The Dogen Zenji fan club, which in my opinion seems more interested in Dogen’s confused understanding of Buddhism than first studying what the Buddha actually said and practiced, is certainly not, as I see it, open to having Dogen’s understanding of seated meditation scrutinized.
It should be obvious to anyone who has studied Dogen that he stressed the physical act of sitting over dhyâna which is not a physical act; which means to see into our original nature. In other words, for Dogen, awakening consisted not so much in realization through the purification of mind as it did in realization through the body. In fact, Dogen says in the Shôbôgenzô Zuimonki:
“To do away with mental deliberation and cognition, and simply to go on sitting, is the method by which the Way is made an intimate part of our lives. Thus attainment of the Way becomes truly attainment through the body. That is why I put exclusive emphasis upon sitting” (H. Nakamura, Ways of Thinking of Easter Peoples, p. 367).
To attain enlightenment by way of the body, however, was not on the Bodhisattva’s mind in the Lalitavistara Sutra. He gave up all austerities, that is, external methods of winning enlightenment which he had been pursuing for six years before he became the Buddha. It was by dhyâna that the Bodhisattva found the path to awakening which can eradicate the arising of the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death. This is to say, in other words, that only by seeing into our original nature is the end of suffering achieved.
Dogen not only put exclusive emphasis on sitting but he believed that dharmata, instead of being the true nature of things (dharmânâm dharmatâ) believed, oppositely, that dharmata meant that things are themselves the true nature. In regard to impermancene this would mean that impermance, which is the changeable character of the phenomenal world, is the true nature, or as Dogen put it, impermance is Buddha-nature (mujô-busshô). However, this seems odd when we look at what Zen master Rinzai (Lin-chi; Linji) said:
“There is no stability in the world; it is like a house on fire. This is not a place where you can stay for a long time. The murderous demon of impermanence is instantaneous, and it does not choose between the upper and lower classes, or between the young and old” (Burton Watson).
Of all the Zen masters, Dogen's view is the most odd. Dogen’s understanding of Zen Buddhism perhaps can be explained because it is closely tied with the Japanese acceptance of phenomenalism. Nakamura explains:
"In the first place, we should notice that the Japanese are willing to accept the phenomenal world as Absolute because of their disposition to lay a greater emphasis upon intuitive sensible concrete events, rather than upon universals. This way of thinking with emphasis upon the fluid, arresting character of observed events regards the phenomenal world itself as Absolute and rejects the recognition of anything existing over and above the phenomenal world” (H. Nakamura, Ways of Thinking of Easter Peoples, p. 350).
"Just as though the entire earth were spewing flame,"
Posted by: Adasatala | November 04, 2013 at 07:33 PM