I’ve begun re-reading Kazuaki Tanahashi’s edition of Dogen’s Guide to Zen Meditation. Dogen (1200 – 1253) is credited for bringing Zen from China to Japan. As Norman Fischer confirms in the Introduction, his writing can be simple and, and the same time, “almost perversely opaque, to the point where one wonders whether he actually intends communication at all” (p. xxxi). So it’s reassuring to have Fischer and Tanahashi as guides, both kind and eloquent teachers I’ve had the good fortune to hear in person.
Dogen says that “zazen* … is undivided practice-enlightenment.” By this, Fischer explains, he “means that our life is always whole. We have always been enlightened beings — this has always been the nature of our minds, the brightness of our consciousness. To really know this is to accept a deep responsibility, a joyful responsibility, for our living” (p. xxix).
Allowing these words to penetrate into my heart takes my breath away. Habitual fears are temporarily wipe away; fears of illness, old age, loneliness, financial disaster, even death. Is it possible, I weep, to be free of all that worrying and suffering?
For Dogen, “‘practice-enlightenment’ is one continuous event. It’s not that we practice in order to become enlightened later. Rather, because we have always been enlightened, we must practice, and our practice is the expression of that enlightenment that is endless and beginningless. … The enlightened person is simply a person who isn’t selfish, who sees things as they really are, loves them, and acts out of that love. With zazen practice we see the world that is lovely, and that calls out to us to participate in it” (p. xxix).
*zazen: sitting meditation in the Zen tradition; text: Tanahashi, K. (2004). (ed). Beyond thinking: a guide to Zen meditation by Zen Master Dogen. Boston: Shambhala. I first published this post on the Fernwood Zendo blog in August 2011. Today a loyal reader sent a note to say that she liked it then and still — and I thought it worth posting here. Thank you, Fra.
Thank you that you started at the right place. Dragons. This is true, a most irttneseing thing. We choose them , chase them and are often haunted by them. I am aware that i am haunted by my father’s dragon too. Today, after siesta, when i rest with my son on bed i see his dragon and am amazed that it was mine and went to him as an heirloom. In practice, it is better to choose the dragon and knock him at his door, than wait for him in contemplation. Thank you.