Originally Posted by
Jundo
Hi Guys,
I went back to re-read Gakudo Yojinshu, as several folks had expressed an interest. I am re-reading all of Dogen's writings these days, so it fits right in. A few comments that may help with it:
- I do endorse the Tanahashi version as the most readable, with a sense of Dogen's style of poetic expression.
- In understanding the early sub-sections especially, I think it very important to keep in mind that Dogen's emphasis on arousing "the thought of enlightenment" means very clearly (Dogen makes says this many different ways throughout the essay) that the search is the arrival in Dogen's vision of ongoing "practice-enlightenment." Expressions like Nishijima's "Will to the Truth" sound like an effort to get to a goal, but it is actually more that the effort in practice is also the goal. When you understand that point, a lot of the essay falls into place and makes sense. It is a little hard to convey what Dogen means, but imagine a walk or hike up a mountain, diligently forward and forward, in which each step by step is itself its own total arrival and the whole mountain. It is not just the destination, but the whole trip is the destination. Thus he says things such as that practice is enlightenment even before one might understand how or feel the effects.
- He emphasizes in many places throughout the essay that one should not practice with a gaining idea, and just practice for the sake of practice. However, one had best be diligent about it, not lazy. This is pushing ahead up the mountain, not being lazy or giving up, but there is really no place to get to because every step of the hike is the mountain realized in the walking.
- Dogen had very little money to fund his struggling temple in those days, and was certainly trying to gather some students (this is a very early writing when Dogen first became an independent teacher). This is why he is so intense in emphasizing finding a good teacher, and criticized a lot of the other schools of Buddhism in Japan in those days as too academic or politically/socially power hungry (they were).
- I noticed several passages very open to lay practice and women's enlightenment (very open minded for the 13th century). He also says several places that one must bust their butt for this practice but, later, makes it clear that he does not mean physical austerities or just punishing yourself. So, what he seems to be saying is that one should practice diligently and sincerely, but with a mind that makes the hard into something easy, and the diligence into a peaceful heart. In other words, the struggle is to stick with it, but in a way that one's body and mind are at ease, and the struggle is not a struggle.
I hope these comments help with understanding some of this piece. Let me know if anyone has other more specific questions.
Gassho, J
STLah
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. Yesterday I received and started reading Opening the Hand of Thought: the part about conceptions of time is mind-blowing. 
plug plug ) ...
