From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dōgen | |
|---|---|
| Title | Zen Master |
| Personal | |
| Born | 19 January 1200 Kyoto, Japan |
| Died | 22 September 1253 (aged 53) Kyoto, Japan |
| Religion | Buddhism |
| School | Sōtō |
| Senior posting | |
| Predecessor | Rujing |
| Part of a series on |
| Zen Buddhism |
|---|
| showMain articles |
| showPersons |
| showDoctrines |
| showTraditions |
| showAwakening |
| showTeachings |
| showPractice |
| showSchools |
| showRelated schools |
| vte |
| Part of a series on |
| Buddhism in Japan |
|---|
| showSchools |
| showKey figures |
| showKey topics |
| Glossary of Japanese Buddhism |
| vte |
Dōgen Zenji (道元禅師; 19 January 1200 – 22 September 1253),[1] also known as Dōgen Kigen (道元希玄), Eihei Dōgen (永平道元), Kōso Jōyō Daishi (高祖承陽大師), or Busshō Dentō Kokushi (仏性伝東国師), was a Japanese Buddhist priest, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan.
Originally ordained as a monk in the Tendai School in Kyoto, he was ultimately dissatisfied with its teaching and traveled to China to seek out what he believed to be a more authentic Buddhism. He remained there for five years, finally training under Tiantong Rujing, an eminent teacher of the Chinese Caodong lineage. Upon his return to Japan, he began promoting the practice of zazen (sitting meditation) through literary works such as Fukan zazengi and Bendōwa.
He eventually broke relations completely with the powerful Tendai School, and, after several years of likely friction between himself and the establishment, left Kyoto for the mountainous countryside where he founded the monastery Eihei-ji, which remains the head temple of the Sōtō school today.
Dōgen is known for his extensive writing including his most famous work, the collection of 95 essays called the Shōbōgenzō, but also Eihei Kōroku, a collection of his talks, poetry, and commentaries, and Eihei Shingi, the first Zen monastic code written in Japan, among others.
Biography
Early life
Dōgen was probably born into a noble family, though as an illegitimate child of Minamoto Michitomo, who served in the imperial court as a high-ranking ashō (亞相, “Councillor of State”).[2] His mother is said to have died when Dōgen was age 7.[3]
Early training
At some later point, Dōgen became a low-ranking monk on Mount Hiei, the headquarters of the Tendai school of Buddhism. According to the Kenzeiki (建撕記), he became possessed by a single question with regard to the Tendai doctrine:
As I study both the exoteric and the esoteric schools of Buddhism, they maintain that human beings are endowed with Dharma-nature by birth. If this is the case, why did the Buddhas of all ages — undoubtedly in possession of enlightenment — find it necessary to seek enlightenment and engage in spiritual practice?[4][5]
This question was, in large part, prompted by the Tendai concept of original enlightenment (本覚 hongaku), which states that all human beings are enlightened by nature and that, consequently, any notion of achieving enlightenment through practice is fundamentally flawed.[6]
The Kenzeiki further states that he found no answer to his question at Mount Hiei, and that he was disillusioned by the internal politics and need for social prominence for advancement.[2] Therefore, Dōgen left to seek an answer from other Buddhist masters. He went to visit Kōin, the Tendai abbot of Onjō-ji Temple (園城寺), asking him this same question. Kōin said that, in order to find an answer, he might want to consider studying Chán in China.[7] In 1217, two years after the death of contemporary Zen Buddhist Myōan Eisai, Dōgen went to study at Kennin-ji Temple (建仁寺), under Eisai’s successor, Myōzen (明全).[2]
Travel to China
In 1223, Dōgen and Myōzen undertook the dangerous passage across the East China Sea to China to study in Jing-de-si (Ching-te-ssu, 景德寺) monastery as Eisai had once done.[citation needed]
In China, Dōgen first went to the leading Chan monasteries in Zhèjiāng province. At the time, most Chan teachers based their training around the use of gōng-àns (Japanese: kōan). Though Dōgen assiduously studied the kōans, he became disenchanted with the heavy emphasis laid upon them, and wondered why the sutras were not studied more. At one point, owing to this disenchantment, Dōgen even refused Dharma transmission from a teacher.[8] Then, in 1225, he decided to visit a master named Rújìng (如淨; J. Nyōjo), the thirteenth patriarch of the Cáodòng (J. Sōtō) lineage of Zen Buddhism, at Mount Tiāntóng (天童山 Tiāntóngshān; J. Tendōzan) in Níngbō. Rujing was reputed to have a style of Chan that was different from the other masters whom Dōgen had thus far encountered. In later writings, Dōgen referred to Rujing as “the Old Buddha”. Additionally he affectionately described both Rujing and Myōzen as senshi (先師, “Ancient Teacher”).[2]
Under Rujing, Dōgen realized liberation of body and mind upon hearing the master say, “Cast off body and mind” (身心脱落 shēn xīn tuō luò). This phrase would continue to have great importance to Dōgen throughout his life, and can be found scattered throughout his writings, as—for example—in a famous section of his “Genjōkōan” (現成公案):
To study the Way is to study the Self. To study the Self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe. To be enlightened by all things of the universe is to cast off the body and mind of the self as well as those of others. Even the traces of enlightenment are wiped out, and life with traceless enlightenment goes on forever and ever.[9]
Myōzen died shortly after Dōgen arrived at Mount Tiantong. In 1227,[10] Dōgen received Dharma transmission and inka from Rujing, and remarked on how he had finally settled his “life’s quest of the great matter”.[11]
Return to Japan
Dōgen watching the moon. Hōkyōji monastery, Fukui prefecture, circa 1250.
