? - are any of those separate from our being? Can we really separate being and time, or are they one thing? Dogen says there’s just time-being, or being-time. Once can’t exist without the other. - if Buddha-nature is nothing other than functioning or being, then it’s not separate from time - practice is nothing other than awakening, there’s no reward coming later that’s outside of Now In order to understand being-time we also have to understand dharma position - in the Genjo Koan, there is a famous passage about firewood becoming ash and not turning back into firewood - and at the same time, while there is before and after, past and future are cut off because each thing stays in its own position Usually we thing there is a flow of time from the past to the future - when we’re born, we show up floating on the stream and when we die we disappear from the stream - but that flow started before we showed up and will go on after we die - according to Dogen, that’s not the whole story Using the images of the seed, the tree, the firewood and the ash: - each of these things has a past and future: the tree has a past as a seed and a future as firewood - the firewood has a past as a tree and future as ash - but dharma position of each of these things is independent of the others and it doesn’t have any length of time The dharma position is here and now, but the present moment doesn’t have any length - we can’t cut it into pieces -- when we say “now,” while we’re saying the N the OW is in the future - when we’re saying the OW the N is in the past - the present moment is just a dot or a line without any width - so even though here and now is the only reality, there’s nothing we can grasp as here and now - the past has already gone and the future isn’t here yet, so the present moment doesn’t exist Anything sitting in its dharma position has the power to negate that position under the right karmic circumstances, and in fact that’s what’s constantly happening - when a seed has light and water, it stops being a seed and becomes a plant - a baby negates babyhood and becomes a child - burning firewood negates its position as firewood and becomes ash So everything is empty because it has no fixed and permanent self-nature -- it’s negating it’s position all the time - there is a continuation of something, because the seed didn’t become a chicken and the baby didn’t become a water buffalo - but there is no seed or baby or firewood as a fixed self - and that constant negation of dharma position is why each moment is new and fresh and something arises - and being and time are not separate Total exertion
Total exertion (realization koan) ippo-gujin This sounds like an insistance that we should practice and train as hard as we can all the time, but it’s actually about something else :-) Dogen’s total exertion is another aspect of universal functioning - it’s happening whether we’re aware of it or not - less about our individual determination as practitioners to practice in every moment; it’s about the universe completely doing what the universe does in every moment The “total” in total exertion means nondual - there’s no subject separate from an object, no gap between a person or being or something and the activity that’s being carried out: there’s no me doing zazen or me mending my socks or me cooking dinner - there’s just zazen or mending or cooking This interpenetration is not just between sentient beings and activities, it’s true of all dharmas - everything is unique and individual, with individual characteristics and a particular dharma position - and also, everything is completely not cut off from everything else - since nothing exists separate from anything else, nothing opposes or obstructs anything else When everything is completely carrying out its function and living out its life, completely interpenetrated with everything else, then there is only one thing in the entire universe - there is one unified reality and it always functions harmoniously - if we don’t think so, then we need to investigate our view of reality and see how five skandhas are clinging to five skandhas Dogen says if we don’t apply human standards to what we see, then we can see things like mountains flowing - our view might be deluded, but the things we encounter are not defiled and not limited - they are exerting themselves totally, without obstruction or hindrances - what’s manifesting right in front of us is this complete universal functioning Dogen explains this better than I can: The “total experience of a single thing” does not deprive a think of its own unique particularity. It places a thing neither against others nor against none. To place a think against none is another form of dualistic obstruction. When total experience is realized unobstructively, the total experience of a single thing is the same as the total experience of all things. [Gabyo] Faith
When Dogen talks about faith, it doesn’t mean what it would in a Western tradition - he’s talking about faith that awakening is already here and there’s nothing to get In Gakudo Yojinshu, Dogen says, Those who practice the way of the Buddha must first have faith in the way of the Buddha. Faith and verification are an important pair. - what we’re verifying is our faith in Buddhanature and existing awakening and their ability to actualize themselves in us. - in the beginning we don’t have personal experience and understanding of what it is to see as Buddha sees, but we practice and verify. - at some point faith is supported by knowledge. We might see how practice has transformed our sangha friends, or we might even notice that over the course of time we see a bit more clearly and understand the dharma a bit more deeply - that strengthens our faith that we can indeed embody the dharma and move through the world as bodhisattvas - as well as our faith that what Buddha taught was real and wholesome even if we can’t see yet way Buddha saw - that’s verification Taking refuge is an early step in establishing our practice and is an expression of faith to which we keep returning. - we’re turning away from self-involvement and toward something else, - and when our entire focus up to this point has been on taking care of the self, that takes