Dōgen

Dōgen looking at the moon

Dōgen Zenji , also Kigen or after the temple Eihei-ji founded by him . Eihei ( Japanese道元禅師Dogen Zenji - Master Dogen;希玄,永平) (* 26. January 1200 in Uji , † in late summer 1253 in Kyoto ) was a teacher of Japanese Zen - Buddhism and influential abbot He transferred the. Chan -School with the ritually and collectively practiced sitting meditation Zazen from China to Japan. Since he received recognition as a master from a patriarch of the Caodong direction, he is considered the first Japanese patriarch of the so-called Sōtō-Zen , but he did not see himself as the founder of a new "Sōtō sect", but only as an innovator of the original , authentic Buddha teaching that he thought he discovered on a trip to China.

Life

childhood

Dōgen was born on January 26th, 1200, probably in Kobata, which is now part of the city of Uji, south of Kyoto. His father was Michichika Koga (or Kuga), a descendant of Tennō Murakami ; his mother Ishi was his father's concubine. Michichika belonged to the Minamoto (Genji) clan , who had played a leading role politically, militarily and economically in the Japanese Empire since 1185. However, the branches of the Minamoto clan were divided among themselves. In 1192 Minamoto no Yoritomo prevailed and established a military government ( Bakufu ) in Kamakura , which largely disempowered the emperor. Dōgen's father was the main opponent of this ruler; he wanted to regain power for the empire in order to actually exercise it himself. In 1198 he succeeded in making his underage grandson Tsuchimikado emperor. Thus, Dōgen was an uncle of this emperor, who ruled until 1210, with Dōgen's father initially assuming the dominant position at the court in Kyoto. The situation changed dramatically when Michichika died in 1202. Now the opposing party was able to prevail in Kyoto. The widow of the late ruler, Ishi, had to leave the farm with her two-year-old son Dōgen and retire to Kobata, where her parents owned an estate. She died in the winter of 1207, so that Dōgen was left as an orphan.

As Dōgen himself reports, the death of his mother represented a turning point in his life. After he had previously felt a tendency towards monastic life, the transience of all things had now become so clear to him that he made a final decision in this regard . His uncle Moro-ie, who wanted to adopt him and win him over to the life of an aristocrat, could not change his mind. He secretly left the house in Kobata and went to Mount Hiei ( Hiei-zan ), where the famous temple center of the Tendai direction was located. The monk Ryōkan, a brother of Dōgen's mother, lived at the foot of the mountain. He turned to this uncle for support in his plan to become a Tendai monk. Ryōkan gave him a recommendation. One of the monasteries on the mountain took him in. In the spring of 1213, he took the bodhisattva vows . It was only on this occasion that he was given the name Dogen ("origin of the path") as a monk's name .

First apprenticeship

As a Tendai monk, Dōgen studied the Buddhist scriptures and was taught by learned monks. However, life on Mount Hiei was no longer primarily shaped by religious goals, but by violent power struggles between groups of monks. The leading monks came from the families of the court aristocracy, who used to house some of their male descendants in monasteries. Therefore, the conflicts of the noble families in the monastic communities were carried out violently; some monks were armed and acted as soldiers. Tensions existed between the communities of Mii-dera and Enryaku-ji , whose posts as abbot were key positions in power politics; therefore the replacement of these posts used to lead to disputes. In addition to personal rivalries, religious differences of opinion also led to violence. For Dōgen, monastery life was not acceptable under such circumstances, so he left Mount Hiei as early as 1214.

At that time, Dōgen was concerned with Buddha-nature . After the conviction of the Mahayana -Buddhisten the Buddha nature is innate to all people. The question arose for Dōgen why a decision and exercises are necessary in order to achieve something that is actually always given by nature. The abbot Koin of Mii-dera could not answer this question satisfactorily. Koin recommended that he contact the Abbot Eisai of the Kennin-ji Monastery in Kyoto. Eisai was one of the first to bring Zen (Chinese Chan ) from China to Japan. Whether Dōgen still had the opportunity to heed Koin's advice is unclear, because Eisai died in 1215. In any case, Eisai's Dharma successor Myōzen (1184-1225), whom he made his adviser in 1217 and whose community he joined, was able to help him . The two monks made the decision to look for the authentic Buddha-teaching in China. At first, however, they were unable to realize their plan because of the civil war between the imperial family and the military government in Japan. Only when the military conflict had been decided in favor of the military government, they were able to set sail in the spring of 1223. They landed in Hangzhou Bay .

