Introduction
Aspiration for Enlightenment
The founder of an early Zen* monastic community in Japan, Eihei Dogen wrote extensively for the benefit of his students. Originals and hand-written copies of his writings were scattered in the course of time in temples all over Japan. But thanks to traditional and contemporary scholarship, a critical edition that compares variants in all available versions of Dogen's texts has been published and is available for study.1 Now the life of this thirteenth-century monk can be reconstructed with amazing detail, mainly using information from his own work. This book consists of some of the writings that reflect the progression of his life. In the following account I will try to let Dogen speak as much as possible to describe his own life. When necessary, however, I will use information from the three main early biographies, all of which were written more than a century after Dogen's death.2
We have no accounts by Dogen himself about his family and personal history before he became a monk. He simply says, "When I was young, I loved studying literature that was not directly connected to Buddhism."3
According to the early biographies, Dogen was born in 1200 ce, near the capital city of Kyoto. He was a member of a noble family and was believed to be an illegitimate son of an influential figure in the imperial court who died when Dogen was an infant. He lost his mother when he was eight. Possibly referring to this early misfortune, Dogen himself says, "Realizing the impermanence of life, I began to arouse the way-seeking mind."4 At thirteen, he visited the
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monk Ryokan who had a hut at the foot of Mt. Hiei, east of Kyoto, and entered the monkhood. In the following year he was formally ordained by Koen, the head priest of the Tendai School. Probably Koen was the one who named this novice Buppo Dogen, meaning Buddha Dharma, Way, Source.
At that time Tendai and Shingon were the two most influential schools of Buddhism in Japan. The Shingon School exclusively practiced esoteric teachings—the secretly transmitted teachings of Tantric Buddhism—with emphasis on prayer rituals dedicated to guardian deities of supernormal appearance. Tendai, the Japanese form of the Chinese Tiantai School, was the most comprehensive school of Buddhism and included both esoteric and exoteric (non-Tantric) practices. Thousands of monks lived in huts and monasteries on Mt. Hiei, the Tendai center, where a wide range of practices and academic studies of Buddhism were conducted.
It was a dark and confusing time for Buddhists. All the high positions of the Tendai establishment were occupied by people from aristocratic families. Temples were competing with one another to gain imperial patronage, offering a variety of magical prayers. Mt. Hiei housed one of the strongest of the various armies of monk soldiers who frequently engaged in battle, often burning other monasteries. The Tendai armed forces were noted for their frequent demonstrations in Kyoto and for forcing their demands upon the imperial government.
According to Buddhist texts, the period of five hundred years after the time of Shakyamuni Buddha is the Age of True Dharma, which is followed by another five hundred years of the Age of Imitation Dharma. Then the Age of Declining Dharma emerges. Many Japanese Buddhists believed that this last period—of no true practice* or enlightenment*—had started in 1052. People attributed calamities such as famines, epidemics, social disorder, and wars to the decline of dharma. The wish for attaining rebirth in the Pure Land prevailed among those who felt that it was hopeless to attain enlightenment in the present world. Monk Honen emphasized an exclusive, intense practice of chanting the name of the Buddha of the Pure Land, Amitabha, and found a multitude of dedicated fol-
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lowers. Threatened by the popularity of this new spiritual movement, the Tendai community put constant pressure on the imperial government and finally had Honen and his noted disciple Shinran expelled from Kyoto in 1207.
Dogen left Mt. Hiei after receiving basic training as a monk and studying the scriptures. Later he reflects, "After the thought of enlightenment arose, I began to search for dharma, visiting teachers at various places in our country."5 We don't know whom he visited, except Koin, who was abbot of the Onjo Monastery, a noted Tendai center of esoteric practices, and a dedicated follower of Honen. Dogen reflects later, "The late Bishop Koin said, 'The mind of the way is acquired after understanding that one thought embraces all existence in the three thousand realms.' "6 Dogen summarizes the first four years of his pursuit: "I had some understanding of the principle of cause and effect; however I was not able to clarify the real source of buddha, dharma, and sangha* I only saw the outer forms—the marks and names."7
Dogen continues, "Later I entered the chamber of Eisai, Zen Master Senko, and for the first time heard the teaching of the Linji School." Myoan Eisai, who had visited China twice and received dharma transmission* from Xuan Huaichang, was among the first to teach Zen in Japan. But because the Tendai establishment was oppressing new movements of Buddhism, he had to teach conventional practices along with Zen. It was around 1214 when Dogen visited Eisai at the Kennin Monastery in Kyoto, one of the three monasteries Eisai had founded. Eisai was seventy-four years old and he died the following year.
In 1217 Dogen became a disciple of Butsuju Myozen, Eisai's successor as abbot of the Kennin Monastery. We can assume that Dogen was trained by Myozen in koan * studies, which was the principal method of training in the Linji School. Koans are exemplary stories of ancient masters pointing to realization, which are investigated by students under the personal guidance of their teacher and which may lead to direct experience of the nondual aspect of all things beyond intellect. In 1221 Dogen received a certificate of full accomplishment from Myozen.
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Meanwhile, Dogen was affected by the tragic bloodshed that took the lives of some court nobles related to his family: In 1221, after a long-standing power struggle between the Kyofo palace and the warrior government in Kamakura, Former Emperor Gotoba attempted to regain imperial rule. He ordered the monk-warriors of Mt. Hiei and other monasteries to attack the armies of the Kamakura administration. Quickly defeated in battle, the leading courtiers involved in the rebel plot were executed in Kyoto, and Gotoba and two other former emperors were exiled to remote areas.
Myozen was respected in Kyoto and even gave the bodhisattva precepts* to Former Emperor Gotakakura, but he was aware of the need to deepen his studies. As China was the only place where he could study authentic Zen, he wanted to follow Eisai's example of traveling to the Middle Kingdom. A young but outstanding student at the Kennin Monastery, Dogen was allowed to accompany Myozen.
Due to difficulties in navigation, trade ships between China and Japan sailed infrequently, sometimes at intervals of several years. As Myozen's company was getting ready to leave, his first teacher Myoyu became quite ill and asked him to stay. Myozen gathered his students and asked for their opinions. All of them, including Dogen, suggested that Myozen stay. But Myozen responded, "Although it would go against the wish of my teacher, if I can fulfill my wish to go to China and unfold enlightenment, this may help many people to realize the way."8 Thus, leaving the care of Myoyu to other students, Myozen went ahead and obtained a travel permit from the Kamakura government. This permit was endorsed by the imperial office.
