Dogen zenji quotes
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Dōgen
Japanese Zen buddhist teacher (1200-1253)
Dōgen Zenji (道元禅師; 26 January 1200 – 22 September 1253),[1][2] was a Japanese Zen Buddhistmonk, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. He is also known as Dōgen Kigen (道元希玄), Eihei Dōgen (永平道元), Kōso Jōyō Daishi (高祖承陽大師), and Busshō Dentō Kokushi (仏性伝東国師).
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 four years, finally training under Tiāntóng Rújìng, an eminent teacher of the Cáodòng lineage of Chinese Chan. Upon his return to Japan, he began promoting the practice of zazen (sitting meditation) through literary works such as Fukanzazengi 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, w
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The Zen Master Hakuin
"Even though I am past seventy now my vitality is ten times as great as it was when I was thirty or forty. My mind and my body are strong and I have never the feeling that I absolutely must lie to rest."
in: Letter to Lord Nabeshima, Governor of the Settu province, June 20, 1748
"For effective meditation nothing is better than practice when one is ill"
in: Letter to a sick Monk living far away
"At fifteen I left home to become a monk and at that time I vowed to myself: 'even if I should die I will not cease my efforts to gain the power of one whom fire will not burn and water will not drown' .
When I was twenty two I went to the province of Wasaka and while attending lectures on the Hsü-t' ang -lu, I gained an awakening"
in: Letter to old Nun of the Hoke sect
"Yet nowadays those who practice The Pure Land teaching recite the name daily a thousand times, ten thousand times, a million times, but none of them has determined the Great Matter of salvation. Don't they realize that Amida Buddha refused to accept true enlightenme
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About Dogen Zenji
(Taken from Prof. Masunaga book 'Soto Approach to Zen', the chapter: 'The place of Dogen', pages 203-214)
The place of Dogen
It was Dogen (1200-1253) who first brought Soto Zen to Japan. Keizan (1268-1325) made possible the popularization of Soto Zen, thereby laying the foundation for the large religious organization, which it is today. Dogen, born in a noble family, quickly learned the meaning of the Buddhist word "mujo" (impermanence). While still young, he lost both his parents. He decided then to become a Buddhist priest and search for truth. He went first to Mt. Hiei, the headquarters of the sect.
At the young age he was assailed by the following doubt This doubt, clearly pointing to the dualistic contradiction between the ideal and the actual, is the kind of anguish likely to arise in the mind of any deeply religious person. Unable to resolve this great doubt at Mt. Hiei, Dogen decided to study Buddhism under Eisai (1141- 1215). For some time he practiced Zen meditation with Eisai's disciple, Myozen. Then at the age of 24 Dogen ac
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