Dogen Zenji Goroku: Sayings of Zen Master Dogen
Key points
Non-dual reality
- Non-dual reality is beyond conceptual discrimination and discursive knowledge.
- Awareness is naturally fluid. Habits and patterns make it more fixed, static.
- All knowledge is mental projection.
- “Empty” as in fluid, relative, transient, ungraspable, flexible, open.
- Everything is relative, everything depends on everything else.
One
- Things and self are one Suchness.
- Inside and outside are one.
- When you’ve realised unity, “objects” and “self” aren’t really different.
- “Just this.” There is really nothing more to say.
- Everywhere is the retreat, all times are the retreat.
Enlightenment
- Ordinary mind is the Way. But trying to aim for it means you miss it.
- Enlightenment isn’t added on, it’s awakening from within.
- Original nature is inherently complete.
- Unattached to anything means no delusion. And also no “enlightenment”.
Dharma
- Expedient means. Words and language can’t describe it, but it’s what we have for pointers. Thinking, concepts, knowledge can’t describe the source.
- There are many teachings because there are many kinds of people. Not all teachings are relevant for all people.
- “Does a dog also have Buddha-nature?” Yes or no are both bad answers.
Raw notes
- A classic illustration of this likens mind and essential nature to ice and water; the ice represents mind “frozen” into habitual patterns of thought and feeling molded by circumstances, water represents the original fluid nature of the essence of awareness.
- This is the method of using an object to clarify the Way. When the function reaches its effect, the whole potential manifests.
- if you are aloof of body and mind and unattached to anything, there can be no delusion, so there is also no ‘enlightenment.’
- Suddenly hearing the two words ‘Buddha Dharma,’ this is already defiling my ears and eyes—This points to the wonder in one’s own being, and warns against seeking outside.
- the whole dynamic, in which things and self are one suchness. Person and environment, self and other, are all united in the whole dynamic. Essence and phenomena are one body of reality, totally complete.
- In Buddhism, ‘emptiness’ is not nothingness, it is the fluidity of existence. It may be defined as the relativity of things, the transience of things, the totality of things, the ultimate ungraspability of things: the unbroken continuity of everything.
- conditional origination of the universe, or universal relativity. Everything is always in flux, everything is moving, and everything is at once giving birth to everything else, as everything is relative to everything else and depends on everything else for its definition.
- The emptiness in which flux takes place is constantly filled by our memory and thoughts, and this is why things seem solid and constant to us.
- by always filling the void with the same conceptions, we become imprisoned in a static view of the world and lose the flexibility and openness needed to perceive the ceaseless flux of reality as is.
- break down dualistic views.
- using expedient means to express the inexpressible.
- All our formal knowledge is just mental projection—whatever we may think we know, ultimately we don’t know.
- the principle of inside and outside being one.
- If he was a true man of attainment, he would have acted, but he stuck to the words.
- Though the wind blows in the sky, the wind moves but the sky doesn’t—in
- going along with conditions yet not changing.
- the “medicines” of the teachings are given to restore the original human being—enlightenment is not “added on” or overlaid, it is awakening from within.
- Everywhere is the retreat, all times are the session.
- clarify the originally pure mind and realize its inherently perfect nature.
- Have no fixations at all; the ancient masters Rinzai and Joshu said, “Enlightenment and nirvana are just clothes.”
- If you want to know the meaning of Buddha-nature, observe causes and conditions.
- neither deluded knowledge nor enlightened knowledge can clearly fathom the source.
- the original nature is inherently complete; enlightenment is not added from outside.
- Going into the ocean to count the grains of sand is just a waste of your own strength;
- The Buddhist teachings are so numerous because they are relics of prescriptions for many different types of people; not all of them are applicable to everyone.
- he cut off all discrimination and speculation, not answering on the monk’s own terms.
- monk asked Joshu, “Does a dog also have Buddha-nature?” Joshu said, “No.” The monk said, “All sentient beings have Buddha-nature; why doesn’t a dog?” Joshu said, “Because he still has karmic consciousness.”
- if someone asked me whether a dog has Buddha-nature or not, I would just tell him that to say yes or no is in either case slander;
- Karmic consciousness means consciousness conditioned, bound, and impelled by habit energy.
- He thumped the staff—This is to call the attention to immediate reality. “Just this.” There is really nothing more to say.
- Daigi says that the very desire to attain the realms of meditation keeps one bound to the realm of desire and inhibits the entry into true meditation.
- what we conceive as falsehood and reality are relative, so neither has absolute existence.
- to see the non-dual source we must be able to see beyond conceptual discrimination and discursive knowledge.
- Buddhas first transcend the world, but are not attached to transcendence, and return to the world out of compassion;
- When one has realized unity, there is no hard and fast distinction of ‘objects’ and ‘self.’
- Awareness of essential oneness and knowledge of functional distinction must be harmonized in complete enlightenment.
- Buddha said that truth is like an ocean; the further you go into it, the deeper it is.
- the truth is originally inherent in everyone, it is not something cultivated, nor can it be sought from another.
- ‘Turn a flip’ is an expression sometimes used for the mental transformation that takes place in enlightenment.
- Remove the dross of ignorant habit-ridden consciousness to bring out the light of the real self.
- just use the time wisely and hope for the best. In the light of daily life there is no lack, no excess.
- being one with the present.
- ‘the one body revealed in myriad things.’
- Buddhist mythology is veiled psychology,
- “Investigating until there is no investigation” means exhausting the machinations of mind.
- In a basic Zen meditation, “thinking of the unthinking,” which process “is not thinking,” the mind is directed toward an ungraspable point, until subjective effort is completely exhausted; focused yet without a conceptual object to entertain, the rambling and turning of the mind ceases, and the split between subject and object falls away.
- ‘No other concerns’ means having no thoughts of being or nonbeing. ‘Celebrating great peace’ means there’s no news of delusion or enlightenment.
- Where do you not realize enlightenment?
- do you want to see an immeasurable eon? (he snapped his fingers) Just this is it.
- the old year actually doesn’t go, the new year actually doesn’t come.
- Coming and going don’t mix—When coming, it’s just coming; when going, it’s just going. Today is just today, tomorrow is just tomorrow.
- at all times, encountering conditions and meeting situations, just take the flavor, don’t ruin its form.
- the slightest discrepancy is as the distance between sky and earth; as soon as aversion and attraction arise, you lose your mind in confusion.
- If you outwardly get a piece of knowledge or understanding, and consider that the Way of Zen, you’ve missed it entirely.
- The direction is just ordinariness—Joshu asked Nansen, “What is the Way?” Nansen said, “The ordinary mind is the Way.” Joshu said, “Can I aim for it?” Nansen said, “If you aim for it, you turn away from it.”
- Manifesting without thought, Becoming without interplay.
Added 2024-06-26, last updated 2024-06-29.