Genjokoan 1: Three Philosophies, One Reality (views 1 and 2).

When all dharmas are [seen as] the Buddha-Dharma, then there is delusion and realization, there is practice, there is life and there is death, there are buddhas and there are ordinary beings. When the myriad dharmas are each not of the self, there is no delusion and no realization, no buddhas and no ordinary beings, no life and no death. The Buddha’s truth is originally transcendent over abundance and scarcity, and so there is life and death, there is delusion and realization, there are beings and buddhas. And though it is like this, it is only that flowers, while loved, fall; and weeds while hated, flourish.

 

In these readings of Shobogenzo I'll be using the Nishijima/ Cross translation of the text, which is available in full (four volumes) in PDF format via the 'links' section in the menu.

This chapter, Genjokoan, is considered very important as its opening section is seen as offering an essential insight into how Master Dogen looks at things from different viewpoints in the rest of Shobogenzo. Nishijima Roshi, who worked to translate the whole text into English, called what Master Dogen laid down in this important paragraph his 'three philosophies, one reality'. The section begins:

When all dharmas are [seen as] the Buddha-Dharma, then there is delusion and realization, there is practice, there is life and there is death, there are buddhas and there are ordinary beings.

This first perspective takes the point of view of ideas and ideals, from a spiritual or religious perspective, or on the basis of philosophy. On a personal level it can be seen to be how we interpret and see the world on the basis of our thinking and ideation, dividing things up conceptually into 'this' and 'that'. More generally it can be seen to represent the perspective of mind and idealism.

When the myriad dharmas are each not of the self, there is no delusion and no realization, no buddhas and no ordinary beings, no life and no death.

This second perspective can be seen to represent a view of things without our ideas, ideals and philosophies, a world of just physical 'stuff' devoid of value and meaning. It can be seen to correspond to the Buddhist idea of shunyata or 'emptiness' or the world experienced barely with just the physical senses. It represents the world experienced materially and physically with the body, or more generally the view of materialism.

These first two views presented by Master Dogen represent two fundamental ways that humans have tended to view the world - either through ideas, philosophies, religions - which are the product of human thought and the mind - or through the bodily senses which interpret the world as more physical and tangible: Idealism and materialism.

Nishijima Roshi spoke of how this was important and very relevant in the time of the historical Buddha, as the ancient religion of Brahmanism (an idealistic/ spiritual religion) was being challenged by the position of six famous philosophers who held radical materialist views which challenged the basis of Brahmanism.

This clash of ideologies can be traced through human history. In our current times we may see it manifest in conflicts with groups and societies that attempt to organise themselves based on religious or spiritual principles, as in some Islamic countries coming into conflict with western powers which are pursuing their own materialist aims with regards to natural resources (particularly oil) and territorial influence. Or we might see it in the debates between groups that take a creationist view of history based on the Bible versus the materialistic view of the theory of evolution, archeology, and science generally...

Master Dogen does not deny the importance of these viewpoints, but he lays them out in this way to help contextualise that the view of Buddhist practice is not confined by them nor to them.

More on the remaining viewpoint, and the reality it points to, next time.