Nothing can be gained by extensive and in depth study and reading. Give them up immediately. Just focus your mind on one thing, absorb the old examples, study the actions of the old zen masters. Penetrate deeply into one form of practice. Do not think of yourself as someones teacher or as someones predecessor.
"Nothing can be gained by extensive and in depth study and reading" - I think the point Dogen is trying to make is that extensive study and reading by itself does not gain the student much. Not without actual practice. The study may prepare you for good practice or augment already existing practice. But it will never replace it. Just as practice without knowledge will not lead to wisdom; knowledge without actual practice provides only a very superficial wisdom.
"Just focus your mind on one thing...Penetrate deeply into one form of practice" - Focus and depth in one or two forms of practice will lead to a better understanding than spreading across a broad array of styles. While every practitioner spends some time exploring the options of the various sects of Buddhism (especially if you have no actual cultural attachment in Buddhism). That cultural attachment is not a negative but it does tend to focus you into one specific style. At some point, you graduate into the deep practice of something -whether it is nembutsu, zazen, chanting, samu, vipassana, Metta, whatever...you see what works. Basic teaching remains the same and is just a matter of expressing it. Although I am sure that Dogen would disagree and insist on zazen as the primary focus.
"Do not think of yourself as someones teacher or as someones predecessor." - Lose the hierarchy and the dogma. There are no lineages (I know that this is not what Dogen meant...but well, I opine). It is about as "new age" as I am bound to get but we are all teachers and students. We learn from others, Buddhist or no, about our own practice. Don't search out people who seem like teachers...allow the teaching to reach you from wherever it comes from.
cheers,
No comments:
Post a Comment