Dogen quote?

[Kokuu]

Hello all

A Facebook friend recently posted this on his timeline with the quote attributed to Dogen:

"Body like a mountain, Heart like the ocean, Mind like the sky"

A Google search also attributes it to Dogen, although with no indication where it is written.

My spider senses tingled a little at this point as I know there is a similar meditation instruction in Tibetan Buddhism:

"Body like a mountain, Breath like the wind, Mind like the sky"

I don't think it is impossible that modern Buddhists have taken this and changed the middle part.

However, I may be completely wrong! Did Dogen say this or something similar that might have been paraphrased?

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattody/lah-

[Jundo]

I think not and I think I traced it here, a modern poem by a Zen fellow in Australia ...

p 33

http://szc.org.au/uploads/szc_mmc_au...inter_2015.pdf

Dogen uses all those words, and says things that somewhat have such meanings, but not quite like that I think.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Kokuu]

Thank you, Jundo.

It didn't sound like Dogen.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattody/lah-

[Jishin]

IMG_2669.jpg

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Jundo]

[Jundo]

Dogen did say such things as the following ...

He describes Zazen, in some translations, as "sitting upright like a mountain" in balance and stability and stillness.

He said such things about "oceans" like this [The "dharmas" in the following quote might be best translated as the things and people and other phenomena of the world]:

The Buddha said, “It is just the dharmas that combine to form this body. When it arises, it is simply the dharmas arising; when it ceases, it is simply the dharmas ceasing. When these dharmas arise, [the bodhisattva] does not state, ‘I arise’; when these dharmas cease, he does not state, ‘I cease’.” “In prior thought moments and subsequent thought moments, the moments do not relate to each other; in prior dharmas and subsequent dharmas, the dharmas do not oppose each other. This is called the the ocean seal samadhi.” ...

Then Dogen takes the above and blows some of his Zen-jazz with his horn ...

This “in the ocean” “does not belong to the center”; it does not belong to “inner and outer”: it is “remaining forever,” “preaching the The Lotus Sutra.” Though it is “not in east, west, north or south,” it is “I come home with a fully empty boat, laden with moonlight.” This true return is “immediately coming back home.” Who could call it the conduct of “getting drenched”? It is realized only within the limits of the way of the buddha. We take this as the seal of “sealing water.” Going further, we say it is the seal of “sealing sky”; or further, we say it is the seal of “sealing mud.” The seal of sealing water is not necessarily the seal of sealing the ocean. Going further beyond this, there should be the seal of sealing the ocean. This is called the “ocean seal,” the “water seal,” the “mud seal,” the “mind seal.” Singly transmitting the mind seal, we seal water, seal mud, seal sky.
https://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/pdf...14/de14_10.htm

Dig it!

Another reason I think that Kokuu's quote is modern and western is that "heart" and "mind" are one word in Japanese and Chinese generally.

About the sky, Dogen once said [in Shobogenzo-Zazenshin], describing the open hear-mind of Zazen with both images of the water and the sky in clarity, yet containing the movement of life, all things of the world doing their thing. He uses the image of a fish moving unhindered through (and as) the sea, and a bird moving unobstructed through (and as) the sky. He says of the sky ...

"The sky is vast without horizon; a bird flies far far away." [The expression] "the sky is vast" here has nothing to do with the heavens: the "sky" that has to do with the heavens is not the vast sky; still less is that which extends everywhere here and there the vast sky. Neither hidden nor manifest, without surface or interior -- this is what is meant by the vast sky. When the bird flies this "sky", it is the single dharma of "flying sky". This observance of "flying sky" is not to be measured: "flying sky" is the entire world, for it is the entire world "flying sky". Although we do not know how far this "flying" goes, to say what is beyond our calculations, we say "far far away". This is "you should go off without a string beneath your feet". When the "sky" flies off, the "bird" flies off; in the "bird's" flying off, the "sky" flies off. In a saying that investigates flying off, it is said, "It is right here". This is the lancet of [sitting] fixedly: through how many tens of thousands of degrees does it declare "it is right here"? ...

The water is clear right through the earth;
A fish goes along like a fish.
The sky is vast straight into the heavens,
A bird flies just like a bird

That sounds more like Dogen!

Gassho, J

STLah

[Meitou]

I think not and I think I traced it here, a modern poem by a Zen fellow in Australia ...

p 33

http://szc.org.au/uploads/szc_mmc_au...inter_2015.pdf

Dogen uses all those words, and says things that somewhat have such meanings, but not quite like that I think.

Gassho, J

STLah

Regardless of the veracity of the quote, I really enjoyed reading the material in the link!
Gassho
Meitou
Satwithyoualltoday lah