My heart is heavy and my life seems small. Egypt is in transition and my hopes for her are that her people gain creativity and community. The world is changing and with it comes opportunity.
I’m currently reading Dogen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation by Carl Bielefeldt – 1988. Dogen was a 13th century Japanese Zen Buddhist philosopher. Dogen’s Zen philosophy is the foundation for the practices used by many of the western Zen centers including the one I practice in. So far this book has been an academic presentation of the background to just one of Dogen’s fascicles, Fugazazengi or Zazen Universally Recommended. I’m looking forward to tearing into the actual text.
In this particular document, Dogen describes the actual practice of Zazen, what some call sitting meditation. According to Bielefeldt, in Dogen’s time, it was somewhat popular for Zen teachers to write these “zazen-gi’s” or zazen manuals both in Japan and in China. Sounds almost like they were writing Zen self help books, as these were targeted at the monastic and the lay community. Previously to Dogen’s time, Japanese Zen and Chinese Chan had gone through periods where the actual techniques of the practice of zazen were kept secret and only shared with monks. Dogen wasn’t the first of his fellow teachers to let the proverbial cat out of the bag but maybe the most eloquent.
_____________
Some vocabulary extenders.
1. prolegomemon – a preliminary discussion inserted at the beginning of a treatise
2. vulgate – a Latin version of the Christian Bible
3. provenance – birthplace: where something originated or was nurtured in its early existence
4. hagiography – any biography that idealizes or idolizes its subject
5. desultory – lacking in consistency
______________