Search in China
Myozen's company, including Dogen and two other disciples, left Japan from the Port of Hakata on Kyushu Island in the second month of 1223. Two months later the boat arrived at the main trading port of Qingyuan, Zhejiang Province. Reflecting on this, Dogen
writes, "After a voyage of many miles during which I entrusted my phantom body to the billowing waves, finally I have arrived."9
Dogen's first encounter with Chinese Zen happened in the following month, while he was still on board waiting for permission to enter a monastery. Myozen, acknowledged as Eisai's dharma heir, had already left the boat and been admitted to the monastery. An old monk who was the head cook of a nearby monastery came on board to buy dried mushrooms. After some conversation Dogen said, "Reverend Head Cook,* why don't you concentrate on zazen* practice and on the study of the ancient masters' words, rather than troubling yourself by holding the position of head cook and just working?" The old monk laughed and replied, "Good man from a foreign country, you do not yet understand practice or know the meaning of the words of ancient masters." Dogen was surprised and ashamed.10
China's highest ranking Zen monasteries, known as the Five Mountains, were located in Zhejiang Province, where Dogen arrived. He entered one of them, the Jingde Monastery on Mt. Tian-tong, also known as Mt. Taibo. Soon he noticed monks around him holding up their folded dharma robes, setting them on their heads, and chanting a verse silently with palms together, "How great! The robe of liberation ..." Seeing this solemn ritual for the first time, he made a vow to himself: "However unsuited I might be, I will become an authentic heir of the buddha-dharma, receive correct transmission of the true dharma, and with compassion show the buddha ancestors' correctly transmitted dharma robes to those in my land."11
The abbot of the Jingde Monastery was Wuji Liaopai, a dharma descendant of Dahui Zonggao, the most influential advocate of koan studies in the Linji School. While studying in Liaopai's community for a year and a half, Dogen familiarized himself with formal monastic practices. Then he started visiting other monasteries in search of a true master.
In early 1225 Dogen went to meet Abbot Yuanzi of the Wan-nian Monastery on Mt. Tiantai, who showed Dogen his document of dharma heritage and said, "Following a dharma admonition of
xx Introduction
buddha ancestors, I have not shown this even to a close disciple or a long-term attendant monk.* But I had a dream five days ago that an old monk gave me a branch of plum blossoms and said, 'If a true man comes who has disembarked from a boat, do not withhold these flowers.' So I have taken this document out for you. Do you wish to inherit dharma from me? I would not withhold it if so."12 Dogen had learned the significance of documents of heritage in the Chinese Buddhist tradition, as the proof of the completion in studies and succession of the dharma lineage. They were often kept strictly confidential, but Dogen had managed to see some and made careful studies of them. Moved by Yuanzi's offer to transmit dharma to him, Dogen bowed and burned incense, but he did not accept.
The more closely he saw what was happening in monasteries in the heartland of Chinese Zen, the more he was disappointed. He comments in his journal: "Nowadays elders of different monasteries say that only direct experience without discrimination—to hear the unhearable and to see the unseeable—is the way of buddha ancestors. So they hold up a fist or a whisk, or they shout and beat people with sticks. This kind of teaching doesn't do anything to awaken students. Furthermore, these teachers don't allow students to inquire about the essentials of the Buddha's guidance and they discourage practices that aim to bear fruit in a future birth.* Are these teachers really teaching the way of buddha ancestors?" 13
Dogen also saw corruption in monastic practices. Even documents of dharma heritage that were supposed to be valued with utmost respect were given to those who were not qualified. Monks tended to try to get credentials from famous masters who had given dharma heritage to retainers of the king. When monks were old, some of diem bribed public officials in order to get a temple and hold the abbot's seat.
In 1225 Dogen heard that Rujing, who had been abbot* of the Qingliang and Jingci monasteries, had just become abbot of the Jingde Monastery on Mt. Tiantong, where Dogen had first stayed. Rujing was a monk from the Caodong School, in which "just sitting," rather than koan studies, was emphasized. He was known as
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a strict and genuine teacher, not easily admitting monks into his community and often expelling those who did not train seriously. Dogen returned to Mt. Tiantong. While he participated in the practice of the monastery as one of the many monks, he wrote to Rujing explaining why he had come from Japan and requesting the status of a student who could enter the abbot's room to receive personal guidance. This letter impressed Rujing, who must have heard from officers of the monastery that Dogen was a remarkable student. Rujing wrote back and granted his request, saying, "Yes, you can come informally to ask questions any time, day or night, from now on. Do not worry about formality; we can be like father and son."14
On the first day of the fifth month of 1225, Dogen entered the abbot's room and met Rujing for the first time. On this occasion Rujing affirmed his recognition of Dogen and said, "The dharma gate of face-to-face transmission from buddha to buddha, ancestor to ancestor, is realized now."15
This exhilarating time for Dogen was also a time of great loss. Myozen died from an illness on the twenty-seventh day of the same month. He had been Dogen's teacher for eight years, as well as a traveling companion and fellow seeker.
Expressing his doubt to Rujing about the current trend of Zen teachers who emphasize "transmission outside scriptures" and discourage students from studying the Buddha's teaching, Dogen asked for Rujing's comment. Rujing said, "The great road of buddha ancestors is not concerned with inside or outside. . . . We have been followers of the Buddha for a long time. How can we hold views that are outside the way of the Buddha? To teach students the power of the present moment as the only moment is a skillful teaching of buddha ancestors. But this doesn't mean that there is no future result from practice."16 Thus, Rujing demonstrated that he was an ideal teacher for Dogen, who was seeking Zen that fully embodied the teaching of the Buddha described in the scriptures.
While receiving rigorous training from Rujing, Dogen asked him further questions in a respectful but challenging way, showing his sincerity as well as his brilliance. Rujing was confident of himself
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as an authentic carrier of the Zen tradition, and Dogen sought to experience the heart of his teaching. The culmination of his practice came one day in zazen when he heard Rujing speak in the monks' hall.* Reflecting on this experience, Dogen says, "Upon hearing Rujing's words 'dropping off,' I attained the buddha way."17 In the fall of 1227, after completing his study and receiving a document of heritage from Rujing, Dogen ended his four-year visit to China. He went back to Japan to teach people in his own country.
Hope for a Rising Tide
In the tenth month of 1227, soon after returning to the community of the Kennin Monastery in Kyoto, Dogen recorded that he had brought home Myozen's relics.18 In the same year he wrote a short manifesto called "Recommending Zazen to All People," in an elaborate, formal style of Chinese.19 It was his declaration establishing a new form of Buddhist practice in Japan, based on his understanding of the traditional Zen teaching he had studied in Song China. Dogen was twenty-eight years old.
