Y Series - Shobo Genzo 68-70
I seem to have drifted off the path significantly over the past few months. This is an attempt to reconnect and try again.
I keep coming back to Dogen because he is focused so deeply on authenticity, which is a recurring challenge for me. Sometimes that authenticity means changing to meet the true teaching, sometimes it means changing the teaching to meet the true understanding. I see this in my own life often. One of the quotes in the introduction is, “‘Self-realization without a teacher’ is seen as a cause of self-righteousness and arrogance and thus traditionally discouraged in Zen.” Maybe that’s why I am trying therapy and all the Buddhist teaching - it’s a quest to find real wisdom through a true teacher. But that’s a difficult journey in a world without wisdom.
Zen seems to attract the unusual. Many of the ancient practitioners were ‘wild’ and ‘unorthodox’, but Dogen combines that restless spirit with an almost pathological emphasis on external discipline. He values hierarchy and monastic principles as a way to develop internal strength and resilience - a true practice, like doing push-up or sprints for the athlete. The activities and the sacrifice is not for the athlete herself, she doesn’t get true satisfaction out of just doing push-ups, but it provides the context and muscular stability for her sport and is just as key. He seems to emphasize that real freedom comes from accepting pain and discipline as the foundation for strength.
That makes sense to me. But accepting pain, especially in a world that is continuously telling you that pain is bad and to be rejected and not used all the time is very challenging and I think I may have gotten a little confused. So, we try again.