Lecture Notes

Zen and Japanese Culture

Dogen

 

Dogen Kigen ( 1200-1253)
His father is Koga Michichika (d. 1202) and his mother is of Fujiwara family, boht highly esteemed Heian aristocrats. That means they are great Waka poets.

Waka is traditional Japanese classical poetry with 5, 7, 5, 7, 7 syllables. Waka reading is the central cultural activities from ancients times to this day.
Here are 3 waka poems Dogen wrote

Poem 1
Haruha hana
Natsu hototogisu
Aki ha tsuki
Fuyu yukihurite
Tsumeta karikeri

Poem 2
Asahi matsu
Kusabano tsuyuno
Hodo nakini
Isogina tachiso
Nobeno akikaze

Poem 3
Yononaka wa
Nanini tatoen
Mizutori no
Hashifuru tsuyu ni
yadoru tsukikage

Poem 1

In spring, cherry blossoms
In the sumer cuckoos
In the autumn, moon watching
In the winter, snow falls
It is cold indeed

Poem 2

Awaiting morning sun
The dew melts quickly away
In no time
Do not rush off
Oh, Winds in the wild field.

Poem 3

The world and human life!
To what shall I liken it?
The moonlight touches
A dew drop
On the beak of the waterfowl

Books written by Dogen and edited by Ejo, his close disciple
Shobogenzo Eyes of Buddhist Dharma
Shobogenzo Zuimonki Biography and travel-log
Collected poems

Fathree died when he was 2 and his mother died when he was 7 years old. Mother wanted him to enter preisthood and sent him to her uncle. His childhood does not seem like a happy one. At age 12, he entered into the priesthood at Mt. Hiei and studied Buddhist scriptures. His perpetual question, "If all sentient beings are of Buddha nature, why do we have to train ourselves in monasteries?"
He went to his uncle's place in Onjoji in Miidera near Mt. Hiei. He sent Dogen to Eisei who just came back from China with Zen teaching. Eisai was in Kenninnji in Kyoto. By the time Dogen came back to Kenninnji, Eisai was not there anymore but found Myozen.
Myozen suggested to go to China together.
The incident about shiitake (Japanese mushroom).
The incident of immigration. The great disappointment of teachers. His visits to various temples until he found Ejo Shin jin datsuraku (Body and mind are cast out).

Statement 1

Just understand that birth and death itself is nirvana, and you will neither hate one as being birth and death, nor cherish the other as being nirvana. Only then can you be free of birth and death.

Statement 2

. . . You must realize birth and death is in and of itself nirvana. Buddhism has never spoken of nirvana apart from birth and death.

Statement 3

This present birth and death itself is the life of the Buddha (on inochi). If you attempt to reject it with distate, you are losing thereby the life of the Buddha. If you abide in it, attaching to birth and death, you also lose the life of the Buddha, and leave yourself with [only] the appearance of Buddha. You only attain the mind of the Buddha when there is no hating [of birth and death] and no desiring [of nirvana]. But do not try to gauge it with your mind or speak it with words.

Statement 4

When you simply release and forget both your body and your mind and throw yourself into the house of the Buddha, and when functioning comes from the direction of the Buddha, and you go in accord with it, then with no strength needed and no throught expended, freed from birth and death, you beome the Buddha. Then there can be no obstacle in any man's mind.

Statement 5

The bodhi mind is something that neither existed from the beginning nor arose recently, It is neither one nor many, neither free not fixed. It neither exists within us nor extends throughout the universe. It is far from such differences as before and after, being and nonbeing. It is neither the essence of one's self nor of others' selves, nor of both. It does not arise spontaneously but accrues when there is a spiritual communion between sentient beings and the Buddha. We neither receive it from the Buddha's or bodhisattvas nor produce it through our own ability, for as has been stated, it arises not spontaneoulsy but only when we have a spiritual communion with the Buddha.

Statement 6

Those who have awakened the bodhi mind constantly endeavor in body, word, and mind to arouse this mind in all sentient beings and lead them to the Way.

 

Photo of Monet's work from Monet and Japan courtesy of the National Gallery of Australia