In the following year, Monk Jiyuan from Mt. Tiantong traveled to Japan to inform Dogen of Rujing's death. In 1230, under pressure from the Tendai establishment, Dogen was forced out of Kyoto. In this year of extraordinary, nationwide famine that filled many cities with the dead, he settled in a small temple in Fukakusa, a village in the vicinity of Kyoto. In this quiet environment, he wrote dharma essays in Japanese. In the following year he summarized his teaching in a fairly extensive discourse called, "On the Endeavor of the Way," later collected in The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, in which he says, "I came back to Japan with the hope of spreading the teaching and awakening sentient beings*—a heavy burden on my shoulders. However, I put aside the intention of having the teaching prevail everywhere until the occasion of a rising tide. Yet there may be true students who are not concerned with fame and gain and who allow their thought of enlightenment to guide them. They may be confused by incapable teachers and ob-
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strutted from the correct understanding. . . . Because I feel concerned for them, I would like to present the standards of Zen monasteries that I personally saw and heard in Great Song as well as the profound principle that has been transmitted by my teacher."20 In this essay he emphasized that the understanding of buddha-dharma is possible for both men and women, noble and lowly, laity and home-leavers.* Disagreeing with the widespread view of the need for an expedient practice in the Age of Declining Dharma, he says, "The genuine teaching of the Mahayana does not divide time into the three Ages of True, Imitation, and Declining Dharma. It says that all those who practice will attain the way."21
In the spring of 1233 Dogen established a small practice place called the Kannondori Kosho Horin-ji (Avalokiteshvara's Guiding Power, Raising Sages, Treasure Forest Monastery) in Fukakusa. In the eighth month of the same year he wrote "Actualizing the Fundamental Point," and gave it to lay student Koshu Yo.22 In the following year monk Ejo, a student of the Zen teacher Ekan, joined Dogen's community. Ejo was two years older than Dogen.
Dogen had been selecting ancient Zen stories from various Chinese texts to be the core of his lifetime teaching. This selection became a book of three hundred cases, titled The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye.21 Its preface is dated 1235. (Nowadays this text is called The Chinese-language Version Treasury of the True Dharma Eye to distinguish it from his major work of the same title.)-
In the twelfth month of that year he wrote a fund-raising letter for the construction of the monks' residential training hall of the Kosho Horin Monastery.24 The construction was completed in the tenth month of the following year. Two months later Ejo was appointed head monk and was asked to give a dharma talk.25 In 1237 Dogen wrote "Instructions for the Head Cook."26 In 1240 he wrote "Mountains and Waters Sutra,"27 "The Time Being,"28 "The Power of the Robe,"29 and "Valley Sounds, Mountain Colors."30
In 1241 Monk Ekan, the main teacher of the Japanese Daruma (Bodhidharma) School, joined Dogen's community. This Zen school had been founded by Nonin over half a century before. Ekan, a student of Kakuan and a dharma brother of Ejo, brought
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along many students, including Gikai, Giin, and Gien. In this year Dogen gave over fifty formal talks. The next five years were Do-gen's most prolific time of writing. In 1241 he wrote ten fascicles of The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, including "Document of Heritage,"31 "Buddha Nature,"32 and "Miracles."33 His writings in 1242 included "Going beyond Buddha,"34 "Continuous Practice,"35 "Body and Mind Study of the Way,"36 and "Within a Dream, Expressing the Dream."37
In the twelfth month of 1242, he presented the short text "Concerted Activity"38 at the home of Lord Yoshishige Hatano, a high official in the office of the governor of Kyoto appointed by the Kamakura government. It was probably about this time that Hatano asked Dogen to establish a full-scale training monastery in Hatano's home province, Echizen.
Community in the Mountains
In the middle of 1243 Dogen moved to a village deep in the mountains of Shibi County, Echizen, a province on the Japan Sea, northeast of Kyoto. He took Ejo and his other main students with him, leaving the leadership at the Kosho Monastery to Senne. Dogen continued his writing spurt with new portions of The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye delivered as talks to his community at a hut near Yamashi Peak and at the Yoshimine Monastery. Sometimes he talked at both places on the same day.
As plans for building the Daibutsu (Great Awakened One) Monastery progressed, Dogen's dream of establishing the first full-scale Zen monastery in Japan slowly became a reality. Its construction was started in the seventh month of 1244. The dharma hall was completed in the ninth month, and the monks' hall in the tenth month. Dogen appointed Gikai head cook. To facilitate full-scale practice at the new monastery, in 1245 he wrote, "Method of the Practice of the Way,"39 a detailed guideline for monastic life. This was when his writing of philosophical essays started to slow down.
It was customary for the abbot of a monastery to call himself
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after the name of the monastery or the mountain where he resided. Thus Dogen called himself Daibutsu or Great Buddha at that time. But he must have felt that calling himself in this way was rather awkward. This may be one of the reasons why he decided to change the name of the monastery. On the fifteenth day of the sixth month of 1246 Dogen renamed it Eihei, the Japanese sounds that correspond to the Chinese Yongping, an allusion to the time Buddhism was first brought to China, in the tenth year of the Yongping Era—67 ce. In his formal talk he said, "In the heavens above and on the earth below, this very place is Eihei (Eternal Peace)."40 He presented over seventy formal talks to his community in that year.
Soon he completed "Guidelines for Officers of the Eihei Monastery."41 Dogen's life was more and more focused on training a limited number of monks who would transmit dharma to future generations. In "Home-leaving," a fascicle of The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, delivered to his community in the ninth month of the same year, he said emphatically, "You should clearly know that the attainment of the way by all buddhas and ancestors is no other than leaving your household and receiving the precepts. The life vein of all buddhas and ancestors is no other than leaving the household and receiving the precepts. . . . The unsurpassable enlightenment is fulfilled upon leaving the household and receiving the precepts. It is not fulfilled until the day of leaving the household."42
Meanwhile he occasionally received lay visitors from Kyoto or nearby towns and talked to them about dharma. In 1247 he made a departure from his monastery for an exceptionally long journey eastward to Kamakura at the request of Regent Tokiyori Hojo, who, as head of the warrior government, was the ruler of the nation. Dogen was housed at the residence of a lay person, probably his major supporter Yoshishige Hatano, during his six-month stay in Kamakura.
