Lost a quotation.

[michaelw]

I recently read a comment on Dogen but have lost the reference to it. The quote is something along the lines of ‘you are what you understand’ or ‘according to Dogen you are what you understand’. It is either in Genjo Koan the first commentary part or Mystical Realist and is either related to Ongoing Enlightenment or Uji. My money would be on the former.
I normally mark or note down things like this that strike me as worth reading or exploring but this has just disappeared. I have tried speed reading through the relevant part but no luck. If anyone has a searchable version of these, I would be most grateful.

Gassho

st

[Hōkan]

I don't know the answer, but I found this interesting. From Tozan Ryokai quoted in S. Suzuki's "Not Always So":

"Don't try to figure out who you are. If you try to figure out who you are, what you understand will be far away from you. You will have just an image of yourself."

Sat

[Prashanth]

Did some searching around and found this paragraph. Is this what you were looking for?

"Dōgen's words from the Genjōkōan: "To learn the Buddhist Way is to learn about oneself. To learn about oneself is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to perceive oneself as all things. To realize this is to cast off the body and mind of self and others. When you have reached this stage you will be detached even from enlightenment but will practice it continually without thinking about it."

Gassho.

Sat lah.

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[Jundo]

One of the above two is what I would suggest.

The only possibilities in Gyoji (Continuous Practice) would be something like the following (which is a statement that Dogen is actually quoting but criticizing) ...

“In meditating on the Way of the Buddha Dharma, there is no need to seek out how others have put it into words: simply let each of you come to your own understanding of the Principle!” [To which Dogen says:] If each person is to come to his own understanding of what the Buddha Dharma is about, why, pray, did those in the past who probed into the Matter seek out a Master so that they might ask the way to go?

I don't think there is anything close in Uji.

Gassho, J

STLah

[michaelw]

Thanks for the replies.
For no reason I decided to read the intro to Mystical Realist last night, as to the best of my knowledge I hadn’t read it, and there was the quote or at least there was Taigen Dan Leighton quoting Hee-Jim Kim quoting (?) Dogen. It is not the context I remember but it’s a start.

Kim skilfully describes how this unity of practice-enlightenment-expression is true not only for zazen, but also for Dogen’s study of the sutras and koans as well: “Our philosophic and hermeneutical activities are no longer a means to enlightenment but identical with enlightenment, for to be is to understand, that is, one is what one understands. Thus, the activity of philosophising, like any other expressive activity, is restated in the context of our total participation in the self-creative process of Buddha-nature.”
(Leighton/Kim, 2004, p.xi)

Probably worth reading the whole of the intro to get the full context.
I studied theology many years ago so this is sounding a bit like a Faith and Reason discourse.
Everybody needs a hobby (humour).

gassho

M

st

[Jundo]

Kim skilfully describes how this unity of practice-enlightenment-expression is true not only for zazen, but also for Dogen’s study of the sutras and koans as well: “Our philosophic and hermeneutical activities are no longer a means to enlightenment but identical with enlightenment, for to be is to understand, that is, one is what one understands. Thus, the activity of philosophising, like any other expressive activity, is restated in the context of our total participation in the self-creative process of Buddha-nature.”
(Leighton/Kim, 2004, p.xi)

Ya gotta love how clear Dr. Kim makes Dogen.

Gassho, J

STLah