Stay in China

Dōgen stayed in China for four years and visited a number of Chan monasteries, where he participated in the exercises of the monks. He always looked for the authentic teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha. To this end, he used to inquire about the lineage in order to find out whether he was dealing with abbots who could trace their chain of tradition back to the founder of Buddhism. When Myōzen died in 1225, Dōgen was planning an early return to Japan because, despite all his best efforts, he had not found what he was looking for. He then decided to make another attempt when, in 1225, the master Tendō Nyojō (Chinese Tiantong Rujing 天 童 如 浄, 1163-1228), who belonged to the Caodong line of the Chan, was the abbot of a Chan monastery on Mount Tiantong-shan (Japanese Tendōsan) was. Nyojō accepted the Japanese as a student. Dōgen stayed with his new master for two years. During this time he was given a fundamental experience which for him was the experience of Buddha-nature ( satori ). It happened suddenly when the Master during meditation a sleepy monk a blow and shouted, "body and soul fall away" (Chinese Shenxin Tuoluo , Japanese shinjin datsuraku ). These words characterize what happens from the point of view of the person concerned in such an experience of Buddha-nature. The term shin , which is translated as “soul”, “heart” or “mind”, refers to mental functions in Buddhism, not an immaterial substance in the sense of the Western concept of substance. Nyojō recognized the authenticity of his disciple's experience. Now Dōgen could return to Japan after achieving his goal.

Return to Japan and founding of a monastery

On his return in 1227, Dōgen brought the urn of his companion Myōzen, who had died in China, so that it could be ritually buried in his Kennin-ji monastery. Otherwise, his luggage did not include any cultural or religious goods, such as those Japanese travelers brought with them from China. Rather, as he himself stated, he came “empty-handed”. The only good he had with him was the teaching he had received from Nyojō, especially his knowledge of zazen (practice of non-objective sitting meditation), to which he owed the crucial experience of his life.

Immediately after his return to Kennin-ji Monastery, Dōgen began to spread the doctrine he had studied in China. With the radicalism of his new ideas he offended the monks of Kennin-ji and especially those of Mount Hiei; it was seen as a challenge to traditional monasticism and its customs. Since Buddhism had come to Japan from China and the Chinese abbots were traditionally more respected than the Japanese, Dōgen, who appealed to his Chinese master, was able to act with considerable authority, which exacerbated the conflict. In 1230 Dōgen withdrew from Kennin-ji in order to consistently implement his concept in Fukakusa ( Fushimi , today a district of Kyoto). In 1233 he founded the temple and monastery Kōshō- (Hōrin) -ji with the first Zendō (Zen hall) based on the Chinese model in Japan. Only zazen was practiced there.

Now Dōgens teaching became very popular. Whole groups of monks, sometimes even including their abbot, joined his monastic community. Ejō stood out among the monks, who made Dōgen his secretary. Ejō came to Dōgen in 1234 and remained his closest collaborator for the next two decades until the master's death.

Dōgen's success prompted his opponents, the Tendai monks, to take massive action against him. The occasion for this was his book Gokuku-Shōbōki ("Treatises on the Protection of the Land by the Right Dharma"), which has not been preserved. There he recommended zazen as the right form of Buddhist practice for all of Japan. The Tendai monks submitted this document to the imperial court for examination and achieved that the view expressed in it was condemned as erroneous and harmful. This was probably one of the reasons that Dōgen was now looking for a greater distance from the Kyōto court. He left the Kōshō-ji monastery, which he had founded, in 1243 and made a fresh start in the mountains of Echizen Province .

Last phase of life in Eihei-ji

Dōgen accepted an invitation from nobleman Yoshishige Hatano, who generously supported him in founding a monastic community in Echizen. Thanks to this sponsor and the support of other helpers, he was able to open his new Zen temple as early as 1244. He gave the facility previously known as Daibutsu-ji the name Eihei-ji ("Eternal Peace"). With this name he referred to the epoch of Chinese history in which Buddhism first came from India to China. The Eihei-ji was further developed during his lifetime with the support of his lay followers. In addition to the Zen hall, Dōgen also took over other details of the monastery structure and the organization of monastic life from China. From 1248 he no longer carried the name Dōgen, which he had received as a Tendai monk, but called himself Kigen.

