Dogen is criticizing the interpretation of unique enlightenment that claims one can possess the dharma. One might have kensho, however one might not essentially concentrate on it. Waking up permits you to see and admire the dharma, and from this viewpoint the dharma is what’s aside from you, as a result of the dharma is unconditioned. You and I are conditioned. To get up, to be liberated, is to have the ability to replicate the buddhadharma, as it’s, with out your projection. You don’t possess enlightenment. It possesses you.
To make this level, Dogen alludes to Daoist concepts about yin and yang. The idea of yin and yang could be very dialectical. You’re both on one aspect or the opposite. And if you happen to go too far to both excessive, you may flip to the opposite aspect. Yang is the energetic, masculine precept, and yin is the receptive, female precept. Daoism would say that it is best to dwell on the yin aspect as a lot as doable, as a result of it’s receptive and may see the opposite aspect. Once we are on the yang aspect, we are usually blind and act out in methods which might be unbalanced. We have to use this male vitality to be on the planet, however as soon as we’ve completed the duty at hand, it’s smart to return to the yin aspect.
Dogen builds his total argument round this central metaphor of the darkish aspect of the mirror that displays the buddhadharma. In a while he makes use of extra opposites and pairs: Fish and birds, Buddhist enlightenment and delusion, shore and the boat, firewood and ash. He’s utilizing these metaphors always all through the Genjokoan, and he says the identical factor over and over and over: be on the yin aspect. He’s saying this: To recover from your self, admire what’s aside from you and get on with residing, being liberated, freed from the karma that we create. Belief the universe and let it carry you alongside.
When Dogen says that to check Buddhism is to check the self, he’s inviting you to let go of your secondhand expertise and see instantly. Research your human nature, your habits, your ideas, your habits—and you might uncover you aren’t as attention-grabbing as you thought. To get up is to find your genuine self, which is at all times firsthand and out of doors all contrivances and conventions.
The French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) outlined non secular consciousness as the power to make a distinction between what’s mundane and what’s sacred. With out enlightenment, we simply have humanistic psychology or mindfulness, however that’s not the identical as mindfulness within the context of a real religious path of awakening. And that’s not what Dogen is educating. Dogen could be very clear about enlightenment. He’s saying that’s the purpose—to get up.
At the identical time, Dogen is totally real looking. He’s not speaking about an excellent of enlightenment. He’s speaking concerning the precise residing transmission of the dharma. The primary 4 traces of the Genjokoan illustrate this level properly. The passage begins off with Dogen speaking concerning the Buddhist teachings from the surface, the yang aspect. As David Brazier interprets:
Start and dying, apply and each day life, delusion and enlightenment, peculiar beings and all of the Buddhas; such is the Buddha dao [Buddha way], Buddha’s dharma of all dharmas.
Then Dogen talks about experiencing the teachings for your self. (Be aware that the time period that Dogen makes use of for the Buddha manner is Buddha dao, which carries a higher sense of the Chinese language thought encompassing it.)
Because the myriad dharmas are aside from self, when one is of their midst, there are not any creating and destroying, no sentient beings and all buddhas, no delusion and enlightenment.
He has moved to the yin aspect, the place all these dualities disappear. Then, within the third line, he unifies the primary two traces:
Out of abundance and lack, springs forth the unique dao of Buddha, and for this there may be making and destroying, delusion and enlightenment, and there live buddhas.
He’s speaking about if you find yourself that mirror reflecting the buddhadharma. There isn’t a self right here, and the world is sacred via and thru.
It’s doable to get caught right here—to assume you’ve lastly arrived—however the path is at all times the aim. Follow is enlightenment. With the fourth line, he throws chilly water on you:
So it’s and however, blossoms fall bittersweet and weeds unfold amidst woeful resignations.
You simply wakened. You simply completed a seven-day sesshin [meditation retreat] and your samadhi [meditative concentration] could be very robust. You’re having fun with this peaceable, calm, and spacious consciousness, however little by little, daily it slowly fades. So that you would possibly really feel barely depressed that such readability doesn’t appear to final. You’re nonetheless topic to impermanence. Your physique goes to get outdated, you’re going to get sick, and also you’re going to undergo. You received’t return to delusion in the identical manner—however you’ll nonetheless must cope with issues and difficulties. That is what is supposed by the koan of Genjokoan.
The typical Chinese language characters for koan roughly imply “a public case.” However Dogen shouldn’t be utilizing these characters right here, and he doesn’t do something accidentally or use phrases haphazardly. The characters he makes use of for koan discuss with equality or stability.
Right here, he’s bringing in a Confucian ingredient, the precept of li, which suggests to carry out rites accurately in order that heaven and earth stay in stability together with the pure proper ordering of each day life. This consists of simply doing all your duties, like if in case you have a member of the family who’s sick and it’s a must to care for them as an alternative of going out to a celebration.
Dogen is saying that enlightenment consists of this Confucian thought of li, which isn’t a passive factor. You truly change into engaged not directly along with your group, your sangha, the world, your loved ones. The koan of the Genjokoan is no matter circumstance you’re in. Your problem is to take your home there, settle for that scenario, and work with it.
For Dogen, nonduality shouldn’t be an summary philosophy concerning the absolute and relative. He makes use of it as a sensible device. He says that if you find yourself that mirror and also you notice genjo, you manifest the reality of the outstanding world and you’ve got a accountability to have interaction on the planet. You need to do one thing. So once you give life to your life wholeheartedly by accepting what is true right here, which is koan, then genjo is what manifests.
The Genjokoan begins with a reference to the buddha dao and ends with a dialogue of li. However all through he’s speaking about religion, a religion within the buddhadharma and a religion that’s supported by rigorous apply.
He’s saying, many times, neglect your self, be humble, be modest. No matter your circumstance, whether or not excessive or low, good or unhealthy, that’s your life simply as it’s, so proper right here is at all times Genjokoan. However don’t be complacent. He warns that if you happen to assume you perceive the dharma, then you definitely most likely don’t. Don’t assume you’ve arrived at some place the place there isn’t any extra work to be completed. Wherever you’ve arrived is only a leaping off place for the subsequent factor that it is advisable do. Don’t simply drop off body-mind. Drop off the dropped-off body-mind.
Roshi Robert Althouse is an ordained Zen Buddhist priest and abbot of the Zen Life & Meditation Heart in Chicago, which he cofounded along with his spouse, Reverend June Ryushin Tanoue.
