Five Common Fallacies Concerning Dogen (and Zen):

Five common fallacies concerning Dogen (and Zen):

 

1.       The notion that duality, form, or delusion are of lesser status, significance, or actuality than nonduality, emptiness, or enlightenment.

2.       The notion that the emphasis, style, or methodology of seated meditation (zazen, shikantaza) in Dogen’s Zen is its most distinctive characteristic, or is profoundly original or exceptionally unique.

3.       The notion that Dogen (or Zen generally) regarded language or textual study as detrimental, superfluous, negligible, secondary, or inessential to authentic Zen practice-enlightenment.

4.       The notion that Zen regards intellectual pursuits or capacities as detrimental, superfluous, negligible, secondary, or inessential to authentic Zen practice-enlightenment.

5.       The notion that in Dogen’s Zen koan training and study is considered detrimental, superfluous, negligible, secondary, or inessential to authentic Zen practice-enlightenment.

 

In contrast to these fallacies, the views presented by Dogen’s vision of Zen are actually that:

 

1.       Nonduality and duality are coessential (i.e. each presupposes and is dependent on the other), emptiness and form are coessential, delusion and enlightenment are coessential.

2.       Dogen’s vision of “nonthinking” demonstrates the most essential, most original, and most characteristic aspect of Dogen’s methodology concerning the nature of Zen practice-enlightenment. Sitting meditation is given relatively little detailed attention in Dogen’s writings; what guidance it does offer is generally consistent in style and methodology with other sources of his era and earlier.

3.       Language and textual study are regarded as essential to authentic Zen practice-enlightenment.

4.       Endeavors in intellectual pursuit and the cultivation of discriminative and critical capacities are regarded as essential to authentic Zen practice-enlightenment.

5.       Extensive and intensive koan training and study are regarded as essential to authentic Zen practice-enlightenment.

 

 

 

All Buddhas and Buddhas teachings arise from this sutra. What is this sutra?

 

 

Ted

On Zazen and Koans - A Response to Kogen

This post is in response to a comment from Kogen (Farmer monk) on the post Aug. 7 2012

Hello Kogen,

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Thank you for writing.

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To me it seems clear that every fascicle of Shobogenzo is as much about koans as zazen - that Dogen's expressions on "zazen" presuppose "koans" and his expressions on "koans" presuppose "zazen."

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Dogen practice-enlightenment is not divided into "Zen" and "other" activities. Practice-enlightenment is not "this is zazen," "that is koan study," "this is samu," "that is kinhin" - rather, practice-enlightenment is shikantaza (sole sitting); SINGLE-MINDED sitting, ONLY sitting.

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There is not sitting AND koans, not sitting AND kinhin, not sitting AND eating rice, there is SOLELY sitting.

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You ask if there are fascicles that treat of "koans"

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"...like Fukanzazengi does for zazen..."

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It seems clear to me that Fukanzazengi, speaks of koan practice as much as sitting practice - more accurately, speaks of meditation and koans as part and parcel of the same activity.

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Notice the koans Dogen refers to in Fukanzazengi. They are of the most frequently mentioned in the Zen records to exemplify the "means" which the "changing of the moment" is realized:

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Moreover, the changing of the moment, through the means of a finger, a pole, a needle, or a wooden clapper; and the experience of the state, through the manifestation of a whisk, a fist, a staff, or a shout, can never be understood by thinking and discrimination.

~Fukanzazengi

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Practitioners familiar with the records will instantly recognize the “means of a finger” from the koan of master Gutei, “a needle” from the koan of Kanadeva meeting Nagarjuna, the “staff” of Teshan, and the “shout” of Rinzai. The specific particularity in which the Buddha is manifest is characteristic of Zen’s universal inclusivity and nondiscrimination –each is an essential person of Buddha-nature, an integral form of Buddha.

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Dogen’s insistence to "study this" "get inside these words" "penetrate this saying" "take up these words again and again" are so constant it is easy to become desensitized - especially if we have become conditioned to think Dogen "did not teach that koans were part and parcel with zazen."