Dōgen devoted the rest of his life to leading his new community. He left her only once, in 1247, to spread the zazen teaching in Kamakura at the court of the local Shikken (regent) Hōjō Tokiyori . The regent was very open to the efforts of the abbot, but Tokiyori's proposals were rejected and he left Kamakura after about seven months. The reasons for this have not been passed down precisely, but can be deduced from the information in the sources. Dōgen took the view that government should not lie with Bakufu, the military government, but should be returned to the imperial family. Hence his political convictions were diametrically opposed to that of Tokiyori. In addition, the regent invited and favored monks to his court who represented other directions of Buddhism, which Dogen rejected as not authentic. Dōgen wanted to prevent a falsification of his teaching by mixing with these directions. On this point he was uncompromising; he chased away the monk Gemmyō, who stood up for the acceptance of the regent's proposals.

In 1250 Dōgen fell ill and had to limit his activities in the monastery. After his condition had deteriorated in 1252, he appointed his confidante Ejō as his successor as Abbot of Eihei-ji in the summer of 1253 and went to Kyoto to seek medical help. He died there in the late summer of 1253.

Works

Dōgens first work was the Hōkyōki , in which he recorded dialogues between him and his Chinese master in the period from 1225 to 1227. It was only found in his estate after his death and published in the 18th century. The second was the Fukanzazengi ("Recommendation of Zazen for Everyone"), which he wrote soon after his return from China in 1227 and which he later revised. A manuscript ( autograph ) written by himself and dated July 15, 1233 has survived; their text differs significantly from the popular version, which is a later version. In this document, Dōgen summarizes his meditation principles. In 1231 he began his main work, the Shōbōgenzō ("The Treasury of the Knowledge of the True Dharma "), a collection of sermons and treatises. He worked on this work for two decades; even in the year of his death he was busy with it. It was not only intended for monks, but should also be understandable for lay people. Ejō was involved in the drafting. The beginning part of the Shōbōgenzō is the Bendowa , which summarizes the basic principles of Buddhist practice. Dōgen planned a hundred chapters, but death prevented him from completing. Various versions have been preserved, including the most widespread today in 95 chapters that present the material in chronological order; however, the author wanted a structure based on content.

Probably in 1234 Dōgen wrote the Eihei shoso gakudō-yōjinshū ("Precautions for studying the way"), which was published in 1357. In 1237 he wrote the Tenzō-kyōkun ("regulations for the kitchen overseer "); In it he urges to be mindful in kitchen service, which he regards as an important exercise. His next work, the Taidaiko-goge-jarihō or Taidaiko no hō ("Rules for respecting superiors"), was written in 1244; it consists of rules for the behavior of subordinates towards superiors. In the period from 1244 to 1246 he wrote the Bendōhō ("Rules for the Practice of the Way"), which contains regulations for the everyday life of the monks. In 1246 he recorded the rules for the six administrators ( chiji ) of Eiheiji Monastery; this work is called Nihonkoku Echizen Eiheiji chiji-shingi ("Instructions for the administrators of Eiheiji"). After 1246 he treated the table manners in Fushukuhampō ("Rules for taking meals"). In 1249 Dōgen wrote the Kichijōzan Eiheiji shuryō-shingi ("Rules for the study area of ​​Eiheiji"), in which he regulated the behavior in the shuryō , the monastery library. Dōgen also wrote Zen poetry. Only after his death was the collection Dōgen oshō kōroku created, which contains sermons and sayings by the master.

Teaching

A main feature of Dōgen's teaching is that he considers zazen, the non-representational meditation to be performed in the lotus position , to be the only authentic path in Buddhism, i.e. rejects any mixture with other practices. He regards exercises in other directions as useless or even harmful. In doing so, he sharply opposes the tendency towards syncretism that is traditionally widespread in Japan (mixing of different doctrines or parallel practice of different practices). He particularly strongly criticizes the popular practice of Nembutsu (often repeated invocations of the Buddha as a way of salvation); about it he writes that the invocations are only "movements with the mouth" and as useless as the croaking of the frogs.

Dōgen recommends zazen for monks as well as laypeople. The experience called " enlightenment " in Western terminology (Buddhist Bodhi ) consists as an event in the fact that suddenly "body and mind fall away" in the sense that Dōgen himself experienced it in China. He insists, however, that it is not a goal that the path of meditation will seek to achieve in the future. Rather, the practice of zazen should be understood in such a way that it is itself identical with the goal. The practitioner has to assume that he has already reached his goal simply by taking the correct sitting posture and observing the relevant meditation rules. His attention is no longer directed towards an event that is hoped for in the future, but exclusively towards the present. Practicing is not just about the time the meditator spends in the meditation posture, but about everyday life as a whole, because, according to Dōgens, everyday life is the way. Therefore he describes in detail the correct execution of the daily chores of the monks; every moment should be determined by the Dharma.

