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

When Dogen returned to Japan after his enlightenment experience in China he did not at first settle into a formal career. He was offered thirteen locations for establishing his own temple but not one satisfied him. Eventually he was installed at a temple outside Kyoto where he began to teach his own version of the Chinese Ts’ao Tung (Japanese Soto) school.

By dropping the cultural forms associated with more esoteric schools of Buddhism, Dogen was able to present a very pure form of practice, close to the original methods of the Buddha. He emphasised not so much that everyone has Buddha-nature, but that everyone is Buddha-nature. This non-dualism enabled him to profess a very direct path to enlightenment; in fact, so direct that the candidate merely assumes the mantle and posture of the Buddhahood he knows he already possesses. As Shunryu Suzuki puts it: “this is the sudden way, because when your practice is calm and ordinary, everyday life is enlightenment.”

Over the next few years he began to lay down the framework of teaching that we know today as the Soto school of Zen. Its basic tenets were those of Bodhidharma, direct pointing to reality by-passing names and form, transmission of enlightenment from mind to mind, and the assumption that each is already enlightened, is Buddha-mind.

His methods were largely psychological, though arising directly from metaphysical experience, and, given his own nature, more intellectually-based than those of the Rinzai school. By this time he had designated two successors, Ejo and Gi’in, and had begun his long-term literary work, the Shobogenzo.

Finally, after much fund-raising and great difficulty in finding a suitable site, Dogen was able formally to open his own monastery, Eiheiji, in modern Fukui, ninety miles or so north of Kyoto, and some 4000 feet above sea level. Today, Eiheiji is one of the two main temples of the Soto school in Japan. It has around seventy beautifully crafted buildings set among giant cedars and a crashing waterfall.

Suzuki Roshi recalls some of the atmosphere of Eiheiji when he was a monk there early in the 20th Century. Just before you enter the monastery, he wrote, there is a small bridge called Half-Dipper Bridge. Whenever Dogen took water from the river he would use only half, returning the rest to the river as a mark of respect to the water. The monks still observe this practice today, not from any idea of economy, but because: “When we feel the beauty of the river, when we are at one with the water, we intuitively do it Dogen’s way. It is our true nature to do so. But if your true nature is covered by ideas of economy or efficiency, Dogen’s way makes no sense.”

By the same token, he thought, our modern environmental problems will not be solved by scientific interventions, but only when we resume the perspective of our true non-dual nature. To be at one with the Earth, means we replace whatever we do not need and respect the eco-system that provides it.

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

Although Dogen is known for his philosophical thinking, he was quite prepared to preach more practical and homely sermons to his pupils. In his teaching years, he would often quote popular Chinese proverbs and expand upon them to illustrate Zen principles. For instance: “A man can only become the head of a house if he becomes deaf and dumb.” Dogen puts this in a Zen context by pointing out that we cannot complete our allotted task unless we ignore the tittle-tattle of others and refrain from being critical about their shortcomings. Here we are into the Buddhist precepts, and the master stresses how difficult these are to observe in practice. Only those who have penetrated to the bones and marrow of Zen, he says, are capable of this.

On Zen attitudes, he would warn that students must be like someone who has borrowed an enormous sum of money and is now expected to pay it back, but has nothing to give. With this frame of mind, said Dogen, it is an easy matter to gain enlightenment.

On another occasion, he quotes a famous Zen verse: “To achieve the Way is not difficult; just reject discrimination.” By rejecting the discriminating (little) mind, the student at once awakens. He must cast aside both body and mind and all the prejudgements of his conditioned past, and he will attain immediate awakening.

Although he was the founder of Soto in Japan, supposedly a “gradualist” path, here we see Dogen standing in the tradition of sudden and immediate enlightenment. A modern Soto master, Shunryu Suzuki, makes a similar point about Dogen’s stream of Zen:

“Our unexciting way of practice may appear to be very negative. This is not so …It is just very plain … it may seem as if I am speaking about gradual attainment. This is not so either. In fact, this is the sudden way, because when your practice is calm and ordinary, everyday life itself is enlightenment.”

One of the basic insights the candidate must have is that prized material possessions can often become enemies that bring harm instead of pleasure. Dogen tells this story about a common man who had a beautiful wife:

The lord of the manor demanded that he give her up to him, but he refused. When the lord surrounded his house with soldiers, the man said to his wife: “because of you I lose my life.” But the wife had other ideas, and before she threw herself from the top floor of the house, she said: ”because of you, I am losing mine.”

Once you have made the commitment to Zen, said the master, forget all about yourself. Simply practise what you are taught and do not allow yourself to become caught up in personal matters. If your mind does not desire anything, you will find absolute peace. Although here speaking to monks, the message is clear: unless you determinedly reject personal concerns (little mind), you will labour long on the road to enlightenment.

For laymen, Dogen has this to say: “there are those who never have associated with others and have grown up only in their own homes.” They behave, says the master, like tyrants, oblivious of what others think, or of their own spiritual condition. A Buddhist, on the other hand, should not set up his own views; he should work with other Buddhists and forget his little mind, dwelling at all times in big mind (the unborn).

A good Buddhist understands poverty. He at once casts aside his possessions, fame, fortune, and never curries the favour of anyone. He is his own man, and yet beyond being his own man. The world at large may not understand, but that does not matter. Such a man sells gold, but there is no-one to buy it. It is freely offered but nobody accepts it because what is free and available is at once suspect.

In terms of technique, Dogen would recommend the Eight Awarenesses and the Four Integrative Methods of Bodhisattvas. The Eight Awarenesses are:

1. Rejecting desire. Those who have many desires are always seeking to gain, and therefore have many afflictions.
2. Being content with things as they are. To be content, said the Buddha, “is the abode of prosperity and happiness, peace and tranquillity”.
3. Seeking solitude. Solitude is not necessarily the same as being alone. One can be in solitude in a big city. It all depends on one’s frame of mind. Big mind is quietude, solitude; small mind is the turmoil of the world.
4. Being diligent. To persevere without turning back on the path to enlightenment makes everything easy.
5. Maintaining mindfulness. The best companion, the Buddha said, is unfailing recollection. Awareness of Self and the teachings is the Royal Road of the Buddhas.
6. Cultivating concentration. This leads to a state of stability and an insight into the nature of rising and ceasing phenomena.
7. Seeking wisdom. The wisdom of learning, thinking and application makes a Man of the Way.
8. Desisting from idle chatter. Vain talk disturbs the mind and leads away from liberation.

Each of these eight awarenesses contains the others, making sixty-four in all. Students should single-mindedly follow the Way, aware that all things are unstable and subject to disintegration.

The Four Integrative Methods of Bodhisattvas are:

1. Giving. This means not being greedy or coveting anything. It also means not flattering, which is just another way of coveting.
2. Maintaining kind speech. This is the absence of harsh speech, one of the Buddhist precepts. When one knows that all beings and objects are the Buddha, kind speech is the most appropriate way of speaking.
3. Acting beneficially. This means employing the skilful means of the Bodhisattva for the benefit of all beings.
4. Co-operating. Co-operation, by not opposing, means knowing that oneself and others are one suchness. Just as “the ocean does not refuse water”, so one co-operates by knowing all as Self.

These four methods show how an enlightening being should operate in the world, unselfishly and, as Dogen puts it, “facing everyone with a mild countenance”.

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