Showing posts with label Dogen Zenji. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dogen Zenji. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

still playing








Mind and body dropped off; 
dropped off mind and body!
This state should be experienced by everyone;
it is like piling fruit into a basket without a bottom,
like pouring water into a bowl With a pierced hole;
However much you may pile or pour you cannot fill it up.
When this is realized the pail bottom is broken through.
But while there is still a trace of conceptualizations
which makes you say ‘I have this understanding’
or ‘I have that realization’,
you are still playing with unrealities.



~ Dogen Zenji
.
Dogen was born about 1200 in Kyoto, Japan,
 he was drawn to the teachings of silent meditation. 
He established his own school of zen. 


.



Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water






Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. 
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
 Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected
 even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon
 and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, 
or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you,
 just as the moon does not break the water. 

You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water
 does not hinder the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop 
is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long
 or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, 
and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.


~ Dogen Zenji (1200 - 1253)

Saturday, March 3, 2012

in the heart





In the heart of the night, 
The moonlight framing
A small boat drifting,
Tossed not by the waves
Nor swayed by the breeze.



~ Dogen
from The Zen Poetry of Dogen




Monday, February 22, 2010

It is believed by most



.
.
It is believed by most
that time passes;
in actual fact,
it stays where it is.
This idea of passing may be called time,
but it is an incorrect idea,
for since one sees it only as passing,
one cannot understand that it stays just where it is.
.
~ Dogen Zenji
.