The Life of Master Dogen

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This morning I want to talk about Master Dogen's life and search. He was born in 1200, and he died when he was 53 years old. He was the illegitimate son, not in marriage, of a politician, and he couldn't live with his father. So he lived with his mother, in the suburbs of Kyoto. When he was two years old, his father died, and when he was seven years old, his mother died. So he was a lonely little boy. But he was very excellent at studying: when he was five years old, he could already read the Chinese Buddhist sutras. After his mother and father died, he went to live with an uncle. But he felt he wanted to find out something in his life which was reliable. Something he could rely on.

He decided when he was twelve that he wanted to be a Buddhist monk, but his uncle refused. So when he was thirteen, he ran away to a temple in Kyoto called Enryakuji, which was a temple of the Tendai school of Buddhism. The Tendai school studied Buddhism theoretically, but they didn't have any practice. He stayed in the Enryakuji temple for about three years and read all the Buddhist sutras in great detail. But he had one very simple question. The sutras of the Tendai school said that human beings are innately perfect, originally perfect, and that they are Buddhas. So the young Master Dogen had one question: if we are all perfect, why do we need to study so hard? But nobody could answer him. The reason was that his question was very practical, but the Tendai monks were very theoretical.

So he couldn't get rid of this question, and the monks were tired of being asked the question. So they told him to go to another temple nearby. He went to a temple called Onjoji and asked the monks at Onjoji temple: if we're all perfect, why do we have to work so hard? But they couldn't answer him.

One of the monks at Onjoji told him to go and ask an old monk who had just returned from China and who lived in a temple called Kenninji. So he went to Kenninji and asked the old monk: if we are all perfect, if we are all Buddhas, why do we need to study and work so hard? The old monk, whose name was Eisai, said to him, ‘I don't know anything about Buddhas in the past, or in the future. But I can see real cats and real cows.’ And Master Dogen was shocked to get some kind of realistic answer, a very practical answer.

He stayed in Kenninji temple for about ten years. Kenninji temple was a temple of the Rinzai school of Buddhism, so they practised zazen. But they had a very strong aim while they were practising: they wanted to become enlightened. So Master Dogen practised and practised and practised, trying to get enlightenment, but he couldn't. And he found that the master of the temple had the same problem. Although they practised on and on, they couldn't find something called enlightenment. So the two of them decided to visit China. Maybe in China they could find the road to enlightenment. So they travelled to China, and for two years they travelled around from one temple to another. But unfortunately, all the temples they visited were Rinzai temples, so everybody was searching for enlightenment. So they had no answer to their problem.

Then the master who was accompanying Master Dogen died in China, but I don't know the cause. So Master Dogen thought, ‘It's useless. I have to return to Japan.’ He was preparing to return to Japan, and he met a very old monk. The very old monk said to him, ‘You should go to Tendo temple. Because in Tendo temple there is a new master who is very, very excellent. He will tell you the answer to your question.’ Master Dogen went to Tendo temple. Actually, he'd been there before, but there was a different master at that time. So he went to Tendo temple and met this new master, whose name was Tendo Nyojo, or in Chinese, Ryujin.

When he met this master, he felt intuitively, ‘This is the man I'm looking for.’ And when the master, Tendo Nyojo, saw this very enthusiastic young Japanese monk, he felt, ‘This is the man I'm looking for.’ So he stayed at the temple for two years, listening to Master Tendo's teaching and practising zazen. One day, while he was practising zazen, Master Tendo shouted at another monk who was sitting near Master Dogen, ‘Stop sleeping! Zazen is dropping off body and dropping off mind.’ When Master Dogen heard this, at last he understood something. Up to that point, he'd been hoping to get something from zazen. But Master Tendo said, ‘Throw everything away.’ When he heard that, he realised, ‘I see. Zazen is not getting anything. It's getting rid of everything.’ So he felt very happy.

Eventually, after another year, he returned to Japan with the blessing of his master. Returning to Japan, he wanted to teach people in Japan zazen, which you can't get anything from. At first he went back to Kenninji temple, but he was not so happy. The monks there were not so sincere, so he left Kenninji temple and set up his own small temple, which he called Kosho Orinji temple. He stayed there for ten years, writing about what he had learned in China and teaching people to practise zazen.

His temple became very popular, but unfortunately the other temples became jealous, and the situation got worse. So one of the men who was supporting him financially suggested that he should leave Kyoto, go into the mountains and build a temple. He did so, and he called the temple Eiheiji. In Eiheiji he continued to teach his students for about ten years. But then, when he was 52, he became ill. It may have been tuberculosis. He went to Kyoto for treatment, but he didn't recover, and he died there, in 1253. So that's Master Dogen's life.