According to the biographies, Dogen gave the precepts to a number of people including Tokiyori. Tokiyori asked Dogen to stay longer and to open a monastery in Kamakura, but Dogen declined. Aside from the ten poems Dogen gave Tokiyori's wife, practically
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no writings of Dogen remain from this period.43 It seems that his visit to Kamakura was disappointing because of the lack of opportunity to explore dharma in depth with his students. Returning to the Eihei Monastery in the third month of 1248, he gave a formal talk and said, "I was away over half a year, a lonely moon in a great void."44
Toward the Ultimate Simplicity
During the five years between 1248 and 1252, Dogen gave more than fifty formal talks each year. He wrote further guidelines on monastic activities. Although he did not write any new fascicles of The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, he presented the fascicle "Face Washing,"45 first written in 1239, to his community for the third time. By giving detailed instructions on formal ways of cleansing, he emphasized the importance of cleanliness both inside and out.
In 1252 Dogen revised "Actualizing the Fundamental Point," one of his earliest pieces in The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye.46 In the fall of 1252 he became sick. In the first month of 1253, Dogen wrote "Eight Awakenings of Great Beings."47 This was the last piece in The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye and consisted largely of a full quotation of Shakyamuni's admonitions from the Buddha's Final Will Sutra. Dogen wrote this piece in a very simple style with little trace of the brilliance he had demonstrated in his prime. In the same year the monk Nichiren started teaching the intense solo practice of chanting the name of The Lotus Sutra.
In the fourth month of 1253, Dogen asked the senior student Gikai about the last days of Ekan. The first Zen teacher of Ejo and Gikai, Ekan had joined Dogen's community twelve years before and had served as head monk of the Eihei Monastery, but he had died in 1251. Gikai said that Ekan had died with great regret as Dogen had not given him the opportunity of seeing a document of dharma heritage. Dogen was sorry for Ekan and asked Gikai to dedicate to Ekan whatever merit Gikai acquired when he was given the opportunity to see Dogen's document of dharma heritage.48 Al-
though Dogen himself had seen and received documents of heritage in China, he had made it extremely difficult to receive or even to see such a document. Perhaps he wanted to make sure that only fully mature students would be allowed to examine certificates of teachers' highest approval.
In the seventh month of the same year, 1253, Dogen became sick again and knew that his current life was coming to an end. He said to Gikai, "Even though there are ten million things that I have not clarified concerning the buddha-dharma, still I have the joy of not having formed mistaken views and having genuinely maintained correct faith in the true dharma."49 In the same month Dogen gave Ejo a robe he had sewn, appointing him abbot of the Eihei Monastery.
On the fifth day of the eighth month, acceding to Lord Ha-tano's repeated request, Dogen left for Kyoto for medical treatment. He was accompanied by Ejo and other students. He asked Gikai to run the monastery while they were away.
On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, under a harvest moon, he wrote a poem:
In autumn
even though I may
see it again,
how can I sleep
with the moon this evening?50
On the twentieth day of the eighth month of 1253, Dogen died in Kyoto at the home of lay student Kakunen.
Circle of the Way
The "way" is a common image in many religious traditions for the process of spiritual pursuit. It often implies that a seeker is bound to toil on a long path, wandering about and overcoming numerous obstacles before arriving at the final destination. There is a huge
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distance between the starting point and the goal. In the context of the Mahayana or Great Vehicle teaching—a developed form of Buddhism that spread through North and East Asia—this process represents the journey a seeker, or bodhisattva,* takes to become a fully awakened one, a buddha. The time span between the initial practice and the achieved goal—enlightenment—is described in scriptures as "hundreds and thousands of eons."
Dogen accepts this image of a linear process of seeking. But he also talks about the way as a circle. For him, each moment of practice encompasses enlightenment, and each moment of enlightenment encompasses practice. In other words, practice and enlightenment—process and goal—are inseparable. The circle of practice is complete even at the beginning. This circle of practice-enlightenment is renewed moment after moment.
At the moment you begin taking a step you have arrived, and you keep arriving each moment thereafter. In this view you don't journey toward enlightenment, but you let enlightenment unfold. In Dogen's words, "You experience immeasurable hundreds of eons in one day."51 The "circle of the way" is a translation of the Japanese word dokan, literally meaning "way ring." Although this word, which Dogen coined, appears only four times in his writing, it may be taken to represent the heart of his teaching.
This circle of practice-enlightenment describes not only the journey of one individual, but also the process and goal of the entire collection of practitioners of the way throughout past, present, and future. Dogen says, "On the great road of buddha ancestors there is always unsurpassable practice, continuous and sustained. It forms the circle of the way and is never cut off. Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana,* there is not a moment's gap; continuous practice is the circle of die way. This being so, continuous practice is unstained, not forced by you or others. The power of this continuous practice confirms you as well as others. It means your practice affects the entire earth and the entire sky in the ten directions. Although not noticed by others or by yourself, it is so."52
Thus the practice of all awakened ones actualizes the practice of each one of us. And the practice of each one of us actualizes the
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practice of all awakened ones. The practice of each one of us, however humble and immature it may be, is seen as something powerful and indispensable for the entire community of awakened ones. Our life at each moment may be seen likewise in the context of all life.
Dogen usually describes "life" as "birth," for Buddhism sees one's life as a continuous occurrence of birth and death moment by moment. He says: "Birth is just like riding in a boat. You raise the sails and row with the pole. Although you row, the boat gives you a ride, and without the boat no one could ride. But you ride in the boat and your riding makes the boat what it is. Investigate such a moment."53 Dogen's understanding of the interconnectedness of all things at each moment sheds light on the absolute value of the present moment.
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye
Dogen calls the path of practice-enlightenment "the buddha way." It is the path of all awakened ones of past, present, and future. He cautions against calling his own community part of the Caodong School, the Zen School, or even the Buddha Mind School. For him this teaching is the universal road of all awakened ones.
The path may be wide and limitless in theory but narrow in practice. Dogen calls it "the great road of buddha ancestors," the "ancestors" being those who hold the lineage of a certain teaching. In the Zen tradition this lineage is restricted to dharma descendants of Shakyamuni Buddha and Bodhidharma, the First Ancestor in China, and no other teachers are called ancestors.
Following the Zen tradition, Dogen attributes the authenticity of this lineage to the legend about the great assembly of beings at Vulture Peak where Mahakashyapa alone smiled when Shakyamuni Buddha held up a flower. The Buddha said, "I have the treasury of the true dharma eye, the wondrous heart of nirvana. Now I entrust it to you."54 Dogen affirms that this treasury has been transmitted from teacher to disciple, face to face, throughout generations.