Initially, Dōgen believed that monks and laypeople were equally qualified to gain freedom from illusions on the Buddha's path. He also rejected the widespread doctrine that one is in a time of decadence in which the Dharma is no longer the same as in the epoch of the historical Buddha; he refused to make Buddhist awakening dependent on external circumstances such as the age in which one lived. He represented this position in the Bendōwa . In the later phase of his work, however, he was skeptical about the chances of laypeople and came to the conclusion that renunciation, as practiced by the monks, was essential.

Of particular importance for Dōgen, however, is the dimension of language for Zen Buddhist practice. Kim has already drawn attention to this. In dealing with Dōgens Shōbōgenzō not only an unusual writing style can be worked out, which oscillates between the dimensions of the discursive and the presentative, but also undermines a reading of Dōgen that approximates mysticism: "Dōgen's relationship to language changes [...] from a mere one practical means of communication towards its affirmative theorization when he formulates the idea of ​​an all-encompassing articulation of the world through language. "

Sources and reception

Dōgen's pupil and successor Ejō wrote the work Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki , in which he passed on numerous incidents from Dōgens life, speeches and dialogues of the master; Because of the Dōgens original texts it contains, it is sometimes counted among his works and Ejō is regarded as the editor. Since Ejō was extremely well informed thanks to the many years of close cooperation with his master, his information is a source of great value. Another valuable source is the biography of Dōgen, the Kenzei, one of his successors as Abbot of Eihei-ji, in the 15th century wrote ( Eihei kaisan gogyōjō , "Report on the activities of the founder of Eihei-ji"). The later representations depend on Keenzi's report.

In the centuries after Dōgen's death, interest in his work was largely limited to the Zen monks who followed his direction. It was not until the 1920s that his writings were rediscovered in Japan and there was an intensive discussion of his teaching, with Watsuji Tetsurō playing a pioneering role. Often comparisons with European philosophy - especially existential philosophy - were made. Tanabe Hajime (1885–1962) and Keiji Nishitani (1900–1990) in particular tried hard to find a modern reinterpretation of zazen in the sense of Dōgen and its justification, also in the context of European ways of thinking.

The Eihei-ji represents today, together with the Sōji-ji, one of the two main temples of the so-called Sōtō school in Japan, but the line of the Eihei-ji is traditionally smaller than that of the Soji-ji.

Translations

German

• Eihei Dōgen Zenji: Shōbōgenzō. The treasure of the true Dharma . Complete edition, Angkor Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-936018-58-5 (also contains the two-volume edition that was published by Theseus)
• Dōgen: Shōbōgenzō: selected writings: philosophizing differently from Zen . Translated, explained and edited. by Ryōsuke Ōhashi and Rolf Elberfeld . Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart 2006 (careful selection translation with useful explanations; review online (PDF file; 64 kB))
• Dôgen Zenji: Sanshôdôei . Zen poems. German by Taro Yamada and Guido Keller. Angkor Verlag 2014. E-Book (Kindle).
• Master Dōgen: Shobogenzo. The treasure trove of the true Dharma eye . 4 volumes, Kristkeitz, Heidelberg-Leimen 2001–2008 (careful translation with detailed commentary)
• Master Dōgen: Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki . Kristkeitz, Heidelberg-Leimen 1997, ISBN 3-932337-68-9
• Eihei Dōgen: Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki. Teachings on the true Buddha path, recorded by Koun Ejō , ed. by Shohaku Okumura. Theseus Verlag, Zurich and Munich 1992, ISBN 3-85936-055-8 (translation from English using the original Japanese text)
• Christian Steineck : Body and heart at Dōgen. Translation and theoretical reconstruction . Academia, St. Augustin 2003 (contains a short biography of Dōgen as well as annotated translations of "Shinjin gakudō" and "Sokushin zebutsu")
• Eihei Dōgen Zenji: Eihei Kōroku . Angkor Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-936018-59-2
• Herbert Elbrecht (Ed.): Dōgen-Zen. Small writings from the Sōtō school . Theseus-Verlag, Zurich and Munich 1990, ISBN 3-85936-040-X (contains p. 23-45 a German translation of Dōgens Fukanzazengi made by Heinrich Dumoulin)

English

• Taigen Daniel Leighton (Ed.): Dōgen's Pure Standards for the Zen Community. A Translation of the Eihei Shingi . State University of New York Press, Albany 1996, ISBN 0-7914-2709-9
• Gudo Wafa Nishijima, Chodo Cross (Ed.): Master Dogen's Shobogenzo . 4 volumes, Windbell, London 1994–1999

