Friday, February 18, 2011

Study Hall - Shobogenzo

Dogen was really on a roll in 1243, just before he took his monks off to Echizen province to start constructing Eiheiji. Here is 'Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance', 'Bodaisatta Shi Shoho': "When you leave the way to the way, you attain the way. At the time of attaining the way, the way is always left to the way. When treasure is left just as treasure, treasure becomes giving...
To launch a boat or build a bridge is an act of giving. If you study closely, you see that to accept a body and to give up the body are both giving. Making a living and producing things can be nothing other than giving. To leave flowers to the wind, to leave birds to the seasons, are also acts of giving".
Apart from giving, the other methods of guidance are kind speech, beneficial action and identity action: "'Identity action' means nondifference. It is nondifference from self, nondifference from others".

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