 |
Eihei Dogen Japan (1200 - 1253) Timeline Buddhist : Zen / Chan Poems by Eihei Dogen Books |
Dogen was born in about 1200 in Kyoto, Japan. At the age of 17, he was formally ordained as a Buddhist monk. Considering the Japanese Buddhism of the time to be corrupt and influenced by secular power struggles, Dogen traveled to China to discover the heart of the Dharma by studying Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism at several ancient monasteries.
Much of the Ch'an Buddhism he explored utilized koans and "encounter dialogues" to startle the consciousness into enlightenment, but Dogen was critical of this practice. Instead, he was drawn to the teachings of silent meditation.
Dogen returned to Japan in 1236. He left the politicized environment of Kyoto and settled in the mountains and snow country of remote Echizen Province, where he established his own school of Zen, the Soto school.
While he proved to be a talented writer and poet, the core of Dogen's teaching was to transcend the mind's addiction to language and form in order to become fully present and recognize one's inherent enlightenment.
Poems by Eihei Dogen
- A Zen monk asked for a verse:
- Ching-ch'ing's raindrop sound
- Coming or Going
- Impermanence
- In the stream
- Like tangled hair
- midnight -- no waves, no wind
- One of fifteen verses on Dogen's mountain retreat:
- One of six verses on snow:
- The track of the swan through the sky
- The Western Patriarch's doctrine is transplanted!
- Treading along in this dreamlike, illusory realm
- True person manifest throughout the ten quarters of the world
- Wondrous nirvana-mind
- Worship
- Zazen
- One of six verses composed in An'yoin Temple in Fukakusa, 1230:
Recommended Books: Eihei Dogen
