In the lecture “Dogen: The Founder of Soto Zen in Japan”, delivered November 6, 2021, Diamond Approach founder and spiritual teacher A. H. Almaas investigated some of the realizations Dogen introduced that are not commonly known or understood by most of the spiritual community in the west.

In 1228 CE, the Japanese monk Dogen returned to his homeland from China, where he had lived for four years and received Dharma transmission from the Buddhist master Rujing. Dogen went on to introduce the practice of zazen in Japan and founded the school of Soto Zen, which, 800 years later, flourishes worldwide.

Dogen’s teachings diverged starkly from the Tendai Buddhist training he had received before going to China. That school promoted the doctrine of original enlightenment, which claimed that because humans are enlightened by nature, we cannot achieve enlightenment through practice. Dogen disagreed. As he wrote, “Practice is realization and realization is practice.”

Dogen’s writings about realization and awakening were revelatory and they remain so, not being easily understood even by teachers of Zen.

Key insights
• 🧘 Dogen's teachings offer unique and corrective spiritual insights that are important for our time and not commonly found in modern spiritual circles.
• 🌌 Dogen's radical view of reality sees everything as being, including space, revealing the dynamic nature of the universe.
• 🤯 Dogen's concept of the "one bright pearl" suggests that the entire universe and all of time is a unity that can be experienced as a single entity.
• 💀 "You do not return to birth after death," a thought-provoking insight on the nature of life and death.
• 🧘 Realization in non-dual Zen Buddhism means being the myriad things, where the concept of separateness is absent and irrelevant.
• 🚶‍♂️ "Walking is walking and walking is not related to any other thing not related to sitting not related to our body. Moving walking is walking. It is the suchness of walking."
• 🤯 Dogen's view on enlightenment challenges the belief that there is only one ultimate realization and that pure awareness as the end is a delusion, indicating that there are always more awakenings to discover about reality.
• 💕 Dogen's teaching of all beings being in your heart brings about an amazing intimacy that takes love to a different level and brings in the essence of love.

Summary

Dogen's Soto Zen offers a unique and corrective spiritual perspective that emphasizes the totality of each particular thing, the unity of being and time, and a fluid concept of time and external reality, while rejecting dualities and attachments to perception and intellect.

• 00:00 🧘 Dogen, founder of Soto Zen in Japan, offers unique and corrective spiritual insights that differ from the commonly known onion metaphor of reality, emphasizing the importance of a wider view of spirituality and spiritual practice through his main written work, the shobogenzo.
• 12:21 🧘‍♂️ Dogen's teachings on time and being focus on the totality of each particular thing, seeing everything as time and being, and going beyond the concept of space while revealing how dynamic everything is.
• 26:56 🧘‍♂️ Dogen's Soto Zen emphasizes experiencing the universe as one point in time and space, understanding things for what they are without being related to other things, and perceiving things in their "suchness" without the concept of timeless awareness or hidden spiritual nature.
• 43:03 🧘 Dogen's teachings focus on realizing the universe as the self and being actualized by myriad things, with no emphasis on pure awareness or consciousness.
• 52:35 🧘‍♂️ Dogen's philosophy emphasizes the importance of realizing the uniqueness and inherent characteristics of a particular thing through total experience, achieving a state of self-fulfilling activity that is undefiled by dualities and attachments to perception and intellect, and seeing the unity of being and time in all things.
• 01:11:09 🧘 Dogen's unique view of Buddha nature as already complete and perfect, impermanence as buddha nature, and non-thinking in Soto Zen meditation.
• 01:22:43 🧘‍♂️ Dogen's view on enlightenment and delusion differs from traditional beliefs, as he emphasizes the dynamic interplay between them, recognizes that enlightenment is not a final destination, and emphasizes non-dual teaching that reality cannot be defined in conceptual dichotomies.
• 01:38:25 🧠 Dogen's teachings offer different ways of spiritual realization and liberation, with a fluid concept of time and a focus on external reality, while acknowledging the value of questions and the essence of love that unites all beings.

Want more information on this lecture? Check out this blog post: https://online.diamondapproach.org/dogen/

#dogen #zen #zenbuddhism #sotozen