Abstract
The chapter contributes to the debate on Dōgen’s theory of time by discussing key concepts of the Shōbōgenzō’s “Uji” fascicle in a broader context, comparing them with other cases of usage in the entire work, their provenance in the tradition of Zen thought, as well as with their possible translational equivalents and their connotations in the Western tradition. A central claim for which I argue is that a presentist reading of the fascicle (as well as other related passages in Dōgen’s work) leaves the fewest of the cryptic passages unexplained. It does this while blending seamlessly with Dōgen’s other claims about reality, language, our ways to understand them, and praxis.
I begin, however, by touching on the much-discussed issue of Dōgen’s relationship with philosophy, arguing that it is incorrect to exclude non-Western traditions from the domain of philosophy because of particular features that certain canonically recognised Western thinkers and texts also possess. The issue is important, because it legitimates a register of reading of texts such as Dōgen’s in a way that places them in dialogue with ideas that they have historically had no connection with. And it also enables us to use them in contexts for which they have no historical relevance — something that treating them solely as subject matter for the history of ideas would not let us do.
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Notes
- 1.
Raud, ‘Thinking with Dōgen: Reading Philosophically into and beyond the Textual Surface’, in Philosophizing in Asia (Tōkyō: UTCP, 2013), 27–46.
- 2.
諸法の佛法なる時節。Unfortunately, there exists no equivalent of “Bekker numbers” for Dōgen’s work and many editions are concurrently in use, which is why I am not referring to any of them, but providing the original for all quotations. The reader can locate the context in an online edition such as http://www.shomonji.or.jp/soroku/genzou.htm.
- 3.
Yorizumi, Shōbōgenzō Nyūmon (Tōkyō: Kadokawa, 2014), 120–29.
- 4.
Tsujiguchi, Shōbōgenzō No Shisōteki Kenkyū (Tōkyō: Hokuju Shuppan, 2012), 60ff. and 164–68.
- 5.
Yorizumi, Shōbōgenzō Nyūmon (Tōkyō: Kadokawa, 2014), 124–25.
- 6.
Tsujiguchi, Shōbōgenzō No Shisōteki Kenkyū (Tōkyō: Hokuju Shuppan, 2012), 164.
- 7.
一方を證するときは一方はくらし。
- 8.
諸法の佛法なる時節、すなはち迷悟あり、修行あり、生あり、死あり、諸佛あり、衆生あり。
萬法ともにわれにあらざる時節、まどひなくさとりなく、諸佛なく衆生なく、生なく滅なし。
佛道もとより豐儉より跳出せるゆゑに、生滅あり、迷悟あり、生佛あり。
しかもかくのごとくなりといへども、花は愛惜にちり、草は棄嫌におふるのみなり。
- 9.
Nishiari, ‘Commentary by Nishiari Bokusan’ in Dogen’s Genjo Koan: three commentaries (Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2011), 20.
- 10.
Okumura, Realizing Genjokoan: The Key to Dogen’s Shobogenzo (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2010), 24.
- 11.
Heine, ‘What Is on the Other Side? Delusion and Realization in Dōgen’s “Genjōkōan”’, in Dōgen: Textual and Historical Studies, ed. by Heine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 49.
- 12.
Yasutani, Flowers Fall: A Commentary on Dōgen’s Genjōkōan (Boston: Shambhala. 1996), 14.
- 13.
Ibid., 13–14.
- 14.
“In order to think no-thoughts, it is necessary to revert to non-thinking” 不思量底を思量するには、かならず非思量をもちゐるなり。
- 15.
心の打坐あり、身の打坐とおなじからず。身の打坐あり、心の打坐とおなじからず。
- 16.
佛法には修證これ一等なり。
- 17.
法もし身心に充足すれば、ひとかたはたらずとおぼゆるなり
- 18.
悟迹の休歇なるあり、休歇なる悟迹を長長出ならしむ。
- 19.
もとより豐儉より跳出せる. For a similar reading of this phrase, see Kasulis, ‘Meaning and Context: Dōgen’s Genjōkōan’, in Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook, ed. by Heisig, Kasulis, and Maraldo (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2011), 144.
