Dear All,
I had request from several Treeleafers to restart readings and discussion of my book, "THE ZEN MASTER’S DANCE - A Guide to Understanding Dōgen and Who You Are in the Universe, by Jundo Cohen."
I was going to wait until Kokuu finished his readings from the Platform Sutra, but the folks want to get started on my book, and Kokuu said it would be fine if we are doing both. So, each week or two, I will post reading assignments, with fun "challenges" in each one.
They should be enjoyable and enlightening
, while helping you "get" Dogen more ... and also, of course ... who you are in the universe! 
A Zen Sangha is a dance ensemble, as is all the world. I wrote the book in order to make Master Dogen's teachings more approachable, trying to help folks understand why his style may sometimes seem so strange and hard to penetrate, all while staying faithful to the Buddhist teachings and feelings they contain without making things too simple. Like any dance, Dogen's ballet takes some learning and practice to get the hang of, but then we can all join in the movements like second nature. I hope that I can help everyone get a sense for Dogen's fabulous dance.
Today, and for the next couple of weeks, we are going to focus on the "Introduction" to the book.
By the way, the book is available at all the usual places. However, if it is a hardship for anyone due to cost or your location, please let me know. I can help with a PDF version for such folks.
~~~
The Zen Master's Dance - 1 - Introduction (Top of p. 1 to End of Chapter)
Hello Fellow Dancers,
Thank you for reading and dancing "The Zen Master's Dance" together.
Today we are going to focus on the "Introduction" to the book.
I am going to try a couple of experiments to help us share in the sense of wild, creative rhythms and not commonly seen perspectives that Dogen was seeking to express, and the visions of reality that other Zen fellows certainly share. Dogen had a way with and appreciation for words and wordplay that was quite unique in the Zen world, even when compared to all the word games and bending of ordinary language that Zen folks have been famous for throughout the centuries. Although Zen is known as a "Way Beyond Words & Letters," there are so many words written by Zen masters of old to express this "Beyond Words" Zen, even as they could be quite creative in the use of words to do so. Zen is not "beyond understanding" or "illogical" ... rather, it calls for new forms of intimate understanding, and has a logic of its own that is often far removed from what we might consider ordinary "common sense."
What I am going to ask you to do today is to rewrite a couple of paragraphs from the "Introduction," but replacing the image of "dancing" with some other activity that is vital in your life. For example, let's say that you love "bowling" more than "ballet."
In such case, let us see the whole universe as a "Great Bowling Alley" rather than a "Great Ballet." 
I would ask you to rewrite for us (and to post here in this thread) some sentences from the Introduction like this:
would become
"[Dogen] experienced reality as a great bowling tournament moving through time, hitting its strikes and coming to life in the thoughts and acts of all beings, the bowlers. It is a most special bowl, for it is the rolls that the whole of reality is rolling ..."
or
becomes
"Although we may feel as if we are separate bowlers—finite individuals in a grand alley of lanes spanning all of time and space—we are also the frames and games itself, every strike and spare and gutter ball, pin and pair of shoes, bowling through us. A universe of bowlers that are being bowled up in this bottomless bowl that the whole universe is bowling ... "
Like that,
All I ask is that you pick some activity that means something to you, rather than a frozen thing or object. For example, child-rearing as a parent in a nursery, horse riding as a horse rider, doing dentistry as a dentist, washing dishes as a dish washer etc. etc.
Let's see what happens!?
I will ask folks to try again if I think they might be missing something, and can do a bit better! There is nothing to gain, but we can still DO BETTER! 
For your convenience, I am copying below some lines from the book for you to copy and paste in your rewriting. You can rewrite all of these or just a few. Have fun.
Also, of course, post any other impressions from the book, ask any questions, joys, frustrations ... anything at all.
Gassho, Jundo
STLah
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ASSIGNMENT: PLEASE REWRITE THE FOLLOWING SUBSTITUTING SOME OTHER LIFE ACTION (FOR EXAMPLE, BOWLING, GARDENING, FIXING THE CAR, WHATEVER RESONATES IN YOUR LIFE) FOR THE IMAGE OF "DANCING" AND ACCOMPANYING IMAGES OF DANCE.
Eihei Dōgen, a Japanese Zen Master of long ago ... experienced reality as a great dance moving through time, coming to life in the thoughts and acts of all beings. It is a most special dance, for it is the dance that the whole of reality is dancing, with nothing left out, that you and I are dancing, that is dancing as you and me. It is a vibrant, swirling, flowing, merging and emerging unity that Buddhists sometimes call “emptiness,” as the motion and sweep of the dance “empties” us of the sense of only being separate beings, and fills and reaffirms us as the whole. We, as human beings, can’t be sure when or where this dance began, or whether it even has a beginning or end. But we can come to see that it is being danced now in each step and breath we take, much as a dance unfolds and constantly renews with every turn or leap of its dancers.