The heart of this teaching is zazen, or meditation in a sitting
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posture, from which all understanding derives. Dôgen offers a highly defined way of doing zazen, as well as guidelines for activities in the monastic community. Details of what and how to eat, and what and how to wear, are all presented as indispensable aspects of the life of the awakened ones.
Dôgen constantly talks about true dharma, genuine teaching, correct lineage, and correct ways. He often uses the word zheng in Chinese or sbS in Japanese many times in one sentence. This is the word that means "genuine," "true," or "correct." Establishing authenticity in understanding and in the daily activities of a monastic community was one of Dôgen's primary concerns as a thinker and teacher.
Wondrous Heart of Nirvana
Enlightenment in the Buddhist context is represented by the Sanskrit word bodhi, * which essentially means "awakening." A buddha, or one who embodies bodhi, is an awakened or enlightened one. In the Zen tradition Shäkyamuni, the original teacher of Buddhism, is the main figure called the Buddha.
A buddha can be understood as someone who experiences nirvana and fully shares the experience with others. "Nirvana," another Sanskrit word, originally means "putting out fire," which points to a state where there is freedom from burning desire or anxiety, or from the enslavement of passion.
According to a common Asian view that originated in ancient India, one is bound to the everlasting cycle of birth and death in various realms, including those of deities, of humans, of animals, and hell. In Buddhism nirvana is where the chain of such transmigration is cut off and one is free from suffering. That is why the word nirvana is also used as a euphemism for "death."
Nirvana is often described in Buddhist scriptures as "the other shore." One crosses the ocean of birth and death toward the shore of total freedom. In Mahäyäna teaching bringing others across the ocean of suffering to the shore of enlightenment is considered to
be as important as or even more important than bringing oneself over. Those who vow to dedicate their lives to this act of "ferrying" others are called bodhisattvas, or beings who are dedicated to bodhi. In some schools of Mahayana, Zen in particular, there is a strong emphasis on the immediacy of enlightenment, indicating that the ocean of birth and death is itself nirvana.
As quoted earlier in this introduction, Dogen says, "Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana, there is not a moment's gap." Thus, nirvana is one of the four elements in a practitioner's spiritual activity. For Dogen, nirvana is inseparable from enlightenment, and it is inseparable from one's practice at each moment. In other words, there is no authentic practice that lacks enlightenment or nirvana.
While Dogen discusses aspiration, practice, and enlightenment in detail, he does not explain the last element, nirvana, which seems to be an invisible element in his teaching. It is as though he talks about the experience of nirvana without using this word.
Nirvana is regarded as the realm of nonduality, where there is no distinction between large and small, long and short, right and wrong, appearing and disappearing, self and other. It may be called reality itself, or the absolute place beyond time and space. This is a realm that cannot be grasped objectively. The intuitive awareness or transcendental wisdom that goes beyond dualistic, analytical thinking and leads us into this realm is calledprajna* in Sanskrit.
Dogen calls this place of inner freedom the buddha realm. It is where one is many, part is whole, a moment is timeless, and mortality is immortality. To experience this beyondness in the midst of the passage of time, change, and decay is a miracle. For Dogen, this miracle can happen each moment, as each moment of duality is inseparable from a moment of nonduality. 1
Duality and nonduality, change and no-change, relative and absolute, coexist and interact with each other. Dogen calls the experience of this dynamic "actualizing the fundamental point." It is an immediate but subtle and mysterious unfolding of nirvana within a life of change and decay. Dogen suggests that we can realize this dynamic of "not one, not two" by going into and maintaining the
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deep consciousness that is experienced both in zazen and in daily activities conducted in a meditative state of body and mind.
Enlightenment as a Breakthrough Experience
Enlightenment is commonly seen as a spiritual breakthrough experience. Scriptures say that Shakyamuni Buddha, upon seeing the morning star after days of rigorous meditation, suddenly realized that mountains, rivers, grass, and trees had all attained buddhahood. When a monk was sweeping his hermitage yard, a pebble hit a bamboo stalk and made a cracking sound, and he was awakened. As in these examples, a dramatic shift of consciousness occurs after a seeker goes through a period of intense pursuit and has an unexpected transformative experience. The breakthrough may not only be an in-depth understanding of reality, but a physical experience— such as an extraordinary vision, release of tension, and feeling of exuberance.
In the Zen tradition many stories of this sort are studied as exemplary cases of great enlightenment. In the Linji School and its Japanese form,^the Rinzai School, such enlightenment stories are used systematically as koans to help students break through the conventional thinking that is confined by the barrier of dualism.
Dogen himself often quotes enlightenment stories of earlier masters and comments on them. Koans were certainly important elements for his teaching. But Dogen's journal of studies with Ru-jing does not mention any occasion when Rujing gave him a koan to work on, nor do any of Dogen's writings suggest that he himself used this method for guiding his own students. Unlike teachers of the Linji way, Dogen did not seem to use koans as tasks for students to work on and pass, one after another. In fact he often used the word koan to mean reality itself, translated here as "fundamental point."
Here lies the paradox of enlightenment. On the one hand, when one practices the way of awakening, there is already enlightenment moment after moment. On the other hand, one has to endeavor
long and hard to achieve a breakthrough. Dôgen says, "There are those who continue realizing beyond realization."55 Thus, enlightenment unfolds itself, but the unfolding is fully grasped by one's body and mind only when one has a breakthrough. In other words, unfolded enlightenment is initially subconscious awakening, which is spontaneously merged with conscious awakening at the moment of breakthrough.
The kôan studies of the Linji-Rinzai line are an excellent method for working consciously toward breakthrough. By contrast, Dogen's training method was to keep students from striving toward breakthrough. Although he fully understood the value of breakthroughs and used breakthrough stories of his ancestors for teaching, he himself emphasized "just sitting," with complete non-attachment to the goal of attainment. But isn't freedom from attachment an essential element for achieving breakthroughs?
Cause and Effect Revisited
The experience of nonduality is the basis for the Buddhist teaching of compassion. When one does not abide in the distinction between self and other, between humans and nonhumans, and between sentient beings and insentient beings, there is identification with and love for all beings. Thus, the wisdom of nonduality, prajná, is inseparable from compassion.
An action that embodies compassion is wholesome and one that does not is unwholesome. Any action, small or large, affects self and other. Cause brings forth effect. Thus, the dualistic perspective of Buddhist ethics—good and bad, right and wrong—is based on non-dualism.
