FREE Zen Newsletter!
Posts
(Pre-"Soto") Soto Style Koan Introspection in Dogen's Zen
The final exceptional passage in the Goyuigon concerns the content of Zen enlightenment and its relationship to koan training. Gikai prefaces this conversation with Ejo by stating: “During the prior meditation period, I was aided by our former teacher’s great enlightenment situation, the shinjin datsuraku words.” …in this passage… the words “shinjin datsuraku” represent a stock phrase or device (i.e., an “old example,” kosoku or koan) for contemplation during meditation. This use of shinjin datsuraku as a formal meditation device is confirmed by the fact that Ejo then tested Gikai’s understanding by asking him to present an “appended phrase” (jakugo, i.e. a passage… summing up the meaning of a koan.) Their dialogue is as follows:
Gikai: I have attained an insight based on our former teacher’s saying, “shinjin datsuraku.”
Ejo: Good. Good. What do you understand?
Gikai: I understand “datsuraku shinjin.”
Ejo: What is the meaning?
Gikai: I had thought only (my) barbarian beard was red, but here is another red-bearded barbarian.”
Ejo: Among the many permitted [answers to] shinjin [datsuraku], there is this kind of shinjin.
This conversation has been quoted in full because it reveals three practices usually thought to be incongruous with the method of Zen practiced in early Soto. It implies that Gikai had been occupied with Dogen’s words during his meditation; that Ejo used koan instruction as part of the dharma succession process; and that formal quotations of stereo-typed expressions were used to test the understanding of the koan. Modern Soto scholars cannot accept the Goyuigon account at face value, because to do so would force them either to revise their usual interpretation of Dogen’s Zen as a religion of unmediated meditation or to attempt to argue that both Ejo and Gikai had failed to understand Dogen’s teachings.
William M. Bodiford, Soto Zen in Medieval Japan, pp.55-56
William M. Bodiford, Soto Zen in Medieval Japan, pp.55-56
4 comments:
Hi Ted,
You have raised this passage from time to time. As I pointed out to you in the past, the entire historicity of the Goyuigon is up for grabs, as Bodiford discusses on most of page 53 here ... http://books.google.co.jp/books?id=BnLOFwx1SpUC&lpg=PA57&vq=Goyuigon&pg=PA53#v=snippet&q=Goyuigon&f=false
But more than that, saying that someone was "aided by the [former teacher's] phrase 'dropping body and mind'" during Zazen does not mean that one was sitting during Zazen contemplating the phrase like a Koan, like MU. The original phrase in fact, in the Goyuigon () is "依りて聊か省みる" (" Yorite isasaka kaerimiru", which is open to rather wide interpretation, including more along the lines of "I relied on and found helpful". The fact that these fellows then would have gone on to discuss the Koan of the "red beared foreigner" is no surprise either, because Dogen, his immediate students and all Soto folks I know have always honored and discussed that Koan and all the other classic Koans... including in the playful way exchanging phrases shown here. So, I fail to see what you are pointing to here as being so surprising, or as being a smoking gun that Dogen's students were introspecting Koan phrases during Zazen. Nice try, no cigar I believe.
Gassho, Jundo
Hello Jundo,
Thank you for your comment.
Ted
Hello again Jundo,
I forgot to say this is actually the first time I have, as you say "raised this passage" here.
Perhaps you are confusing it with another Dogen/koan related passage - the references to koan training concerning Dogen and his immediate disciples do tend to demonstrate a pretty consistent, systematic approach.
Thus it can be easy to confuse one particular instance with another.
Thanks again.
Ted
the references to koan training concerning Dogen and his immediate disciples do tend to demonstrate a pretty consistent, systematic approach.
You say "references" in the plural. I am not sure to what you refer. Again, Dogen and his disciples engaged in work with Koans, as I do with my students and most Soto priests do. Thus, there are references by Dogen to Koans galore. But do you mean some references to Koan Introspection Zazen? I am not aware of any such references.
Gassho, Jundo
Post a Comment