Dōgen returned to Japan in 1227 or 1228, going back to stay at Kennin-ji, where he had trained previously.[2] Among his first actions upon returning was to write down the Fukan Zazengi[12] (普観坐禅儀; “Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen”), a short text emphasizing the importance of and giving instructions for zazen, or sitting meditation.[13]
However, tension soon arose as the Tendai community began taking steps to suppress both Zen and Jōdo Shinshū, the new forms of Buddhism in Japan. In the face of this tension, Dōgen left the Tendai dominion of Kyōto in 1230, settling instead in an abandoned temple in what is today the city of Uji, south of Kyōto.[14] In 1233, Dōgen founded the Kannon-dōri-in[15] in Fukakusa as a small center of practice. He later expanded this temple into Kōshōhōrin-ji (興聖法林寺).[16]
Eihei-ji
In 1243, Hatano Yoshishige (波多野義重) offered to relocate Dōgen’s community to Echizen province, far to the north of Kyōto. Dōgen accepted because of the ongoing tension with the Tendai community, and the growing competition of the Rinzai-school.[17]
His followers built a comprehensive center of practice there, calling it Daibutsu Temple (Daibutsu-ji, 大仏寺). While the construction work was going on, Dōgen would live and teach at Yoshimine-dera Temple (Kippō-ji, 吉峯寺), which is located close to Daibutsu-ji. During his stay at Kippō-ji, Dōgen “fell into a depression”.[17] It marked a turning point in his life, giving way to “rigorous critique of Rinzai Zen”.[17] He criticized Dahui Zonggao, the most influential figure of Song Dynasty Chán.[18]
In 1246, Dōgen renamed Daibutsu-ji, calling it Eihei-ji.[19] This temple remains one of the two head temples of Sōtō Zen in Japan today, the other being Sōji-ji.[20]
Dōgen spent the remainder of his life teaching and writing at Eihei-ji. In 1247, the newly installed shōgun’s regent, Hōjō Tokiyori, invited Dōgen to come to Kamakura to teach him. Dōgen made the rather long journey east to provide the shōgun with lay ordination, and then returned to Eihei-ji in 1248. In the autumn of 1252, Dōgen fell ill, and soon showed no signs of recovering. He presented his robes to his main apprentice, Koun Ejō (孤雲懐弉), making him the abbot of Eihei-ji.[citation needed]
Death
At Hatano Yoshishige’s invitation, Dōgen left for Kyōto in search of a remedy for his illness. In 1253, soon after arriving in Kyōto, Dōgen died. Shortly before his death, he had written a death poem:
Fifty-four years lighting up the sky.
A quivering leap smashes a billion worlds.
Hah!
Entire body looks for nothing.