Here emerges a fundamental dilemma of Buddhism. If one focuses merely on prajná, one may say that there is no good and bad, and one may become indifferent and possibly destructive. On the other hand, if one only thinks of cause and effect, one may not be able to understand prajná. The legendary dialogue of Bodhidharma
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with Emperor Wu of southern China is revered in the Zen tradition exactly because it illustrates this dilemma in a dramatic way:
The Emperor said, "Ever since I ascended the throne, I have built temples, copied sutras, approved the ordination of more monks than I can count. What is the merit of having done all this?"
Bodhidharma said, "There is no merit." The Emperor said, "Why is that so?"
Bodhidharma said, "These are minor achievements of humans and devas* which become the causes of desire. They are like shadows of forms and are not real."
The Emperor said, "What is real merit?"
Bodhidharma said, "When pure wisdom is complete, the essence is empty and serene. Such merit cannot be attained through worldly actions."
The Emperor said, "What is the foremost sacred truth?"
Bodhidharma said, "Vast emptiness, nothing sacred."
The Emperor said, "Who is it that faces me?"
Bodhidharma said, "I don't know."
The Emperor did not understand.56
Thus the primary concern of the Zen practitioner has been described as the experience of "the pure wisdom" that sees reality as "empty and serene." This experience was regarded as the source of all scriptural teachings. Often Chinese Zen Buddhists talked about the transmission of teachings "outside scriptures." Are living bud-dhas, or those who are awakened, free from ethics? Are they free from cause and effect?
The Zen answer to this question may be found in the parable of Baizhang and an earlier Zen teacher, who was reborn as a wild fox because of his belief that he was free from cause and effect.57 This story clearly illustrates that practitioners of the "pure wisdom" of nonduality have no license to abandon ethics. It is not a coincidence that Baizhang, a great master of eighth- and ninth-century China, was credited with establishing guidelines for monastic communities.
Mahayana Buddhism calls for the six completions as the essential elements for arriving at nirvana. They are: giving, ethical conduct, perseverance, enthusiasm, meditation, and prajna. The first five may be seen as elements for sustaining compassion in prajna. Thus, keeping and transmitting the precepts are the core of Zen teaching.
Soon after beginning to study with Rujing in China, Dogen expressed his concern about the widespread tendency to overemphasize the "here and now" and disregard the future effect of practice. Rujing agreed with Dogen about his concern and said, "To deny that there are future births is nihilism; buddha ancestors do not hold to the nihilistic views of those who are outside the way. If there is no future there is no present. This present birth definitely exists. How could it be that the next birth doesn't also exist?"58
Dogen's own understanding on this issue is clear in his fascicle "Identifying with Cause and Effect" in The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, where he says, "Thus, the significance of studying cause and realizing effect is clear. This is the way of buddhas and ancestors.... Those of you who have pure aspiration for enlightenment and want to study buddha-dharma for the sake of buddha-dharma should clarify causation as past sages did. Those who reject this teaching are outside the way."59 Thus, Dogen makes it clear that authentic Zen practice is not divorced from the teachings expressed in scriptures. For him deep trust in and identification with causation should be the foundation for practice of the way.
Bilingual Zen
Dogen used the Chinese language for writing formal addresses such as recommendations for zazen and formal lectures, as well as for most of the monastic guidelines, poems, and his own study journals. It was natural for him to write in Chinese, as he had received the major part of his Zen training in China, and his formal lectures and poems followed the tradition of Chinese Zen masters. Writing in Chinese was also appropriate for addressing the larger Buddhist
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community, as most scholarship in Japan at that time relied on this language, although the texts were read in a special Sino-Japanese way due to the differences in sound and grammar between the two languages.
Dogen's early informal talks were recorded by Ej6 in Japanese, but his later informal talks were recorded by Gikai in Chinese. Dogen wrote some Japanese traditional-style waka poems, written in thirty-one syllables. He used Japanese for writing his lifework, the ninety-five fascicles of The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, except that he kept quotations from sutras and Zen texts in Chinese, for he almost exclusively used Chinese books as research materials.
Thousands of ideograms are used in the Chinese writing system. Each ideogram represents a word and embodies a wide range of meaning and connotation derived from the long social and literary tradition of China. Parts of speech are quite flexible in this language; the same word can function as a noun, verb, or adjective. There is no conjugation by cases or inflection by number, and subjects and objects are often implied. Word order often indicates syntax, but there can always be exceptions. Thus, because of its richness of meaning and ambiguity, the Chinese language was instrumental in the development of highly intuitive thinking in the Zen tradition, both for earlier masters and for Dogen himself.
In the Japanese writing system Chinese ideograms are used particularly for major parts of speech such as nouns, stems of verbs and adjectives. Japanese phonetic letters are added to indicate conjugations as well as conjunctions and connecting words somewhat analogous to prepositions in English. The Japanese language shares with the Chinese language the richness of ideograms and ambiguity of expression. The poetic ambiguity in Japanese writing has to do with its tendency to imply subjects and with its usual absence of plural forms. On the other hand, parts of speech are clearly defined in a Japanese sentence, and all words in a sentence, including those that are implied, have well-defined functions as the subject, object, predicate, or modifier. Thus, writing prose in Japanese is grammatically demanding. Much of the acuteness of Dogen's writings is the
result of expressing vastly intuitive thoughts through the logical structure of the Japanese language.
Words beyond Words
In Zen teaching awakening is regarded as something beyond intellectual studies, or beyond understanding what has been said in the past. It ought to be a direct experience, which is personal, intuitive, and fresh. The dilemma is that the experience of awakening needs to be approved by an authentic master, and to be transmitted to the next generation without distortion.
Dogen wrote his essays to convey to students his understanding of what he regarded as most essential and authentic in Buddhist teaching. He focused on the theoretical aspects of the teaching, while constantly reminding students that awakening is beyond thought. In some of his essays and monastic guidelines he gave detailed instructions on the practical aspects of zazen and communal activities, often with philosophical interpretations and poetic expressions. Dogen regarded all daily activities, such as washing the body, wearing robes, cooking, or engaging in administrative work, as sacred.
It is clear that Dogen's thinking and understanding deepened as he wrote his essays and read them to his community. He made a careful revision of his texts with the help of his senior student Ejo. Either he or Ejo calligraphed the final version of the texts. The fascicle "Actualizing the Fundamental Point" was revised nineteen years after it was first written.
