On Life and Death: Deciphering Dogen’s 'Shoji'

-

 

It has been a season of many losses within my family and circle of friends, bringing life and death to the forefront of my mind. Life and death is something of a koan that each of us must resolve—the Great Matter that I spoke of in a recent post. Dogen’s Shoji (Life and Death), on the other hand, is a koan in the more traditional and literal sense. It is one short fascicle of a larger work, the Shobogenzo, composed sometime in the first half of the 13th Century by Eihei Dogen, preeminent teacher within the Soto Zen tradition.


Sunset with silhouette of trees


Dogen begins Shoji with a quote from another Zen teacher: “Because in life and death there is buddha, there is no life and death” (Nishijima and Cross, 2009, p. 299). This first sentence may well be a koan unto itself—a koan within a koan, if you will. What does it mean? Perhaps we can gain a toehold by thinking of Buddha as ultimate reality beyond all so-called separate things. Thus, when we recognize Buddha in life and death, we see them as but aspects of a seamless continuation that we’ve come to erroneously parse into “my life,” “my death,” “my loved one’s life,” “my loved one’s death.” We might also understand that, since there is no realization of buddhahood other than within this life and death, and since the realization of buddhahood is the unsurpassed realization of the emptiness of all phenomena, then life and death are also seen as empty—lacking permanence and finality.

Some grasp of this first sentence might make us feel as though we have a handle on what Dogen is about to present. Ah, but then we get to the second sentence where Dogen quotes yet another Zen teacher: “Because in life and death there is no ‘buddha,’ we are not deluded in life and death” (Nishijima and Cross, 2009, p. 299). So, which is it? Is buddha in life and death or not? In fact, Dogen maintains that both these utterances are great truths. Hence, our koan within a koan.

Might a different translation shed some light on the matter? Let’s see: 1. “There is no life and death when Buddha is within life and death.”  2. “If there is no Buddha within life and death, then there is no illusion about life and death” (Nishiyama, 1975, p. 21). Hmm. It would seem this couplet presents the same difficulty as the first. Let’s look at another: 1. “Because there is Buddha in birth and death, there is no birth and death.” 2. “[B]ecause there is no Buddha in birth and death, one is not deluded by birth and death” (Cleary, 2001, p. 363). Are you confused? You’re in good company! Is there a clue to be found somewhere?

In fact, in the note preceding Hubert Nearman’s translation, we do find a so-called “turning word,” a tip that will lead us to a more complete understanding of Shoji. Nearman maintains that Dogen is actually playing with nuanced meanings of the word shoji. On one hand we have “living and dying,” in reference to a dynamic process always transitioning from one moment to another. He contrasts this with “life and death,” which are merely ideas created by the deluded mind. Nearman goes on to say that “birth and death” are merely two distinct moments that we point to in the seamless and continuous process of “living and dying.” Aha!     

Let’s now look at Nearman’s presentation of this couplet: 1. “Because there is Buddha within living and dying, life and death do not exist.” 2. “Because the Buddha did not exist within life and death, He was not infatuated with living and dying” (Nearman, 2007, p. 1086). I maintain that the first quote is amenable to the interpretation that I presented at the beginning of this post. But what does the second quote add? Well, since Buddha arises within the seamless and continuous process of living and dying and not from within barren (and erroneous) ideas about life and death, then he was able to relinquish attachment to living and dying, meeting each moment with openness and equanimity.

We can now see this couplet within the context of one of Dogen’s most popular teachings. This is from Genjokoan, another fascicle of the Shobogenzo: “To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by all things. To be verified by all things is to let the body and mind of the self and the body and mind of others drop off. There is a trace of realization that cannot be grasped. We endlessly express this ungraspable trace of realization” (Okumura, 2010, p.2). This quote informs our understanding of Shoji in that it points to life lived in connection with all things, arising with and from all things, none of which are truly separate one from another.

We see another great Zen teaching evident in Dogen’s Shoji, namely, that of the unified nature of nirvana and samsara. Further on in Shoji, Dogen says: “[L]iving and dying is what nirvana is, for there is nothing to despise in living and dying, nor anything to be wished for in nirvana” (Nearman, 2007, p. 1086). So, whereas some think of nirvana as liberation from this samsaric realm of birth and death, Dogen is reminding us that liberation is only to be found right here and now amidst this “messy” dance.

You may be wondering, though, whether Shoji can really help us with our most intimate existential angst? Can it truly help us resolve the Great Matter, or is it just more words about words? In other words, are these just ideas to ponder until such time as we find ourselves “down in the trenches,” having come face-to-face with our own death or that of a loved one? Only you can judge the merit contained therein, but here is a passage that may help you decide: “This living and dying is precisely what the treasured life of a Buddha is. If we hate life and want to throw it away, that is just our attempt to throw away the treasured life of Buddha. And if we go no farther than this and clutch onto life and death, this too is our throwing away the treasured life of Buddha by limiting ourselves to the superficial appearance of Buddha. When there is nothing we hate and nothing we cling to, then, for the first time, we enter the Heart of Buddha” (Nearman, 2007, pp. 1086-1087).