Living, I plunge into Yellow Springs.[21]
Miraculous events and auspicious signs
Several “miraculous experiences”[22] and “auspicious signs”[23] have been recorded in Dōgen’s life,[22][24][25][note 1] some of them quite famous.[27][25] According to Bodiford, “Monks and laymen recorded these events as testaments to his great mystical power,” which “helped confirm the legacy of Dōgen’s teachings against competing claims made by members of the Buddhist establishment and other outcast groups.” Bodiford further notes that the “magical events at Eiheiji helped identify the temple as a cultic center,” putting it at a par with other temples where supernatural events occurred.[22] According to Faure, for Dōgen these auspicious signs were proof that “Eiheiji was the only place in Japan where the Buddhist Dharma was transmitted correctly and that this monastery was thus rivaled by no other.”[31]
In Menzan Zuihō’s well-known 1753 edition of Dōgen’s biography, it records that while traveling in China with his companion Dōshō, Dōgen became very ill, and a deity appeared before him who gave him medicine which instantly healed him:[25]
Dōgen fell gravely ill on his way back from China but had no medicines that could be of use. Suddenly, an immortal appeared and gave Dōgen a herbal pill, after which he immediately became better. The master asked this deity to reveal its identity. The mysterious figure replied, “I am the Japanese kami Inari” and disappeared. The medicine became known as Gedokugan, which has been ever since been part of the Dōshō family heritage […] Dōgen then told Dōshō that this rare and wondrous medicine had been bestowed on him by a true kami for the protection of the great Dharma, [and that] this medicine of many benefits should be distributed to temples so that they might spread the Dharma heritage.[25]
This medicine, which later became known as Gedokuen or “Poison-Dispelling Pill” was then produced by the Sōtō church until the Meiji Era, and was commonly sold nationwide as an herbal medicine,[32] and became a source of income for the Sōtō church.[25][32]The statue memorializing Dōgen’s vision of Avalokiteshvara at a pond in Eihei-ji, Japan.
Another famous incident happened when he was returning to Japan from China. The ship he was on was caught in a storm. In this instance, the storm became so severe, that the crew feared the ship would sink and kill them all. Dōgen then began leading the crew in recitation of chants to Kannon (Avalokiteshwara), during which, the Bodhisattva appeared before him, and several of the crew saw her as well.[26] After the vision appeared, the storm began to calm down, and consensus of those aboard was that they had been saved due to the intervention of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshwara.[26] This story is repeated in official works sponsored by the Sōtō Shū Head Office[27][26] and there is even a sculpture of the event in a water treatment pond in Eihei-ji Temple.[26][29] Additionally, there is a 14th-century copy of a painting of the same Kannon, that was supposedly commissioned by Dōgen, that includes a piece of calligraphy that is possibly an original in Dōgen’s own hand, recording his gratitude to Avalokiteshwara:
From the single blossom five leaves uncurled: Upon one single leaf a Tathagata stood alone. Her vow to harmonize our lives is ocean deep, As we spin on and on, shouldering our deeds of right and wrong. –written by the mendicant monk Dōgen, September 26, 1242.[33][26]
Another miraculous event occurred, while Dōgen was at Eihei-ji. During a ceremony of gratitude for the 16 Celestial Arahants (called Rakan in Japanese), a vision of 16 Arahants appeared before Dōgen descending upon a multi-colored cloud,[26] and the statues of the Arahants that were present at the event began to emanate rays of light,[34] to which Dōgen then exclaimed:
The Rakans caused to appear felicitous flowers, exceedingly wonderful and beautiful[28]
Dōgen was profoundly moved by the entire experience, and took it as an auspicious sign that the offerings of the ceremony had been accepted.[24] In his writings he wrote:
As for other examples of the appearance of auspicious signs, apart from [the case of] the rock bridge of Mount Tiantai, [in the province] of Taizhou, in the great kingdom of the Song, nowhere else to my knowledge has there been one to compare with this one. But on this mountain [Kichijōsan, the location of Eiheiji] many apparitions have already happened. This is truly a very auspicious sign showing that, in their deep compassion, [the Arahats] are protecting the men and the Dharma of this mountain. This is why it appeared to me.” [23][30]
Dōgen is also recorded to have had multiple encounters with non-human beings.[35][25][24] Aside from his encounter with the kami Inari in China, in the Denkōrou it is recorded that while at Kōshō-ji, he was also visited by a deva who came to observe during certain ceremonies, as well as a dragon who visited him at Eihei-Ji and requested to be given the eight abstinence Precepts:[35]
When he was at Kōshō-ji a deva used to come to hear the Precepts and join in as an observer at the twice-monthly renewal of Bodhisattva vows. At Eihei-ji a divine dragon showed up requesting the eight Precepts of abstinence and asking to be included among the daily transfers of merit. Because of this Dōgen wrote out the eight Precepts every day and offered the merit thereof to the dragon. Up to this very day this practice has not been neglected.[35]