Dogen Zen Belfast

Master Dogen looks at committing wrongs from two important viewpoints: the view of our ideas and values, and the view devoid of those values - idealism and materialism, as Nishijima Roshi discussed it:  Those who recognize that wrongs arise from causes and conditions, but do not see that these causes and conditions and they themselves are [the reality of] 'not committing', are pitiful people. Just looking at it from the point of view of our self, our own ideas and values, is not the Buddhist view of ethical conduct. We have to drop our views and feelings about things, our 'self' as we might generally understand it. The seeds of buddhahood arise from conditions and, this being so, conditions arise from the seeds of buddhahood. As mentioned previously, Master Dogen observes that buddhahood is not beyond the area or influence of cause and effect however, as some people held it to be. A buddha can still commit wrongs, and our Buddhist practice has effects. It is not that wr...

Master Dogen continues his talk on Buddhist ethics on the basis of the very practical term 'do not commit wrongs'. In this section he explores the area of our personal karma in practice, cause and effect... In walking, standing, sitting, and lying down through the twelve hours, we should carefully consider the fact that when living beings are becoming buddhas and becoming patriarchs, we are becoming Buddhist patriarchs, even though this [becoming] does not hinder the [state of a] Buddhist patriarch which has always belonged to us. There is a mutuality to Buddhist practice: When in our actions we are realising that we are fundamentally free, that we are not our thoughts and feelings, we are realising that all living beings are like that, thereby we are making them like that. While this can be described as being the state of being a Buddhist ancestor, this isn't a fixed state, because it is the dynamic state of our real actions right now, which is not hindered by any fixed st...

Image of a red kite by Thomas Kraft: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.en Master Dogen's view is that if we don't do wrong then right is already happening. This is why he takes the practical position of emphasising 'do not commit wrongs'. Jumping ahead in the text a bit: When it becomes the preaching of the supreme state of bodhi, and when we are changed by hearing it, we hope not to commit wrongs, we continue enacting not to commit wrongs, and wrongs go on not being committed; in this situation the power of practice is instantly realised. Through sitting zazen, sitting 'dropping off body and mind', we can learn intuitively that many of our actions based on our thoughts and feelings are taking us a wrong direction, and that we needn't follow them. This is a key point to Buddhist ethics that distinguishes it from a theoretical or intellectual position: we have to practice and realise it directly in dropping off theories and positions. A litt...

Last time, in relation to Master Dogen's chapter about Buddhist ethics or 'not doing wrong', I mentioned the area of human nature. This is a pretty important matter, as our view of it can in no small way determine how we view ourselves, other people, society and humanity. Basically, Buddhism sees humans as fundamentally good, until we do something wrong. This is why Master Dogen takes the very practical angle of 'not doing wrongs' - if we're not doing wrongs then right is already happening. Buddhism has a fairly open, positive view of human nature then, or at least it sees that our inherently good nature, our buddha-nature, is always accessible to us when we just stop doing wrongs (Master Dogen discusses some of the real-life complexities of this later in the chapter). Buddha-nature is when we are realising that we are not our thoughts and feelings and are in accord with wider reality. In "dropping off body and mind" we express and actualise buddha-nat...

Master Dogen's chapter on 'not doing wrongs' continues with his discussion of this verse: Don't do wrong, do right; Then our minds become pure naturally; This is the teaching of the buddhas. To explain his view, Master Dogen describes two seemingly opposing viewpoints, but he then combines them in a practical synthesis.  He says : In regard to the wrongs which we are discussing now, among rightness, wrongness, and indifference, there is wrongness. Its essence is just non-appearance.  The essence of rightness, the essence of indifference, and so on are also non-appearance, are [the state] without excess, and are real form. This describes an objective view, a view devoid of our thoughts and values, or the view of 'materialism' as Nishijima Roshi liked to say. The unifying or fundamental view of Buddhism, the view of 'dropping off body and mind' or dropping off thoughts and feelings in zazen practice, is that all things - everything that is happening now - ...

Master Dogen commences his discussion of right action by citing this verse: Don't do wrong, do right; Then our minds become pure naturally; This is the teaching of the buddhas. His commentary on it begins: This [teaching], as the Universal Precept of the ancestral patriarchs, the Seven Buddhas, has been authentically transmitted from former buddhas to later buddhas, and later buddhas have received its transmission from former buddhas. It is not only of the Seven Buddhas: It is the teaching of all the buddhas. We should consider this principle and master it in practice. These words of Dharma of the Seven Buddhas always sound like words of Dharma of the Seven Buddhas. His view of right conduct then is this standard that is transmitted between buddhas, and it is something that is mastered in direct practice, as opposed, say, moral or religious belief alone. What has been transmitted and been received one-to-one is just clarification of the real situation at this concrete place. This a...