Tag Archives: eihei dōgen

Musings on Metaphor

January 28, 2012 · by · in general, philosophy, poetry

Recently I’ve been coming back to and reflecting on this old post a lot The Poet and the Mystic where I quoted Emerson as saying: “Here is the difference betwixt the poet and the mystic, that the last nails a symbol to one sense, which was a true sense for a moment, but soon becomes [...]

When we press down one part of the Universe …

November 22, 2011 · by · in practice

This quotation, which I came across in my creative writing class, made me recall Dōgen’s way of writing and teaching (my emphasis added): “Every set of possibilites we open closes another set.  The same is true in reverse.  Every set of possibilities we close opens another set.  This is another way of saying that every time [...]

Notes on Shohaku Okumura’s ‘Realizing Genjokoan’ (W2)

August 30, 2011 · by · in books, doctrine, practice

This will be just a brief note, focusing on choices in translation. My advisor has been working on “Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook” – which I think will be a great resource for anyone interested in Japanese thought (then again, I am biased..) which includes his own translation of Genjōkoan. I cannot reproduce it in its entirety, [...]

Buddha and Pure Land as Dynamic Activity

July 31, 2011 · by · in books, doctrine

Earlier this week, in Notes on Shohaku Okumura’s ‘Realizing Genjokoan’ (W1), Wamae described the active nature of enlightenment in Dōgen’s writings: This question of the relationship between ‘original enlightenment’ and continuing Buddhist practice is one that, arguably, occupies Dōgen’s writings throughout his life. In brief, the answer he found was that enlightenment (original, or otherwise) [...]

Notes on Shohaku Okumura’s ‘Realizing Genjokoan’ (W1)

July 28, 2011 · by · in books, doctrine, practice

I mentioned in a comment to Kyōshin’s first post that ‘Realizing Genjokoan‘ suffers from a lack of clarity as to its audience. Thinking about the issue a little further, I think the issue has to do with the framing of Okumura’s commentary in such a way as to jibe with what might be roughly characterized [...]

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