Dogen Zen Belfast

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...

In this chapter of Shobogenzo that I'll look at for a bit, Master Dogen begins by examining this traditional Buddhist verse: Don't do wrong, do right; Then our minds become pure naturally; This is the teaching of the buddhas.   So, this chapter is about Master Dogen's view of Buddhist conduct and morality. It's an important point, because it seems an aspect of the human condition is that we sometimes just don't know what to do, or what the right thing to do is, or how we should be or act in the world. We may have a lot of ideas of what the right thing to do is, and have heard different ideas about it from the media, or we may have values that we've inherited from family or society about what 'right' is. We may even have conflicting ideas about it that cause us confusion, uncertainty and angst. Master Dogen's view of right conduct is that it is not based on ideas, nor ideals, of what 'right' is but can be directly understood via the practice o...

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en Master Dogen continues his discussion of this saying attributed to the Buddha: Wanting to know the meaning of the Buddha-nature, We should just reflect real time, causes and circumstances. When the time has come, The Buddha-nature is manifest before us. He says: People in many ages from the ancient past to the present have thought that the words “when the time has come…” are about waiting for a time in the future when the Buddha-nature might be manifest before us. [They think that,] continuing their practice with this attitude, they will naturally meet the time when the Buddha-nature is manifest before them. They say that, because the time has not come, even if they visit a teacher and ask for Dharma, and even if they pursue the truth and make effort, [the Buddha-nature] is not manifest before them. Taking such a view they vainly return to the world of crimson dust and vacantly stare at the Milky Way. People like this may be a vari...

Just a short interlude from reading Shobogenzo Bussho to look at Guttersnipe Zen. Zen, due to various cultural and social factors, has become associated in the west with a certain societal milieu, with an alternative philosophy scene, and post-60s new age ideas, and yoga, and ideas around 'oriental' transcendentalism, therapy, self-help and all that. It's quite middle class, tame and dreadfully mannerly, what what... Consider though the case of Kodo Sawaki Roshi. He was born into a wealthy family but his parents died, so he ended up living with an abusive relative who ran a gambling den in the seedy part of town where sex workers and pimps plied their trades. He lived off his wits and his fists, was a street kid, a guttersnipe, before he found his way into the Zen monastic life. It's said he had his first deep experience of impermanence when, aged 9, he witnessed the corpse of a neighbour who had died while shagging a young sex worker. Even after wearing the robe he was...

Master Dogen continues Shobogenzo Bussho with his discussion of this quote ascribed to the Buddha: Wanting to know the meaning of the Buddha-nature, We should just reflect real time, causes and circumstances. When the time has come, the Buddha-nature is manifest before us.   He has previously clarified the nature of 'knowing' as more direct and inclusive than intellectual 'knowing', as knowing with our whole body-mind in 'dropping off body and mind' in zazen. Now he turns his attention to 'reflection':  ...Because it is just reflection here and now it is beyond subjective reflection and it is beyond objective reflection. It is the oneness of real time and causes and cumstances itself; it is transcendence of causes and circumstances... We drop off thoughts and senses of 'self' and 'other' in zazen and can enjoy a calm, open state of experience that is no longer defined by our habitual thinking and naming of things, our thinking that divide...

As mentioned in the last post, Master Dogen looks at the Buddhist idea of buddha-nature in this chapter - the idea that we all have potential to realise what the Buddha realised, to awaken to the nature of our reality. To do this Master Dogen discusses and engages with various quotes from Buddhist tradition, as well as a number of Zen koans about buddha-nature, but a section that I think is particularly direct and insightful is where he employs this quote that is attributed to the Buddha in the Mahaparinirvana-sutra: Wanting to know the meaning of the Buddha-nature, We should just reflect real time, causes and circumstances. When the time has come, The Buddha-nature is manifest before us. Master Dogen's commentary on this quote begins:  This “wanting to know the meaning of the Buddha-nature” does not only mean knowing. It means wanting to practice it, wanting to experience it, wanting to preach it, and wanting to forget it. Such preaching, practicing, experiencing, forgetting, misu...