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<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nCold and snow everywhere in the northern half the continent. I\u2019m off work and relieved that I don\u2019t have the morning commute as more than a dozen accidents have the metro on lock down.<\/span><\/p>\n A reporter is coming out to interview me later \u2013 if he can get through the traffic, I suppose. When my son heard about the local newspaper\u2019s interest in me he said, \u201cIs it because you\u2019re so weird?\u201d<\/p>\n Ah, children are such a blessing.<\/p>\n My brother is also coming over for some translation work which you may hear about here down the road.<\/p>\n But before all that gets rolling, I\u2019ve got some Dogen<\/span><\/span>-related thoughts and memories for you.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I first encountered Dogen<\/span><\/span> in the Minneapolis Public Library in mid 1977 while <\/span><\/span>browsing<\/span><\/span> the \u201cBuddhism\u201d section\u2019s one-dozen books. I pulled <\/span><\/span>Zen Master <\/span>Dogen<\/span><\/span><\/span> off the shelf, opened it randomly and read, \u201cOur bodies are like dew on the grass, and our lives like a flash of lightning, vanishing in a moment.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDamn \u2026 this guy knows something,\u201d I thought.<\/p>\n Shortly thereafter I met Katagiri<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span>Roshi<\/span><\/span> and spent thirteen years with him studying <\/span><\/span>Dogen<\/span><\/span> in every practice period, every <\/span><\/span>sesshin<\/span><\/span>, every period of <\/span><\/span>zazen<\/span><\/span>. When I was paying attention, that is.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In a recent post on the Monkey Mind blog, Bloggisattva<\/span><\/span> James Ford criticized my sole focus on <\/span><\/span>Dogen<\/span><\/span> in his loving, gentle way. <\/span>Click here if you\u2019re interested.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As I commented then, Katagiri<\/span><\/span> told me of an argument he once had with <\/span><\/span>Maezumi<\/span><\/span> when they were both young priests at the LA Soto temple in the early 1960\u2019s. <\/span><\/span>Maezumi<\/span><\/span> criticized <\/span><\/span>Katagiri<\/span><\/span> for relying too much on <\/span>Dogen<\/span><\/span>, for talking about him too much. <\/span><\/span>Katagiri\u2019s<\/span><\/span> response was something like, \u201cWell, anyway, <\/span><\/span>Dogen<\/span><\/span>\u2013<\/span><\/span>zenji<\/span><\/span> say\u2026.\u201d <\/span><\/span>Katagiri<\/span><\/span> even quoted <\/span><\/span>Dogen<\/span><\/span> in justifying his over-reliance on <\/span><\/span>Dogen<\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/span>Roshi<\/span><\/span> found this very funny, leaning his head back laughing at himself after he told this story.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n