French

• Hoang-Thi-Bich (Ed.): Étude et traduction du Gakudôyôjin-shû. Recueil de l'application de l'esprit à l'étude de la voie du maître de Zen Doge . Droz, Geneva 1973

literature

• Steven Heine: Dôgen casts off 'what'? An analysis of Shinjin Datsuraku. Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 9: 53-70.
• Carl Bielefeldt: Dōgen's Manuals of Zen Meditation. University of California Press, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06835-1
• Cleary, Thomas. Rational Zen: The Mind of Dogen Zenji. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1992. ISBN 0-87773-973-0 .
• Heinrich Dumoulin : History of Zen Buddhism. Volume 2: Japan. Francke, Bern 1986, ISBN 3-317-01596-9 , pp. 41-114
• Rolf Elberfeld: On a boat trip with Dōgen. Zen and Philosophy . In: Karl Baier (Ed.): Handbook Spirituality. Approaches, traditions, interreligious processes . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 978-3-534-16911-5 , pp. 292–302 ( online )
• Steven Heine: Did Dōgen Go to China? What He Wrote and When He Wrote It . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006, ISBN 978-0-19-530570-8 (basic study of the biography and genesis of the works)
• Hee-Jin Kim: Dōgen Kigen, Mystical Realist . 2nd edition, University of Arizona Press, Tucson 1987, ISBN 0-8165-1025-3
• Takashi James Kodera: Dogen's Formative Years in China. An Historical Study and Annotated Translation of the Hōkyō-ki . Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1980, ISBN 0-7100-0212-2
• William R. LaFleur (Ed.): Dōgen Studies . University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1985, ISBN 0-8248-1011-2
• Johannes Laube : Zen Master Dōgen (1200–1253) - its significance for contemporary and modern Japan . In: Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft und Religionswissenschaft 71, 1987, pp. 121-136 (good summary)
• Ralf Müller: "Dōgens linguistic thinking: historical and symbol-theoretical perspectives (worlds of philosophy)". Verlag Karl Alber, Freiburg 2013, ISBN 978-3495486108 .
• Joan Stambaugh: Impermanence Is Buddha-nature. Dōgens Understanding of Temporality . University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1990, ISBN 0-8248-1257-3
• Christian Steineck : Dogen - the denial of simple truths . In: Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie 24, 1999, pp. 183–196
• Christian Steineck, Guido Rappe, Kōgaku Arifuku (eds.): Dōgen as a philosopher . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-447-04578-7

reception

• Keiji Nishitani: What is Religion? , translated by Dora Fischer-Barnicol. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-458-34429-2 (explains a modern concept based on Dōgen's teaching)
• Rolf Elberfeld: Time and Thinking. Dōgens importance for a philosophizing of the present . In: Walter Schweidler (Ed.): Time: Beginning and End . Academia Verlag, St. Augustin 2004, ISBN 3-89665-306-7 , pp. 123-144 ( online )

Web links

• Literature from and about dōgen in the catalog of the German National Library

Commons : Doge  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• http://dogensangha.org/ Dogen: Genjokoan (PDF file; 22 kB)
• The Antaiji, a Japanese Zen monastery in the Dogen tradition. The homepage offers many of Dogen's texts.
• Dogen Sangha Berlin Blog

Remarks

1. ↑ To determine the place of birth and birthday see Laube (1987) p. 123; Oliver Göbel: The Samâdhi with Zen Master Dôgen , Neuried 2001, p. 49.
2. ↑ Göbel (2001) p. 49.
3. ↑ Laube (1987) p. 124.
4. ↑ Göbel (2001) p. 50f.
5. ↑ Laube (1987) p. 124f.
6. ↑ On the stay in China see Laube (1987) pp. 125f.
7. ↑ For various possible reasons for Dōgens' decision, see Laube (1987) p. 128.
8. ↑ For details see Laube (1987) p. 129f., Göbel (2001) p. 352.
9. ↑ Hee-Jin Kim (1987) pp. 234–237 provides an overview of the works.
10. ↑ On Dōgen's criticism of Nembutsu see Göbel (2001) p. 331.
11. ↑ See Müller (2013) for a comprehensive analysis based on the expression Japanese dōtoku 道 得 with German translation of the fascicle of the same name.
12. ↑ See Kim (1987).
13. ↑ See Müller (2013)
14. ↑ Müller (2013) p. 267.
15. ↑ Göbel (2001) pp. 58-60.