This is why the practice of equanimity is so central to the practice of Buddhism. For if we struggle with being denied our fountain beverage of choice at whatever convenience store we happen to find ourselves stopped at during our travels, then we will no doubt struggle as death begins to stare us down. Thus, let me close this post with one more passage from Shoji: “When we simply let go of and forget all about ‘my body’ and ‘my mind’, relinquishing them to the Life of Buddha and letting them be put into operation from the vantage point of Buddha, then, when we rely on this—following where It leads—without forcing the body or laboring the mind, we free ourselves from life and death, and become Buddha” (Nearman, 2007, p. 1087).

May it be so for each and every one of us.


References

 

Cleary, T. (2001). Shobogenzo: Zen essays by Dogen. In Classics of Buddhism and Zen: The collected translations of Thomas Cleary, Vol. Two. (T. Cleary, Trans.) Shambhala Publications by special arrangement with University of Hawaii Press. 

 

Nearman, H. (2007) Shobogenzo: The treasure house of the eye of the true teaching. (H. Nearman, Trans.) Shasta Abbey Press: https://www.shastaabbey.org/pdf/shoboAll.pdf

 

Nishijima, G.W., Cross, C. (2009) Shobogenzo: The true dharma-eye treasury, Vol. IV. (G. W. Nishijima & C. Cross, Trans.) dBET PDF Version: https://terebess.hu/zen/dogen/Shobogenzo4.pdf

 

Nishiyama, K. (1975). Shobogenzo: the eye and treasury of the true law, Vol. I. (K. Nishiyama, Trans.) Published by Nakayama Shobo Buddhist Book Store

 

Okumura, S. (2010). Realizing genjokoan: The key to Dogen’s shobogenzo. (S. Okumura, Trans.) Wisdom Publications.



Copyright 2024 by Mark Robert Frank

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dogen's 'Flower of Emptiness' - Part 2

-
Image
Dogen’s Shobogenzo contains a fascicle known as Kuge , or Flower of Emptiness . As discussed in Part 1, kuge is a term that is sometimes used to describe apparitions caused by cataracts or some other eye disease – ‘flowers in the sky’, so to speak. Within the context of a Buddhist discussion, kuge is sometimes used in reference to our obscured vision of ‘ things as it is ’ – vision which presumably becomes clarified over the course of our meditative practice. In Kuge , Dogen uses our more commonsensical understanding of ‘flowers in the sky’ as a means to discuss the true nature of emptiness , shunyata , as he understands it. Thus, the translation of Kuge as The Flower of Emptiness (Nishiyama, 1975). For those who have not yet had the opportunity to read Part 1 , I will reiterate the caution regarding interpreting in a nihilistic way Buddhist teachings related to emptiness . Without correct understanding of emptiness we might misinterpret the teaching that no thing...
Read more

A Buddhist Takes Communion / A Buddhist Take On Communion

-
Image
Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” – Luke 22:19-20, NRSV   Yes, at the risk of prompting the eyes of many Buddhist-leaning readers to begin glazing over (What, is this going to be a sermon or something?), and at the risk of prompting the eyes of many Christian-leaning readers to narrow in suspicion (What does this Buddhist know about Christianity, anyway?), I’m going consider how the Lord’s Supper might appear if viewed through a Buddhist lens. In doing so I hope that Buddhist and Christian alike will glimpse something that leads to deeper spiritual understanding within each respective tradition.       Perhaps a little personal background will assuage your curiosity as to why I’m even con...
Read more

Eclipses, Ice Cream, I Love You, Goodbye

-
Image
Our family lost its matriarch this past April. Darlene was an incredibly accomplished professional woman—having traveled the world as part of a wife and husband ministerial team. She was retired by the time I got to know her, though, and most people in our circle simply referred to her as Mom or Granny. Darlene holding one of our newest family members. Having married into the clan somewhat late in life, and with my biological mother still alive, I never quite felt comfortable calling her Mom. Instead, I settled into calling her Darlene. Regardless of what I called her, though, as my birth mother slowly faded away into the haze of dementia, Darlene was there for me as the perfect mother-in-law. But there were times when I felt like an imperfect son-in-law. You see, Darlene poured out more love than I was able to accept. She knew I loved plants and gardening, for instance, and she just kept them coming. Even after we got young cats that made keeping houseplants nearly impossible, the...
Read more