Dogen Zen Belfast

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...

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...