Now I'd just like to talk about what he was teaching. He taught four things. The first was will to the truth. Will to find the truth. In Sanskrit, this is bodhicitta, or body-mind. In Japanese, bushin. And he said, if we don't have will to the truth—

Participant: Yeah, well, it does say the word in Italian, I think, actually. It's just that it says body-mind, but it is like a body. I don't think I'm going along with the body, like, oh—

Mike: Sorry. Body, body.

Participant: Yes, bodhi means wise, wisdom.

Mike: So he said, if we don't have the will to find the truth, it's difficult to find the truth. And if we want to become famous or make economic profit, we cover up our will to the truth. So he recommended that we find our will to the truth, which is our inner desire to find out what is real. That's his first teaching. His second teaching was about cause and effect. He said that cause and effect is absolute. What we do has a result; we always receive the result of what we do. We can never escape. That's his second teaching.

His third teaching was that reality is just in this moment. Although we think about the past, remember the past, it's impossible to return to the past. Although we dream or think about the future, it's impossible to go into the future. We are always in the present. That was his third teaching. His fourth teaching was zazen. He said that the practice of zazen is the centre of Buddhism. Of course, it doesn't matter if we call it zazen or dhyāna or jhāna.

But the practice itself is very important, because when we practise zazen, we notice that we are just living now. Sometimes we wander into strange areas of thinking: dreams, spiritual visions. But when we're practising zazen, we notice that we're still sitting on the cushion. So he recommended that we practise zazen every day in order to teach ourselves to be in the present. Of course, he didn't deny history or the future.

But he said that the past and the future are only in our memory, which includes our physical body. But we're living in the present. So those are the four teachings on which he based his work. Throughout his life after returning to Japan, he gave many lectures to his students. Somebody wrote down his lectures, or sometimes he wrote his lectures on paper himself, and those lectures have been collected together in a book called Shobogenzo. Sho means right or true. Bo, or ho, means Dharma, or law, universal law. Gen means eye. Zo means storehouse. Storehouse of the eyes, which can see the true universal law. So he wrote in here, and we translated it into English in four books. So this is his life's work.

In these books, he writes about everything connected with living in a temple: how to cook, how to go to the toilet, how to cut the nails, clean the teeth, how to enter the zazen hall. Everything that he learned in China. There's one important thing for us in modern times. Master Dogen taught the Buddhist life he found in China, and he taught it to Japanese people, whom he called lowly people, not so country people, not so sophisticated. So if we think about what we should teach about Master Dogen in the modern world, we need to look realistically at what people need. In Japan in the 13th century, people needed some hygiene, rules for living and so on, and also philosophy. In the modern world, what do we need? This is the question. So I'll stop now, and let's have a discussion, or questions— Anybody can talk.

Question: Of those four things which Master Dogen taught, does he put special emphasis on anything? Was one in particular more important than the others, or did he consider them equal?

Mike: He said, without zazen there is no Buddhism. But without the will to the truth, we never start to practise zazen. And will to the truth sometimes depends on cause and effect. And our situation is always in the present moment. So please choose the important one.

Question: Also, how is the Gateless Gate of Master Mumon, from the Sung period, which has forty-nine koans, included in those four volumes?

Mike: No, it's not included. But when Master Dogen was in China, he collected three hundred koan stories, which are discussions between masters and students, and he used them to discuss Buddhism. So you can find them in the Shobogenzo. And we also published a book of the koans, just the three hundred.

Participant: I would like to compare how the two agree. Like it would be cool to know how to—

Mike: He discusses those three hundred stories, most of them in the Shobogenzo. Sometimes he criticises the people in the stories, and sometimes he praises them. I wonder if they're the same stories as in the Gateless Gate.

Question: Did the form of zazen, the way Master Dogen did it, differ from how we do it— perhaps a lot?

Mike: I hope not. He wrote one description of zazen in the Shobogenzo, and he describes how to practise zazen: Zazenki. Fukan Zazengi. Oops. This is his description of how to practise zazen: the position of the body, the position of the head, the position of the hands, and the eyes, the mouth. So I hope it's the same. But I can't ask him.

Question: But he can't be asked any more, so I'll ask. Some schools put the emphasis on the position in meditation. Here the master told us that it isn't important, that we shouldn't put the emphasis on either the position or the mind. Whether it differs in some way, how it is with the attention to the mind— whether we should put attention on the position or not.

Mike: Yes and no, both. If we don't concentrate on keeping our body straight, then we usually sit like this. But when we find a balance in the posture, with the weight of the head on the shoulders and the weight of the shoulders on the pelvis, then we can forget the posture. Like a pile of bricks: we need to balance, and when it's balanced, we can stop. So maybe we concentrate, then we forget, then we concentrate, then we forget.

Question: It's connected with how it actually is with breathing. I've just been reading a book by Master Deshimaru, and he simply describes those crazy five-minute out-breaths and so on, really long breathing techniques, long breaths. So is it important or…?

