A Life of Bankei by John M Evans. In the Zen Masters Series.

Read Part 1

Of the three disciplines of Buddhism, sila (precepts), dhyana (meditation) and prajna (wisdom), the Zen schools were said to give greater emphasis to meditation. While it is certainly true that meditation, or methods of awakening, assumed priority over doctrinal matters, masters like Hui Neng and Dogen were aware that a balanced approach was necessary. Hui Neng believed that dhyana and prajna arose together and were not to be separated. Dogen frequently stressed the precepts to his students, and many of his homilies are variations on the ethical side of Buddhism, though given a practical edge through the belief that morality brings one into alignment with satori, since true moral behaviour is without self.

In the Buddha’s time, there were no sutras and sastras. Most scriptural material was held in the memory of monks. The Buddhist canon had not yet been established. Mind to mind transmission was the order of the day. Zen aimed to come closer to that situation and thus move closer to the Buddha’s intention. When Dogen returned from China he was intent on making zazen the principal means of practice within the Soto school. And since each one of his students was already the Buddha, it was only necessary to act like it; that is to say, to assume the true nature during sitting, standing, walking and lying down. Thus all aspects of life are given a sacramental significance.

Towards the end of his short life (he died of cancer at fifty-three) he became more and more attracted to the life of retreat, away from the turmoil of “the world of dust”. He turned down offers from the Emperor, who granted him an honorific title and ceremonial robe. He died in Kyoto, where he was receiving medical care in the house of a disciple, in 1253.

Master Dogen provides the literary, contemplative side of Zen. Thus he complements the contributions of Hui Neng and Rinzai, and fleshes out the Zen corpus into a coherent whole. His amazingly quirky, but astonishingly insightful writings are one of the glories of spiritual literature. Only now are they beginning to be fully understood by modern-day thinkers, religious and philosophical, who are taking a great interest in this 13th Century Japanese sage.

The work, however, was never meant to be set in concrete, or to form the basis for a “system” of thought. Dogen’s purpose was to use words interactively, directly in the consciousness of his readers. His lines are movement, not stasis; life, not theology. His bequest is enlightenment, not scripture.