faith. - abandoning the things our culture puts value on takes faith and is based on seeing impermanence. Arousing bodhi mind (hotsu bodaishin) involves both faith and verification - the buddha within us waking up and deciding to be realized. - taking vows is the act of a buddha, so it’s another kind of verification that Buddha is already here. - we couldn’t do it if Buddha wasn’t already here. Here again, practice and awakening are not two. Sometimes practice isn’t easy, and we can think that we’ve put ourselves into karmic conditions that are going to keep us from practicing or from manifesting awakening - we can’t see ourselves as vessels of the dharma because of all our bad habits or difficult life circumstances - Dogen says we also need to have faith that just like everything else, our karma is impermanent If you make the effort to establish an ethical life -- carry out skillful action -- pay attention to what Buddha’s teaching -- in this moment you influence the karma you’re creating - we can’t act in the past or the future, but right now we can reaffirm our aspiration to be bodhisattvas - rather than perpetuating unwholesome activities Karma doesn’t have any fixed and permanent self-nature, so at some point it arises and changes and unfolds - you’re not stuck with the circumstances and position you’re in - you can choose right now a life of practice and awakening We often can’t see the unfolding of karma, so it takes faith to keep at it and trust that your good actions are helping the entire network of interdependent origination - sometimes we’ve got a big ship to turn -- a lot of harmful conditions to work with - so faith is important Deportment
Deportment is itself the Buddhadharma (igi-soku buppō 威儀即仏法) Since we know that one of the two things Dogen wanted to bring to Japan from China was the monastic container, its not surprising that he had something to say about deportment - both from the point of view of daily specifics and from the point of view of absolute reality And we also need to remember the context for his writings about deportment - he was pretty unimpressed by the laxity he saw around him in other temples that were full of men who had become monks looking for free food and an easy life - he established high standards for moral behaviour and serious dedication to practice - so that his temple was actually able to embody the practice he learned in China, to carry it out and pass it on As we’ve seen, he provides detailed instructions on how to carry out daily tasks and practices and how to behave in various situations with various people - how we conduct ourselves when walking down the hall or brushing our teeth is just as important as how we conduct ourselves during zazen - it’s not that the world will end if we don’t fold the hand towel over the left arm and use one half to wipe the face and the other half to wipe the hands - it’s that each of our daily activities is nothing other than zazen and complete manifestation of buddha nature - Dogen says that awakening is nothing other than eating rice and drinking tea So the content of our deportment, if you will—what we’re actually doing or saying or creating—is less important than the enactment of buddha nature itself - it’s the unhindered functioning rather than the specifics of the activity or the outcome of the activity - it’s enactment rather than attainment: the conduct of the dharma talk or the chanting rather than what gets said, the cooking rather than the meal, the washing rather than the clean dishes By emulating the conduct of buddhas and ancestors and senior practitioners, we learn with the body - it’s a way of entering into that space of awakening with them by taking on characteristics of an awakened being - at first we may be intentionally conducting ourselves the way they do, but at some point our deportment becomes an expression of our own awakening Emulating the conduct of buddhas and ancestors means whether we’re sitting, standing, walking or lying down we’re acting skillfully, promoting wholesomeness and discouraging unwholesomeness - Dogen tells us several times in the Zuimonki that if we want to practice the Way we should conduct ourselves the way they do without any expectation of gain or reward So this is another aspect of practice and awakening are not two - we’re not practicing to get something later that isn’t here now - and from this larger standpoint, we’re not minding our manners in order to avoid showing disrespect - our deportment is completely Buddha living out life of Buddha, not something we do for sake of anything else “The way for sake of way” is why late in his life Dogen favors monasticism over lay life, not that laypeople in themselves are incapable - the temple container reinforces our commitment to deportment - all the energy goes to practice rather than diverting some to family, work, home - not a comment on the people but on the practice circumstance: temple life is the ideal because there are expectations for our conduct that are reflected back to us by the sangha This is a teaching that encourages us to ask ourselves who it is that’s practicing dignified deportment - is there a “me” in here that’s sitting up straight and keeping my robes off floor and not chewing gum in zendo? If you are already buddha, if you’re not trying to get something, then how do you act? - How do you function in this moment—not in the abstract, but with what you’re doing with your body and mind right now? - how you walk through a room, handle objects, talk to people -- how does a buddha do that? - Am I just doing things to go through the motions, without really investigating what’s happening? Or to shore up my ego? - Going through the motions is not Dogen’s kind of practice - if awakening is continuous functioning and encountering the suchness of each thing with our most authentic self, then no wonder he tells us to practice as though our heads were on fire - we need to know what we’re doing and why, and guess what -- that’s still alive here in Sanshin style - where we keep forms simple so we know what we’re doing and why rather than going through the motions or ceremonies or actvities as a performance just because they’re expected So if we’re paying attention, we’re conducting ourselves as buddha in each moment - ever moment is an opportunity to manifest buddha nature with some intention - so carelessly slouching along with our robes on crooked and a toothpick hanging out of the mouth really misses the mark - it’s not the dignified practice conduct of buddhas and ancestors Expressing the dharma in words
