Martin said, quoting Dogen:
"Finally cut off your old understanding bound up in the vines and serpents
of words."
Yes, Martin. An instruction that is given in words, of course. A snaky
fellow in the vines, that Dogen!
Language, for Dogen, is a vehicle for Dharma transmission, and his works
represent some of the most astounding literature of all time.
In the Preface to Benaeath a Single Moon: Buddhism in Contemporary American
Poetry (Shambhala, 1991), I wrote this, which seems relevant:
"In Dogen Zenji's great Shobogenzo, a gathering of philosophical meditations
that engage the interpretation of language, being, and emptiness, the Zen
Master notes:
*There are indeed a number of ways to study the flowers of emptiness: Seeing
by dim eyesight adn seeing by clear eyesight; seeing by a buddha's eyesight
and seeing by a patriarch's eyesight; seeing by the Way's eyesight and
seeing by the blind's eyesight; seeing by three thousand years adn seeing by
eight hundred years; seeing by a hundred kalpas and seeing by immeasurable
kalpas. Though each of these ways sees the 'flowers of emptiness,' the
emptiness is always variegated adn the 'flowers' are also manifold.*
For Dogen, there is no one form or 'way' of expression that is privileged
over others. As T.P. Kasulis, one of the western world's leading Buddhist
scholars explains, commenting on Dogen's views on language, 'The Buddha's
truth is communicated at times discursively in ordinary words that can be
rationally understood adn at other times esoterically in 'intimate words'
that must be grasped immediately without discursive thinking. Dogen believes
that both are equally legitimate means of transmitting the correct Dharma.'"
Kind of like poetry, I guess.
Kent
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