Dōgen

Agora

Dōgen

1200–1253

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

To exist is to be time itself, and sitting in meditation is not a means to awakening but already awakening.

Placement

East Asian Philosophy · East Asia · Metaphysics, Religion, Existence & Self

Zen master: being is time (uji); sitting in meditation is itself already awakening.

Key ideas

Uji (being-time)
Shikantaza

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Influence

Influenced by 3

Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)

influenced by
Dōgen taught that seated meditation (zazen) is the practice in which Shakyamuni Buddha and the ancestors realised awakening and handed it on directly (Bendōwa, 1231). Dōgen, Bendōwa (1231), in Shōbōgenzō; SEP “Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy”
Evidence: AI draft
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) › c. 480–400 BCE · conventionally dated 563–483 BCE
Nagarjuna

influenced by
In the fascicle ‘Buddha-nature’ (Busshō) of the Shōbōgenzō Dōgen discusses Nagarjuna, fourteenth Indian ancestor of the Zen lineage, whose body appeared as the round moon of Buddha-nature. Dōgen, Shōbōgenzō, Busshō; SEP “Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy”
Evidence: AI draft
Nagarjuna › c. 150–250
Huineng

influenced by
In the Shōbōgenzō fascicle “Buddha-Nature” (Busshō, 1241) Dōgen took up the Sixth Ancestor’s saying from the Platform Sutra that “impermanence is buddha-nature”. Dōgen, Shōbōgenzō “Busshō” (1241), citing the Platform Sutra (T 2008); J. Stambaugh, Impermanence Is Buddha-Nature (1990)
Evidence: AI draft
Huineng › traditionally 638–713

Influenced 4

Nishida Kitarō

influenced
Nishida rarely cites Dōgen, so the link is uncertain; scholars compare his self-awareness of nothingness with Dōgen’s ‘to study the self is to forget the self’ (Genjōkōan). G. Kopf, Beyond Personal Identity: Dōgen, Nishida, and a Phenomenology of No-Self (2001); Dōgen, Shōbōgenzō, Genjōkōan (1233); Nishida Kitarō, “Bashoteki ronri to shūkyōteki sekaikan” (1945), tr. D. A. Dilworth, Last Writings (1987)
Evidence: AI draft
Nishida Kitarō › 1870–1945
Tanabe Hajime

influenced
In My Philosophical View of the Shōbōgenzō (1939) Tanabe read Dōgen as a philosopher and found in him a dialectical thinking close to his own absolute mediation. Tanabe Hajime, Shōbōgenzō no tetsugaku shikan (1939); J. W. Heisig, Philosophers of Nothingness (2001)
Evidence: AI draft
Tanabe Hajime › 1885–1962
Watsuji Tetsurō

influenced
Watsuji’s essay ‘The Monk Dōgen’ (Shamon Dōgen, in Nihon seishinshi kenkyū, 1926) presented Dōgen, until then read mainly within the Sōtō school, as a philosopher. Watsuji Tetsurō, “Shamon Dōgen”, in Nihon seishinshi kenkyū (1926); SEP “Watsuji Tetsurō”
Evidence: AI draft
Watsuji Tetsurō › 1889–1960
Nishitani Keiji

influenced
Nishitani drew on Dōgen for the standpoint of emptiness in Religion and Nothingness (1961) and later gave extended lectures on the Shōbōgenzō (Shōbōgenzō kōwa). Nishitani Keiji, Shūkyō to wa nanika (1961), tr. J. Van Bragt, Religion and Nothingness (1982); Shōbōgenzō kōwa; SEP “Nishitani Keiji”
Evidence: AI draft
Nishitani Keiji › 1900–1990

Works

c. 1253Shōbōgenzō
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye – including the fascicle “Uji” (Being-Time).

Position

Dōgen’s central practice is shikantaza, “just sitting” in zazen. Practice is not a means to reach enlightenment later; practice and enlightenment are one. Where the sutras say that all beings have Buddha-nature, Dōgen reads that all beings are Buddha-nature – existence itself is the expression of awakening. In his essay “Being-Time” (Uji) he argues that being and time are inseparable: each moment is complete and contains the whole. His dense, poetic Japanese prose bends language to express non-dual experience. Long read only within his own school, he is now regarded as one of Japan’s greatest philosophers.

Life & context

Dōgen Kigen was born into an aristocratic family in Kyoto, lost his parents early and became a monk on Mount Hiei. Dissatisfied, he travelled to China in 1223, where he studied Chan under Rujing on Mount Tiantong. Back in Japan he founded the Sōtō school of Zen and, in 1244, the temple of Eihei-ji, which is still its head temple today.