- 20.
呑却せざらんや、吐却せざらんや。
- 21.
花は愛惜にちり、草は棄嫌におふるのみなり
- 22.
For a more detailed discussion see Raud, ‘Dōgen’s Idea of Buddha-Nature: Dynamism and Non-Referentiality’, Asian Philosophy 25(1) (2015): 1–14.
- 23.
Raud, ‘Dōgen and the Linguistics of Reality’, Religions 12(5)(2021): 331.
- 24.
Raud, ‘Dōgen’s Idea of Buddha-Nature: Dynamism and Non-Referentiality’, Asian Philosophy 25(1) (2015): 1–14, p.10.
- 25.
See Bronkhorst ‘Abhidharma and Indian Thinking’, in Text, History, and Philosophy: Abhidharma across Buddhist Scholastic Traditions, edited by Dessein and Teng (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 30–32.
- 26.
時節若至といふは、すでに時節いたれり […] 時節若至は、十二時中不空過なり。若至は、既至といはんがごとし。時節若至すれば、佛性不至なり。しかあればすなはち、時節すでにいたれば、これ佛性の現前なり。
- 27.
Yorizumi, Shōbōgenzō Nyūmon (Tōkyō: Kadokawa. 2014), 133–34.
- 28.
Heine, Existential and Ontological Dimensions of Time in Heidegger and Dōgen (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 22.
- 29.
Maître Dôgen, La vraie Loi, Trésor de l’Oeil: Textes choisis de Shôbôgenzô (Paris: Seuil. 2004), 46.
- 30.
人のさとりを罣礙せざること、滴露の天月を罣礙せざるがごとし。ふかきことはたかき分量なるべし。時節の長短は、大水小水を點し、天月の廣狹を辨取すべし。
- 31.
For reasons of space, I will not be touching here on the wider context of jisetsu in relation to causal linkages, which the Busshō fascicle also discusses.
- 32.
Tsujiguchi, Shōbōgenzō No Shisōteki Kenkyū (Tōkyō: Hokuju Shuppan, 2012), 161.
- 33.
薪は薪の法位に住して、さき ありのちあり。前後ありといへども、前後際斷せり。 “Firewood abides in the dharma-configuration of firewood, and it has a before and after. But although we can say that the before and the after exist, it is [as itself] cut off from the before-after axis” (Genjōkōan). 水は衆法を合成して水なり、雲は衆法を合成して雲なり。雲を合成して雲なり、水を合成して水なり。鉢盂は但以衆法、合成鉢盂なり。但以鉢盂、合成衆法なり。“Water becomes water through the patterning of the multitude of dharmas. A cloud becomes a cloud through the patterning of the multitude of dharmas. A cloud becomes a cloud as the pattern, water becomes water as a pattern. An eating bowl, too, is only a patterning of the multitude of dharmas as an eating bowl.” (Hou).
- 34.
Ibid., 162.
- 35.
Davis, ‘Zen’s Nonegocentric Perspectivism’. in Buddhist Philosophy: a Comparative Approach, ed. by S. M. Emmanuel (Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. 2017), 135.
- 36.
去來の方跡あきらかなるによりて、人これを疑著せず
- 37.
時もし去來の相にあらずは、上山の時は有時の而今なり。時もし去來の相を保任せば、われに有時の而今ある、これ有時なり。
- 38.
Moriyama and Sakon, ‘Dōgen on Time and the Self’. Tetsugaku 4 (2020), 142.
- 39.
老少の相にあらず
- 40.
男女等の相にあらず
- 41.
去來の相にあらず、大小の量にあらず、老少の論にあらず
- 42.
Uchiyama Deepest Practice, Deepest Wisdom: Three Fascicles from Shōbōgenzō with Commentaries (Somerville: Wisdom Publications. 2018), 189; 210–11.
- 43.
Moriyama and Sakon, ‘Dōgen on Time and the Self’. Tetsugaku 4 (2020), 139.
- 44.
Tsujiguchi notes this interpretation is debated from both sides already in the first commentaries on the Core Transmission. See Tsujiguchi, Shōbōgenzō No Shisōteki Kenkyū (Tōkyō: Hokuju Shuppan, 2012), 174–75.