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Yet, Dogen’s explicit instructions to take up and study specific phrases, words, koans, sutras, and so on outnumber his instructions to dedicate ourselves to Zazen by at least 20 to 1. When Dogen urges us to "investigate these words in practice," I am not about to presume he means "some other kind of practice" - he means the same kind of practice he always means, we should take them up in sitting meditation.

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To get a sense of this, consider these random examples form Dogen’s works:

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"The truth expressed now in the founding Patriarch’s words ‘What people are able to hear the non-emotional preaching the Dharma’ should be painstakingly researched through the effort of one life and many lives."

Shobogenzo, Mujo-Seppo, Nishijima & Cross

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We should quietly investigate the principle of, and learn in practice the realization of words like this.

Shobogenzo, Ganzei, Nishijima & Cross

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At the same time we should investigate whether the Great Master’s words ‘I call this thing bamboo and wood,’ and Shin-o’s words ‘I also call it bamboo and wood,’ are the same or not the same, and whether they are adequate or not adequate. The Great Master says, ‘If we search the whole Earth for a person who understands the Buddha-Dharma, it is impossible to find one.’ We should also closely scrutinize and decide about this expression.

Shobogenzo, Sangai-Yuishin, Nishijima & Cross

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Thus the words ‘being without the Buddha-nature’ can be heard coming form the distant room of the fourth patriarch. They are seen and heard in Obai, they are spread throughout Joshu district, and they are exalted on Dai-i [mountain]. We must unfailingly apply ourselves to the words ‘being without the Buddha-nature.’ Do not be hesitant.

Shobogenzo, Bussho, Nishijima & Cross

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Learning these words in practice, we should meet with the ancestral patriarchs of Buddhism and we should see and hear the teachings of Buddhism.

Shobogenzo, Bukkyo, Nishijima & Cross

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We must investigate these words quietly; we should replace our heart with them and replace our brain with them.

Shobogenzo, Daigo, Nishijima & Cross

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One of his favorite phrases; "learning in practice." I think it is important to understand exactly what he means. Here is one of his own explanations:

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’Learning in practice’ means not intending to understand at once but striving painstakingly hundreds of times, or thousands of times, as if working to cut a hard object. We should not think that when a person has something to relate we will be able to understand at once.

Shobogenzo, Mitsugo, Nishijima & Cross

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Also notice this explicit instruction offered to some lay practitioners - the FIRST thing they should do upon meeting a teacher:

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Good gentelman, when you meet a teacher, first ask for one case of [koan] story, and just keep it in mind and study it diligently. If you climb to the top of the mountain and dry up the oceans, you will not fail to complete [this study].

Dogen's Extensive Record, Vol.8:14, Leighton & Okumura

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You wrote: "...my teachers have been very open to my practicing with anything that works-koans, shamatha, mantras..."

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Excellent, if they were not you probably would have kept looking for reliable teachers.

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You wrote: "Can you point to any Soto teachers being opposed to it?"

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I have worked with teachers from various lineages - and of the 4 I worked with in the Soto, only 1 recognized the zazen/koan nonduality - the others advocated against the "use of koans" in zazen - I should point out that of the Soto teachers I have spoken to, very few have experience with koan training.

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The standard line for teachers of the "Soto sect" is that zazen or shikantaza is distinct from, or independent of koan practice. Koans are commonly regarded as "expediant devices" or worse. Koan study is accepted by most, but is strictly distinguished from zazen - Dogen's exhortations to "study these words in practice" are usually "interpreted" as referring to some "other" practice than zazen.

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I would rather avoid names - I will say however, it would be easier to name the few Soto teachers that do regard zazen/koans as nondual, than list the ones that don't.

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You wrote: "I've personally always thought the distinction between Soto and Rinzai is silly. Dogen was a lineage holder in both and urged his students, like Rujing, that we were Buddhists, just Buddhists."

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Yes. It sounds like you have found the one always reliable guide that is always as close as hands and feet.

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Thanks again - watch out for the corpses, they are strewn all over.

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Ted

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When Students of the Way are looking at sayings, you must exert your power to the utmost and examine them very very closely.

