Eihei Dogen – Death Poem
A death poem was composed on one’s deathbed, with the aim of encapsulating the understanding of impermanence at that moment.
Search Results for: dogen
Dogen’s Seal of the Ocean: How Meditation and Life Can Flow Like Water
Japanese Zen Master Eihei Dogen invokes an oceanic state of non-identification as something that expresses the true Dharma, or our true nature, according to the teachings of Buddha.
As Long as Your Dewlike Human Life Lasts
Dogen answers the questions of his students regarding monastic renunciation – how can one have faith that one’s basic needs will be met?
Smelling the Flowers in Dogen’s Gardens – Marcia Lieberman’s ‘Clean Slate’
Photographer Marcia Lieberman’s new book, Clean Slate, is a meditation on nature and temple gardens made in the footsteps of 13th century Japanese Zen master Dogen.
How to Dance? Lessons from a Zen Master
Jundo Cohen paints a picture of the universe as an integrated and indivisible dance, in which certain elements temporarily swirl out then return to the whole.
Jijuyu Zanmai – Master Dogen’s Self-Receiving and Employing Samadhi
The Jijuyu Zanmai is the second section of the first part of Dogen’s Bendowa – ‘The Endeavor of the Way’ and concerns the experience of zazen itself. The whole text of the Bendowa is held in high esteem as being Dogen’s best and most comprehensible explanation of his understanding of Zen and the Dharma. There are… Continue reading Jijuyu Zanmai – Master Dogen’s Self-Receiving and Employing Samadhi
Fukanzazengi – Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen
The Fukanzazenki is a 13th century Japanese text that provides the most fundamental instructions for Zen meditation, including details on the ideal environment and posture for practice.
Life and Death Do Not Exist
In this short chapter from the Shobogenzo, Sho-ji, Dogen plays with the distinction between the nuances of the two different meanings, life and death being static and self-defined events, which he argues have no substance or existence, and living and dying which are an endless flow of events and dynamic being
Eighteen Thousand Universes Through Eighteen Thousand Eyes
Ibn Arabi was a 13th century mystic, poet and philosopher in the Islamic tradition. He lived between Spain and North Africa and produced a prodigious and varied output during his lifetime.
Kahlil Gibran – Fear
Kahlil Gibran’s poem on the fear of dissipation is a call to faith, to trust in the oceanic nature of the life-manifesting force.
