Dōgen Zenji (1200-1253)
Dōgen Zenji is the founder of Soto Zen. He was a Japanese Zen monk and teacher, and he received his training in China from Rujing.
Shōbōgenzō: selections from the text.
What is Zazen?
Dogen strongly promotes the practice of zazen, or sitting meditation, as the heart of Japanese Sōtō Zen. For him, zazen is identical to the study of Zen. The first sentence of the 1243 instruction manual "Zazen-gi" (坐禪儀; "Principles of Zazen") states: "Studying Zen ... is zazen". Dōgen also refers to zen with the term "shikantaza," which means something like "nothing but precisely sitting", or "just sitting."
The basic idea of zazen is very simple: Sit in a state of attention, and leave your mind free of thoughts, directed to no object, not attached to any content." Here are some of Dōgen's descriptions: (from: Fukan Zazengi, the first text he wrote after he returned from China to Japan.
For zazen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Cast aside all involvements and cease all affairs. Do not think good or bad. Do not administer pros and cons. Cease all the movements of the conscious mind, the gauging of all thoughts and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. Zazen has nothing whatever to do with sitting or lying down.
The psychological approach to zazen, according to Dōgen, is effortless non-striving, because the state of mind sometimes referred to as "enlightenment" is always present any - we just don't realize it most of the time. Here are some quotes from the text that illustrate this:
Commitment to Zen is casting off body and mind. You have no need for incense offerings, homage praying, nembutsu, penance disciplines, or silent sutra readings; just sit single-mindedly.
To practice the Way single heartedly is, in itself, enlightenment. There is no gap between practice and enlightenment or zazen and daily life.
Zazen is not "step-by-step meditation". Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of the Buddha's Wisdom. The Truth appears, there being no delusion. If you understand this, you are completely free, like a dragon that has obtained water or a tiger that reclines on a mountain. The supreme Law will then appear of itself, and you will be free of weariness and confusion.
Thinking that practice and enlightenment are not one is no more than a view that is outside the Way. In buddha-dharma [i.e. Buddhism], practice and enlightenment are one and the same. Because it is the practice of enlightenment, a beginner's wholehearted practice of the Way is exactly the totality of original enlightenment. For this reason, in conveying the essential attitude for practice, it is taught not to wait for enlightenment outside practice.
Dogen's view of the practice seems very simple, but it translates into a sophisticated philosophy of life, death, and the experience of time. Below are some of his poems, for more on his concept of Time-Being (Uji, 有時), see the selections from the Shobogenzo.
Death Poem
Fifty-four years lighting up the sky.
A quivering leap smashes a billion worlds. Hah!
Entire body looks for nothing.
Living, I plunge into the yellow springs.
Transmission outside Scripture
On this wind-swept shore
waves batter ceaselessly -
but on the high rocks of the dharma
not even the clinging oysters
can leave a mark.
From the Tenzo Kyokun
Two-thirds of one's days having swiftly passed,
Not a single aspect of the spirit dais has been polished;
Craving life, day after day goes by in distress;
If one does not turn one's head when called, what can be done?