Extensively quoting stories and poems from the Chinese Zen tradition, Dogen often comments on each line of these ancient dialogues, and makes a detailed examination of the meaning behind the words. He does not hesitate to criticize great masters like Linji and Yunmen, while revering their teachings in other passages. But he places ultimate value in the accounts of the earliest Chinese masters such as Bodhidharma and the Sixth Ancestor, Huineng, as well as later "ancestors" in his lineage.
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Dogen introduces the full range of traditional Zen rhetoric on the paradox of awakening beyond thought. The rhetoric includes nonverbal expressions such as silence, shouting, beating, and gestures, which have been recorded in words. It also includes repetitious statements, turning around the word order, non sequiturs, tautology, and seemingly mundane talks. The use of absurd images and upside-down language is also common. Sacrilegious and violent words that are intended to crush stereotypical thinking are not uncommon in the Zen heritage. These Zen expressions are called "turning words,"* as they can turn students around from limited views. Dogen would call it "intimate language," as it bypasses the intellect and directly touches upon the matter of duality and non-duality.
The Zen tradition sometimes loads a word with positive, negative, concrete, and transcendental meanings, thus making its semantics ambiguous or enigmatic. A well-known example of that is Zhaozhou's wu (mu in Japanese, originally meaning "no" or "not") in response to the question of whether a dog has buddha-nature. Following and extending this tradition, Dogen uses some words in opposite meanings. By the word "self," he sometimes means a confined ego and sometimes the universal reality that is based on selflessness. "To be hindered" can also mean "to be fully immersed."
Commenting on earlier Zen masters' words, Dogen develops his own thinking and finds a way to expand the meaning of their words to elaborate his understanding of the ultimate value of each moment. A remarkable example of this may be found in his interpretation of Yaoshan's words, "For the time being, stand on a high mountain." From here Dogen starts his explication that time is no other than being, and presents the concept of "the time-being," or existence, as time. Another example of expanding the meaning of the original words is his reading of a line of The Maha Pari-nirvana Sutra, "All beings have buddha-nature," as "All beings completely are buddha-nature."
In the Chinese Zen tradition there are a number of stories in which a teacher of scriptures gives up lecturing and starts practicing
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Zen, or of Zen teachers who make paradoxical comments on passages of scriptures. There are almost no cases in which Zen teachers make extensive efforts to examine the meaning of scriptural phrases. But Dogen does a thorough investigation of phrases from a number of sutras, which makes him unique as a Zen teacher. His writings in The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye provide syntheses of these two traditional aspects: studies of scripture that contain vast systematic expressions of the Buddhist teaching, and Zen, which emphasizes direct experience of the essence of the Buddhist teaching.
Heritage of Dogen
Dogen spent most of his later life training a small number of students in a remote countryside monastery. The audience for his writing was quite limited, as he used customary Zen language, which often consisted of colloquial Chinese expressions unfamiliar to most Buddhists in his country. The theme of his writing was a specific practice, centered around "just sitting" in the monastic environment. None of his prose or poetry was published during his lifetime.
He produced a dharma heir, Ejo, a fully dedicated practitioner of the way, and several mature students to whom Ejo gave dharma transmission for Dogen after his death. Dogen's dharma descendants eventually formed the Soto School—the Japanese form of the Caodong School—which is now the largest Buddhist organization in Japan. The other major school of Japanese Zen is the Rinzai School, which regards Eisai as its founder.
Dogen is known as one of the reformers of Buddhism in the Kamakura Period (1192-1333). Other prominent reformers during this period include Honen, Shinran, and Nichiren. The communities they started are now called respectively the Jodo (Pure Land) School, the Jodoshin (True Pure Land) School, and the Nichiren School. The members of the schools formed in the Kamakura Period outnumber by far the members of the organizations that started earlier.
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While Dogen's dharma descendants increased, gaining popular support and building temples all over, most of his writings were quickly forgotten. No one wrote a substantial commentary on his essays between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ryokan, a mendicant monk of the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries, now famous for his calligraphy and poetry, wrote a poem about reading the Record ofEihei Dogen:
For five hundred years it's been covered with dust, just because no one has had an eye for recognizing dharma. For whom was all his eloquence expounded? Longing for ancient times and grieving for the present, my heart is exhausted.60
There was a movement in the Soto community after the seventeenth century, however, for restoring the founder's spirit. The movement included extensive studies of his writings, along with the emergence of commentaries on Dogen's writings by several monk scholars, which resulted in the publication of The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye by the Eihei Monastery in 1816.
Studies about Dogen remained in the domain of Soto sectarian scholarship until the 1920s, when Japanese scholars of Western philosophy started to realize the importance of Dogen's thinking. That was when Tetsuro Watsuji's Shamon Dogen (Monk Dogen) awakened interest in Dogen's work among intellectuals.
In the 1960s Dogen began to be recognized as one of the greatest essayists in the history of Japanese literature. His writings were included in various collections of classical literature. Six modern Japanese translations of the entire Treasury of the True Dharma Eye have been published, making much of Dogen's thought available to Japanese readers.
As Zen meditation began to spread to the Western world in the 1950s, translations of some of Dogen's writings started to appear in Western languages. Over thirty books of Dogen translations and studies have been published in English, which makes Dogen by far
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the most extensively studied East Asian Buddhist in the Western world. How his influence will extend is yet to be seen.
The Contemporary Meaning of Dogen
Over seven hundred years after his time, Dogen's writings are still fresh and captivating for both Buddhists and non-Buddhists. The paradoxes, absurd images, and often impenetrable language in his essays are not merely exotic or intriguing. They point to a part of human consciousness that is often unnoticed. Dogen's writing reveals a reality that is only experienced through a life-long investigation of nonduality. The freedom—including freedom from thinking itself and language itself—that we see in Dogen's writing is stunning. It is ironic that his mind was so free while he was following a highly defined practice of meditation and while he was establishing meticulous guidelines for his monastery. It makes us wonder if his form of practice and teaching was part of the foundation of his freedom.
His meditation instructions remain among the most useful for Zen practitioners. Many of the forms he brought from China are still used in Japan, and are taking root in Western Zen groups. Although modern modes of cooking, cleaning, and earning a livelihood are vasdy different from those in his time, Dogen's teaching on attention to details and care about others is still valid.