Perfectly expressing the dharma (dotoku) [ability to speak] You’re probably familiar with the expression that Zen is a transmission beyond words and letters - it’s usually taken to mean that because words are limited they can’t fully express the dharma - there’s also the problem of dualism -- that as soon as we say this is awakening or this is buddha, we’re implying that there is something which is not awakening or buddha - and yet we also say that there is nothing outside of the buddha way or nowhere awakening doesn’t reach So traditionally words and language have been seen as a problem for us But Dogen says that awakened beings can and do express the dharma in their own words - not by copying what a teacher or someone else has said, or something that was appropriate yesterday - it’s an expression for this moment that arises in this moment - and that this is in fact the mark of someone who really deeply understands the dharma: this is verification What we express with words suggests and includes also the Way that hasn’t been expressed - and we can understand that this activity isn’t so much what an individual human being is expressing but what the universe is expressing - so Dogen doesn’t rank expressions of the dharma as better or worse - one person’s expression might be more subtle or more learned or more interesting than another - but Dogen says they’re all complete expressions of the dharma, whether you’ve been practicing for a week or for many years By now you’ll recognize the pattern when I say that there is speaking, there is silence, and there is going beyond speaking and silence - and that none of these opposes or obstructs or negates the others - we might be completely silent sitting zazen but that doesn’t mean we’re not completely expressing the dharma - Dogen says don’t equate speechlessness with not communicating If we can only express 80% of reality through words but we do that action of expressing in a completely selfless way, 100% has been expressed - there is no point at which the universe stops expressing itself completely - but even if somehow we can express the dharma in words 100%, if we can’t actualize the dharma in our lives and presence and action, then we’ve still fallen short of perfectly expressing the dharma Until we really understand, someone can ask a dharma question and we can give an answer that’s “right” without that understanding being actualized - if someone asks me what Hojo-san means by one = 0 = infinity, I can explain it “correctly” but if I really live in that space of one = 0 = infinity, my expression is more than the verbal answer; my expression is my whole life In people who have been practicing a long time, dharma and wisdom and awakening are so deeply ingrained that all of their actions express that - it’s not that they’re trying to convey something - it’s that there is no obstruction to the universe expressing itself moment by moment These are people who have gone beyond the need to make an effort to express the dharma - if someone asks, how do you express it? they don’t need to flip a switch or shift into some other mode of living - everything they do already says it, whether using words or not And of course expression includes someone receiving that expression -- it’s not a one-way street - because of interconnectedness, someone is receiving whatever we put out there, whether we’re aware of that transmission or not - so expression is another example of complete functioning, with nothing in isolation Zazen
Zazen Zazen is one way in which we emulate the dignified conduct of Buddhas - reading sutras and commentaries is one way we study the dharma, but Dogen says doing zazen is also studying the dharma Dogen wrote a lot about zazen, including the specifics of the posture and the sitting place - but in a way there’s not much he or anyone can really say about it because it can’t really be described - it’s such a basic activity that we can’t really call it meditation - it doesn’t have a goal, isn’t a technique, isn’t about concentration or stress management or visualization - it’s a full body practice, not just something we do with the mind - we’re just sitting there being exactly who and what we are and fully participating in the midst of reality Of course, Dogen says that zazen is vitally important in our lives as bodhisattvas - not because we’re sitting in order to achieve enlightenment or gain wisdom or become people we like better - we’re sitting because it’s the manifestation of awakening or buddha nature Hi-shi-ryo, or non-thinking is an important term associated with zazen - there is thinking, and there is non-thinking or the active effort not to think, but neither of these is what we’re doing in zazen - we’re doing non-thinking, which goes beyond thinking and not-thinking - not trying to do one or the other, just letting thoughts arise and go as they are without engaging with them in a way that creates a subject and object - as soon as there is an I that’s separate from a thought, there’s thinking - non-thinking collapses that duality, and then thoughts are coming and going because that’s just the functioning of the universe When we sit this way, we don’t have any ideas about zazen; we’re not clinging to concepts about practice and awakening - practice and awakening don’t oppose each other - so we don’t train to become Buddha, we train as Buddha |
Putting Dogen in context: additional resourcesWhat’s happening in Kamakura Japan in 1200-1253
What’s happening in Kamakura Buddhism Dogen’s life story Miracle tales of Dogen Later biographies Soto Zen reformation movement Important commentaries Medieval Japanese aesthetics Some literary genres and forms Dogen’s canon Dogen's creative language Dogen’s aesthetic Building the monastic institution Precepts Dogen and the Lotus Sutra State of the field of Dogen studies Practicing with Dogen's teachings |