- 45.
“Even though we say there is a truth out there, it is not to be fixated to any kind of idea about the self” たとひまことありといふとも、吾我のほとりにとどこほるものにあらず。(Immo)
- 46.
佛道をならふといふは、自己をならふ也。自己をならふといふは、自己をわするるなり。自己をわするるといふは、萬法に證せらるるなり。萬法に證せらるるといふは、自己の身心および他己の身心をして脱落せしむるなり。悟迹の休歇なるあり、休歇なる悟迹を長長出ならしむ。
- 47.
いはゆる水をみるに瓔珞とみるものあり。。。龍魚は宮殿とみる、樓臺とみる。
- 48.
Raud, ‘Shinjin-Datsuraku, or “Dropping off the Bodymind” in Dōgen’s Philosophy’, in Key Concepts in World Philosophies: Everything You Need to Know About Doing Cross-Cultural Philosophy, ed. by S. Flavel and C. Robbiano (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).
- 49.
Davis ‘The Philosophy of Zen Master Dōgen: Egoless Perspectivism’, in The Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
- 50.
起時唯法起、滅時唯法滅。此法起時、不言我起。此法滅時、不言我滅。
- 51.
起は知覺にあらず、知見にあらず、これを不言我起といふ。我起を不言するに、別人は此法起と見聞覺知し、思量分別するにはあらず。
- 52.
薪は薪の法位に住して、さきありのちあり。前後ありといへども、前後際斷せり
- 53.
かの上山渡河の時、この玉殿朱樓の時を呑却せざらんや、吐却せざらんや。
- 54.
Tsujiguchi as “the now that does not pass”. See Tsujiguchi, Shōbōgenzō No Shisōteki Kenkyū (Tōkyō: Hokuju Shuppan, 2012), 176.
References
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Davis, Bret W. ‘The Philosophy of Zen Master Dōgen: Egoless Perspectivism’. in The Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2011.
———. ‘Zen’s Nonegocentric Perspectivism’. in Buddhist Philosophy: a Comparative Approach, edited by S. M. Emmanuel. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. 2017.
Heine, Steven. Existential and Ontological Dimensions of Time in Heidegger and Dōgen. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1985.
———. ‘What Is on the Other Side? Delusion and Realization in Dōgen’s “Genjōkōan”’. In Dōgen: Textual and Historical Studies, edited by S. Heine. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2012.
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Nishiari, Bokusan. ‘Commentary by Nishiari Bokusan. in Dogen’s Genjo Koan: three Commentaries. Berkeley: Counterpoint. 2011.
Okumura, Shohaku. Realizing Genjokoan: The Key to Dogen’s Shobogenzo. Boston: Wisdom Publications Inc. 2010.
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———. ‘Dōgen’s Idea of Buddha-Nature: Dynamism and Non-Referentiality’. Asian Philosophy 25(1) (2015.): 1–14.
———. ‘Dōgen and the Linguistics of Reality’. Religions 12(5) (2021): 331.
———. ‘Shinjin-Datsuraku, or “Dropping Off the Bodymind” in Dōgen’s Philosophy’. In Key Concepts in World Philosophies: Everything You Need to Know About Doing Cross-Cultural Philosophy, edited by S. Flavel and C. Robbiano. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2022.
Tsujiguchi, Yūichirō. Shōbōgenzō No Shisōteki Kenkyū. Tōkyō: Hokuju Shuppan. 2012.
Uchiyama, Kōshō. Deepest Practice, Deepest Wisdom: Three Fascicles from Shōbōgenzō with Commentaries. Somerville: Wisdom Publications. 2018.
Yasutani, Hakuun. Flowers Fall: A Commentary on Dōgen’s Genjōkōan. Boston: Shambhala. 1996.
Yorizumi, Mitsuko. Shōbōgenzō Nyūmon. Tōkyō: Kadokawa. 2014.
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Raud, R. (2023). Thinking the Now: Binary and Holistic Concepts in Dōgen’s Philosophy of Time. In: Müller, R., Wrisley, G. (eds) Dōgen’s texts. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 35. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42246-1_12
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