Those of us who are familiar with contemporary Buddhist scholarship may have a different perspective from Dogen on the historical development of Buddhism. Based on scientific findings since the nineteenth century, we now know that Mahayana sutras were compiled in India centuries after the time of Shakyamuni Buddha and that many of the teachings may not represent the actual words of the Buddha himself. Also, the story that Mahakashyapa smiled when he saw the Buddha hold up a flower, and that he received the treasury of the true dharma eye, may have been constructed in China, as there is no mention of it in Indian texts. The succession of Indian ancestors named in the Zen lineage is also seen
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by scholars as a Chinese creation. Thus Dogen's emphasis on the authenticity of the Zen lineage does not convince the scientific mind of modern times.
We now appreciate the teachings and practices of many religious traditions, as we have opportunities to witness and learn from them first hand. From this perspective, Dogen's criticisms of other schools of Buddhism as mistaken or inferior may appear narrow-minded. Nevertheless, his pure dedication to the path he followed, passionately conveying to his students his understanding about it, is moving. What makes practice authentic is not necessarily historical evidence or comparative arguments, but genuine and sincere intention to practice.
Rich in scientific knowledge and highly advanced technology, humans still face the transience of life, fear of death, and individual and social suffering. We are back to the same question people have been asking from the beginning of human society: how can we become free from suffering? Dogen's invitation to us to experience nonduality in meditation can be a way to inner freedom—freedom from driving desires, self-centeredness, and the fear of isolation. His teaching on the ultimate value of each moment is increasingly relevant today, as we become more and more aware of the intercon-nectedness of all things throughout space and time.
Kazuaki Tanahashi
Notes
In the following notes, SG = Shöbögenzö, The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, of Eihei Dogen. MD = Moon in a Dewdrop, San Francisco: North Point Press, 1985. "The editor" refers to Kazuaki Tanahashi.
1. Ökubo, Döshü, ed. Dogen Zenji Zenshü (Entire Work of Zen Master Dogen), 3 vols. Tokyo: Chikuma Shobö, 1970.
2. Eihei-ji Sanso Gyögö-ki (Biographies of the First Three Ancestors of the Eihei Monastery), author unknown, already in existence in the Oei Era (1394-1428). Shoso Dogen Zenji Oshö Györoku (Biography of the First Ancestor, Zen Master, Priest Dogen), author unknown,
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published in 1673. Eihei Kaisan Gyöjö Kenzei-ki (Kenzei's Biography of the Founder Dogen of Eihei) by Kenzei (1417-1574).
3. Ejö, SG Zuimon-ki (Record of Things I Heard).
4. Ejö, ibid.
5. Dogen, SG Bendöwa (On the Endeavor of the Way), MD.
6. Dogen, ibid.
7. Dogen, Hökyö-ki, (Journal of My Study in China). See p. 3.
8. Ejö, ibid.
9. Dogen, ibid.
10. Dogen, Tenzo Kyokun (Instructions for the Tenzo), MD.
11. Dogen, SG Kesa Kudoku (Power of the Robe). See p. 77.
12. Dogen, SG Shisho (Document of Heritage), MD.
13. Dogen, Journal of My Study in China. See p. 3.
14. Dogen, ibid.
15. Dogen, SG Menju (Face-to-face Transmission), MD.
16. Dogen, Journal of My Study in China. See p. 3.
17. Dogen, Eihei Köroku (Extensive Record of Eihei, Fascicle Two).
18. Dogen, Shari Södenki (Record of Bringing Master Myözen's Relics). See p. 30.
19. Dogen, Fukan Zazen-gi (Recommending Zazen to All People).
20. Dogen, On the Endeavor of the Way.
21. Dogen, ibid.
22. Dogen, SG Genjo Köan (Actualizing the Fundamental Point).
23. Dogen, Shinji SG (The Chinese-Language Treasure of the True Dharma Eye). See Cases for Study, p. 40, for excerpt.
24. Dogen, Kannondöri-in Södö Konryü Kanjin-so (Donation Request for a Monks' Hall at Kannondori Monastery). See p. 47.
25. Ejö, ibid.
26. Dogen, Instructions for the Tenzo.
27. Dogen, SG Sansui-kyö (Mountains and Waters Sutra).
28. Dogen, SG Uji (The Time-Being). See p. xx.
29. Dogen, SG Kesa Kudoku (The Power of the Robe). See p. 77.
30. Dogen, SG Keisei Sanshoku (Valley Sound, Mountain Color). See p. 59.
31. Dogen, SG Shisho (Document of Heritage), MD.
32. Dogen, SG Busshö (Buddha Nature).
33. Dogen, SGJinzü (Miracles). See p. 104.
34. Dogen, SG Bukköjöji (Going beyond Buddha), MD.
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35. Dogen, SG Gyöji (Continuous Practice). See p. 114.
36. Dogen, SG Shinjin Gakudö (Body and Mind Study of the Way), MD.
37. Dogen, SG Muchü Setsumu (Within a Dream Expressing the Dream). See p. 165.
38. Dogen, SG Zenki (Undivided Activity)./See p. 173.
39. Dogen, Bendöhö (Method of the Practice of the Way).
40. Dogen, Extensive Record of Eihei, Fascicle Two. See p. xx.
41. Dogen, Eihei-ji Chiji Shingi (Guidelines for Officers of the Eihei Monastery). See p. 210.
42. Dogen, SG Shukke (Home-leaving).
43. Dogen, waka poems for Lady Höjö. See p. 256 for selected poems.
44. Dogen, Extensive Record of Eihei, Fascicle Three.
45. Dogen, SG Semmen (Face Washing).
46. Dogen, Actualizing the Fundamental Point. See p. 35.
47. Dogen, SG Hachi Dainingaku (Eight Awakenings of Great Beings). See p. 271.
48. Dogen, Eihei Shitchü Kikigaki (Final Instructions at the Abbot's Room of the Eihei Monastery).
49. Dogen, ibid.
50. Translated by Brian Unger and the Editor.
51. Dogen, Home-leaving.
52. Dogen, Continuous Practice, Fascicle One. See p. 114.
53. Dogen, Undivided Activity. See p. 173.
54. Dogen, SG Mitsugo (Intimate Language). See p. 179.
55. Dogen, Actualizing the Fundamental Point. See p. 35.
56. Dogen, Continuous Practice, Fascicle Two. See p. 137.
57. Dogen, SG Shinjin Inga (Identifying with Cause and Effect). See p. 264.
58. Dogen, Journal of My Study in China. See p. 3.
59. Dogen, Identifying with Cause and Effect. See p. 264.
60. Ryökan, "Reading the Record of Eihei Dogen." An excerpt, translated by Taigen Daniel Leighton and the editor.