Mike: Did you? I respect Master Deshimaru. But according to my master, Master Deshimaru did a lot of martial arts, and in martial arts they teach breathing from the hara. This is important to get strength in the centre of the body. But zazen is not a martial art, so in zazen we can breathe naturally. Master Dogen says, ‘Let a short breath be short. Let a long breath be long.’ So if you want to breathe, it's okay. Usually we breathe naturally. I've never stopped breathing yet. So in zazen, I breathe naturally. And another thing: Master Dogen describes zazen as a subtle balance between the physical and the mental.

If we concentrate on the physical, it's true, we stop thinking. So if you count your breathing, or you concentrate on breathing in a special way, it's true, you stop thinking. But instead you're concentrating on the physical. So Master Dogen says neither. Neither physical— But we find it very difficult to understand what he means. So we think either we can think some spiritual thoughts in zazen, a mantra or a koan, and then maybe we can forget that our legs are hurting; or we can concentrate on our breathing and physical movement, and then we can forget about thinking. But how do we forget about both? This is the secret of zazen.

Question: So is it true that zazen is not a static posture, it's a dynamic posture, and that we are always wobbling between mind and body, between body and mind?

Mike: Yes. If we want to balance— In our mind, we have an image: perfect balance. It must be very peaceful and wonderful. I want to get it. But actually, if I balance, I have to wobble. The tightrope walker is wobbling like this. And when we ride a bicycle, we need to wobble. So real balance is different from our idea of balance. So in zazen, Master Dogen says, it's not a fixed posture. He doesn't mean that there's no special way; he means it's dynamic. If we sit rigidly, without moving, it's difficult to find balance. But if we sit dynamically, sometimes moving a little, we can balance ourselves. Okay?

Question: How do we find the balance during practice, and how do we balance it in life in a big city? Practically, twenty-four hours.

Mike: We can rely completely on practising zazen and just lead our lives freely. I will talk more about the physical aspects of zazen this afternoon. But Master Dogen describes zazen like a bell: we hit it, bong, and the next day we hit it. So if we practise zazen, we don't need to worry. But we can get rid of the balanced, nice state. We can practise zazen and then go out into the city and drink lots of beer, or— So we can keep the state, or we can throw the state away.

Maybe it's too simple. Sometimes I wonder if it's true. When my master used to teach me, ‘Just do zazen. And don't worry about anything.’ I couldn't believe it. But slowly, I think it's true. If I try to bring Buddhism into my life intentionally, it makes my life more rigid. Of course we can study and practise at many times in the day, or at the weekends. But there's nothing special needed to take zazen into our everyday life. Just don't throw it away.

Question: How often do you think we should practise zazen? For how long should we practise zazen?

Mike: Many people want to practise zazen very intensely, for a week or ten days, and at the end they feel, ‘Yes!’ But my master said it's more important to practise regularly every day, because we should remember there's nothing to get. If we go to a very intense practice of zazen, of course it's very nice, and it's valuable. But if we don't continue to practise every day afterwards, it's not so good. So one hour a day is very nice. Half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening. Forty-five minutes in the morning, fifteen minutes in the evening.

This is a nice aim. But if our lives are very busy, it's quite difficult. So we say, ‘Oh, it's difficult. I'm going to do half an hour every day.’ After two weeks, we say, ‘Oh, it's too much.’ In that case, it's better to do fifteen minutes every day; then we can continue. Then maybe after one year we can do twenty minutes, and after two years maybe thirty minutes. So we have to find out how to train ourselves. And most people who practise zazen are very stubborn, so we find it very difficult to train ourselves. But once stubborn people train themselves, they keep going.

Question: What was actually the cause that you now sit and teach like this?

Mike: Here? Pavel. Pavel came to England to our retreat for three years. Three years, since two thousand two. And he said, ‘I'd like to have a retreat in Prague.’ So I said, ‘Hmm, okay.’ But with his very excellent arranging, I'm here.

Question: I meant it on a wider scale, perhaps— what actually brought you to Japan, to studying there?

Mike: When I was young, I was a mountaineer. I climbed, rock climbing, and in mountains in Europe, and Asia, and the Himalaya. Although I couldn't notice it clearly, climbing mountains, I could throw away all my worries. Then I stopped climbing mountains when I was thirty-three, thirty-two, and by chance I went to Japan. In Japan, Tokyo is a very busy city, and people have lots of stress. So I looked for some way to get rid of my stress, and every weekend I went to the mountains in Japan. But travelling and so on is quite busy.

Then by chance I saw an advertisement in the paper in Japan: Zen Seminar, in English. So I went, and I practised zazen. And I recognised in zazen the same happy state: getting rid of everything. So I practise zazen instead of mountaineering. I think zazen is a very simple sport. The simplest sport. You don't need a uniform or special shoes. If the weather is bad, it doesn't matter.

This afternoon I want to talk about zazen itself from four different viewpoints which Master Dogen used. Besides Master Dogen's teachings, I know almost nothing. So I teach you what he taught. So thank you very much.

Participant: Thank you.