<\/div>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/div>\nObstacle? Yes \u2013 that\u2019s high praise. It might be such a barrier that it will encourage people to realize genjokoan for themselves, not relying even on old, dead, Dogen.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
And that\u2019s just where I don\u2019t see eye-to-eye with Shohaku. We\u2019ve been around this one at least several times going back many years.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Shohaku (and many Soto Zen scholars and priests in Japan) argue that Dogen was against \u201cpersonal\u201d enlightenment or kensho. Kensho is now associated with the Rinzai lineage and shikantaza with the Soto line.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\nBoth sides of this debate trot out passages from Dogen that show that he was against kensho and<\/i> that he was for it. There was a long discussion of this over at the Zen Forum International so I\u2019ll spare you that for now.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\nImv, the abundance of evidence for both sides points to the likelihood of a third option \u2013 Dogen\u2019s view on kensho was more nuanced and complex than contemporary sectarian politics admit.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
This is going to be the theme of my next book. For now, I want to look at one of the arguments Shohaku makes about Dogen\u2019s enlightenment. He says it didn\u2019t happen.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
You might know the story (and even seen it happen in the movie). After Dogen meets Rujing, he sits long and devotedly, finally hearing Rujing scold the monk who is sitting and sleeping next to Dogen, \u201cZen study is dropping mind and body.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cHearing this, suddenly Dogen was greatly enlightened.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\n <\/span><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Or so says an important work by Keizan, the third ancestor after Dogen, Transmission of Light<\/i>. Dogen himself does not tell the story of his own enlightenment in any of the extant works credited to him. So Shohaku and a number of other eminent Dogen scholars argue that Keizan made it up. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
I gotta say that Soto Zen is one hinky sect! Our claim to Buddhist<\/a> legitimacy is that our founder was not enlightened and the second founder, Keizan, was a big fibber! Or that Dogen was so pure that he didn\u2019t have a mere personal enlightenment. Kinda odd, don\u2019t you think?<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Anyway, I respectfully disagree with this position for both historical and buddhadharmical reasons.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\nFirst on the historical side. Dogen didn\u2019t say a lot about himself personally and when he did it usually wasn\u2019t to blow his own horn. The stories in the Tenzokyokun<\/i>, for example, have Dogen bested by old tenzos.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Further, Dogen doesn\u2019t comment on some really important things \u2013 he doesn\u2019t say why he didn\u2019t take the full vinaya ordination, why he left Kyoto, why he didn\u2019t hang out longer with the Shogun in Kamakura, etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Dogen wasn\u2019t a modern guy who went on and on about himself at dinner until his date was deliriously bored.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Also, Keizan was well-connected with Dogen\u2019s inner circle. His grandmother was a close student of Dogen. Keizan studied closely with several of Dogen\u2019s direct descendants. Probably a bunch of monks in his assembly had close connections with those teachers as well and so fabricating an enlightenment story would have made waves.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Another thing that\u2019s fishy about arguing that Dogen didn\u2019t have kensho is that even if he didn\u2019t, what about all the Chinese ancestors whose kensho stories are well-known? What about the Buddha? What about the many Soto Zen kensho stories after Dogen? Keizan, Gento Sokuju, and Katagiri, to name just a few, all report an experience that sounds very much like kensho, whether they used the \u201ck\u201d word or not.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
It seems to me that the story of Dogen\u2019s enlightenment was probably passed orally from Dogen to Keizan via his grandmother or mother or one of his teachers.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/div>\nThen there\u2019s the buddhadharmic side. Everyone I know who\u2019s had a taste of kensho sees the turn-around characteristic of that experience in Dogen\u2019s work. Dogen is inspiring to many for just this reason \u2013 he beautifully and powerfully presents the possibility of radically opening the heart and manifesting that openness in the world in ways that really count.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\nIt is for this primary reason, imv, that Dogen\u2019s Zen has so much to offer the helpless ones in the future who depend on our practice and enlightenment.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n <\/span><\/span><\/div>\nSo \u2026 did Dogen have a personal enlightenment?\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Yes, but he didn\u2019t take it personally. <\/span><\/span> <\/div>\n
![](\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0uPSljNE9f4\/S-dLqc5F7oI\/AAAAAAAAA5U\/gNQ44VwZxYY\/s1600\/genjokoan.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n