Dogen
Dogen
Dōgen Zenji, also known as Dōgen Kigen, Eihei Dōgen, Koso Joyo Daishi, or Bussho Dento Kokushi, was a Japanese Buddhist priest, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. Originally ordained as a monk in the Tendai School in Kyoto, he was ultimately dissatisfied with its teaching and traveled to China to seek out what he believed to be a more authentic Buddhism. He remained there for five years, finally training under Tiantong Rujing, an...
self way study
To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.
watches fields scarecrow
Though it has no thought of keeping watch, it's not for naught that the scarecrow stands in the grain field.
fire saving passing
Be mindful of the passing of time, and engage yourself in zazen as though you are saving your head from fire.
views mountain scales
Do not view mountains from the scale of human thought.
practice distraction dharma
Know that the true dharma emerges of itself [during the practice of zazen], clearing away hindrances and distractions.
ocean water mountain
Mountains and oceans have whole worlds of innumerable wondrous features. We should understand that it is not only our distant surroundings that are like this, but even what is right here, even a single drop of water.
spring peaches apricots
When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots, but just paint Spring. To paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots is to paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots - it is not yet painting Spring.
reality dragons amazed
Do not be amazed by the true dragon.
breathing individual activity
Zazen is an activity that is an extension of the universe. Zazen is not the life of an individual, it's the universe that's breathing.
drinking thinking ideas
In doing zazen it is desirable to have a quiet room. You should be temperate in eating and drinking, forsaking all delusive relationships. Setting everything aside, think of neither good nor evil, right nor wrong. Thus having stopped the various functions of your mind, five up even the idea of becoming a Buddha.
eye home land
Why abandon a seat in your own home to wander in vain through dusty regions of another land? If you make one false step, you miss what is right before your eyes.
earth grass form
There are myriads of forms and hundreds of grasses throughout the entire earth, yet each grass and each form itself is the entire earth.
mean water mountain
An ancient buddha said, “Mountains are mountains; waters are waters.” These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains.
reality fire icicles
What is reality? An icicle forming in fire.