~Dogen, Record of Things Heard, Thomas Cleary, Vol.4 p.825

Smelly Skinbag to Smelly Skinbag - Transmitting the Inaccurate to the Inaccurate

Dogen Lamenting the Decline of the Buddha Dharma in the 13th Century --- And describing causes and conditions all too familiar to the 21st Century...

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But first, two short quotes on some excellent basic instruction:

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When students are beginners, whether they have the mind of the Way or not, they should carefully read and study the Sagely Teachings of the sutras and shastras.

~Dogen, Record of Things Heard, Col. Trans. of Thomas Cleary, Vol. 4, p.796

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When Students of the Way are looking at sayings, you must exert your power to the utmost and examine them very very closely.

~Dogen, Record of Things Heard, Col. Trans. of Thomas Cleary, Vol.4 p.825

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To thank Dogen for so freely giving me this treasure I offer this vow (anyone that would like to join me, please feel welcome):

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I vow: to carefully read and study the sutras and shastras; and when I look at the sayings of Zen masters I will exert my power to the utmost and examine them very very closely.

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I dedicate this vow to fields and streets, oceans and forests, homes and schools, and to all our many guides along the ancient Way: All Buddhas throughout space and time, all Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas, the Great Prajna Paramita!

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Now, onto the main selection. (If you like, as you read see if Dogen's language seems difficult to understand, esoteric, or anything besides straightforward---If the meaning is clear (as I think), and you believe Dogen is sincere in his attempt to provide wise counsel (as I do), why does there seem to be so little on the importance of studying scriptures, treatises, and koans from contemporary teachers and writers? Seriously?)

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Just because you cannot be expert in all the Buddhist Scriptures, do not be rash and say that the Buddhist Scriptures are not the Buddha Dharma. Even though you may hear others call themselves the very bones and marrow of the Buddhas and Ancestors, when we look with straightforward eyes at those who speak this way, we see that they are simply present-day trainees who are stuck on words. While some of them may be as good as those who accept and keep to a single phrase or a single verse, there may also be those who do not measure up to them. Do not insult the Buddha’s True Teaching by relying on this superficial understanding of theirs. Nothing in the world of sound and form is more spiritually meritorious than the Buddhist Scriptures. Sounds and forms may delude you if you are still greedily chasing after them. However, the Buddhist Scriptures will never delude you, so do not mistrust or slander Them.

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Even so, over the last couple of centuries or so in Great Sung China, certain mistaken, smelly skin bags have said, “There’s no need for you to keep the sayings of the Ancestral Masters in mind, much less is there any need for long study of Scriptural Teachings or for your trying to make use of Them. Simply, make your body and mind like a dead tree or cold ashes, like a broken wooden ladle or a bottomless tub.” Folks like these have become a type of non-Buddhist or celestial demon, and to no good purpose. They seek to make use of things that are useless, and accordingly, they twist the Teachings of the Buddhas and Ancestors into wild and perverted teaching. What a pity! How terribly sad! Even ‘broken ladles’ and ‘bottomless tubs’ have been ancient Scriptures for some Ancestors of the Buddha. Rare has been the Ancestor of the Buddha who has completely tallied the number of texts of these Scriptures. Those who say that the Buddhist Scriptures are not the Buddha Dharma have not studied the occasions when Ancestors of the Buddha have made use of Scriptures, nor have they explored through their training the occasions when Ancestors of the Buddha have revealed their True Nature through their reliance on Scriptures, nor do they know how to gauge the level of intimacy between the Buddha’s Ancestors and the Buddhist Scriptures. Careless folks like these are as common as rice and flax seeds, bamboo canes and reeds. They ascend the Lion Throne and establish monasteries everywhere, passing themselves off as teachers of gods and humans. Because the inaccurate have studied with the inaccurate, their principles are likewise inaccurate, and because they are ignorant, they fail to seek what is reliable, but simply pass from darkness into darkness. How pitiful!

~Dogen, Shobogenzo, Bukkyo, Hubert Nearman

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More from Dogen (& 6 others) On Zen and Words & Letters

From Our Sister Site: Flatbed Sutra Zen Blog

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Peace Friends...

Ted Biringer