Contemporary retellings of Shōbōgenzō

This page is also available in Slovak.

About contemporary retellings

This contemporary retelling is neither Dōgen’s original text nor a translation. It begins with the accepted authorised English translation and carries its teaching, essential relationships, and literary movement into present-day settings. It was written as its author imagines Master Dōgen might present this chapter if he were living and teaching in today’s world.

Each retelling begins with the whole accepted chapter, not merely with its theme or a short summary. It preserves the central teaching, its essential conditions and contrasts, and also the vital story, questions, images, repetition, irony, and rhythm. Historical situations change only where they would prevent a present-day reader from understanding their function; this is not a mechanical substitution of new props for old ones.

A contemporary retelling does not replace the authorised translation: that remains the direct path to the historical text and its notes.

About one-minute overviews of contemporary retellings

Each contemporary retelling has its own one-minute overview. It comes from the completed contemporary text, not from the overview of the authorised translation, because its story, names, and present-day images have their own literary movement. It captures the central idea and the connections without which that idea would lose its meaning.

The first paragraph appears in the Shōbōgenzō translations list beside the link to the contemporary retelling; the full overview appears at the start of its page. It is a useful beginning, not a replacement for either the full contemporary retelling or the authorised translation.