You and I are dancers in this dance, as is every creature great or small, the mountains and seas, every grain of sand or massive galaxy,
the atoms that make up the universe and the whole universe itself. Everything in reality, no matter how old or vast, no matter how unnoticed or small, is dancing this dance together. And although we may feel as if we are separate dancers—finite individuals on a grand stage spanning all of time and space—we are also the dance itself dancing through us. A universe of dancers that are being danced up in this dance that the whole universe is dancing. Picture in your mind a spectator witnessing a dance so vigorous and vibrant that its countless actors seem to vanish in the swirl of motion: single dancers becoming pairs, then groups, coming together and separating moment by moment, yet so merged as the overall movement that, from a distance, individual dancers can no longer be seen. ...
... So united did Dōgen see that whole that, in his mind, each point holds all other points, near or far, each point miraculously fully contains
the whole, and each moment of time ticks with all other moments of time, before or after. It is much like saying that every step of
each dancer somehow embodies, depends upon, and also fully expresses every step by all the other dancers on the stage, past, present,
or future, and fully contains the entire dance too. Dōgen experienced the time of the dance as the overall movement that is fully held and
expressed in each individual move itself, with past not only flowing into present and future, but future flowing into the present and past,
as the present fully holds the past and future of the dance.
... Master Dōgen spoke of practice, putting it all in motion. Where this dance has come from, where it is going, is not as important
as the dance that is truly realized—made real—right here, in your next leap and gesture. The dance is always right underfoot, so just
dance, without thought of any other place.
.
I had request from several Treeleafers to restart readings and discussion of my book, "THE ZEN MASTER’S DANCE - A Guide to Understanding Dōgen and Who You Are in the Universe, by Jundo Cohen."
I was going to wait until Kokuu finished his readings from the Platform Sutra, but the folks want to get started on my book, and Kokuu said it would be fine if we are doing both. So, each week or two, I will post reading assignments, with fun "challenges" in each one.
They should be enjoyable and enlightening
, while helping you "get" Dogen more ... and also, of course ... who you are in the universe! A Zen Sangha is a dance ensemble, as is all the world. I wrote the book in order to make Master Dogen's teachings more approachable, trying to help folks understand why his style may sometimes seem so strange and hard to penetrate, all while staying faithful to the Buddhist teachings and feelings they contain without making things too simple. Like any dance, Dogen's ballet takes some learning and practice to get the hang of, but then we can all join in the movements like second nature. I hope that I can help everyone get a sense for Dogen's fabulous dance.
Today, and for the next couple of weeks, we are going to focus on the "Introduction" to the book.
By the way, the book is available at all the usual places. However, if it is a hardship for anyone due to cost or your location, please let me know. I can help with a PDF version for such folks.
~~~
The Zen Master's Dance - 1 - Introduction (Top of p. 1 to End of Chapter)
Hello Fellow Dancers,
Thank you for reading and dancing "The Zen Master's Dance" together.
Today we are going to focus on the "Introduction" to the book.
I am going to try a couple of experiments to help us share in the sense of wild, creative rhythms and not commonly seen perspectives that Dogen was seeking to express, and the visions of reality that other Zen fellows certainly share. Dogen had a way with and appreciation for words and wordplay that was quite unique in the Zen world, even when compared to all the word games and bending of ordinary language that Zen folks have been famous for throughout the centuries. Although Zen is known as a "Way Beyond Words & Letters," there are so many words written by Zen masters of old to express this "Beyond Words" Zen, even as they could be quite creative in the use of words to do so. Zen is not "beyond understanding" or "illogical" ... rather, it calls for new forms of intimate understanding, and has a logic of its own that is often far removed from what we might consider ordinary "common sense."
What I am going to ask you to do today is to rewrite a couple of paragraphs from the "Introduction," but replacing the image of "dancing" with some other activity that is vital in your life. For example, let's say that you love "bowling" more than "ballet."
In such case, let us see the whole universe as a "Great Bowling Alley" rather than a "Great Ballet." I would ask you to rewrite for us (and to post here in this thread) some sentences from the Introduction like this:
"[Dogen] experienced reality as a great dance moving through time, coming to life in the thoughts and acts of all beings. It is a most special dance, for it is the dance that the whole of reality is dancing ... "
"[Dogen] experienced reality as a great bowling tournament moving through time, hitting its strikes and coming to life in the thoughts and acts of all beings, the bowlers. It is a most special bowl, for it is the rolls that the whole of reality is rolling ..."
or
"Although we may feel as if we are separate dancers—finite individuals on a grand stage spanning all of time and space—we are also the dance itself dancing through us. A universe of dancers that are being danced up in this dance that the whole universe is dancing ... "
"Although we may feel as if we are separate bowlers—finite individuals in a grand alley of lanes spanning all of time and space—we are also the frames and games itself, every strike and spare and gutter ball, pin and pair of shoes, bowling through us. A universe of bowlers that are being bowled up in this bottomless bowl that the whole universe is bowling ... "
Like that,
All I ask is that you pick some activity that means something to you, rather than a frozen thing or object. For example, child-rearing as a parent in a nursery, horse riding as a horse rider, doing dentistry as a dentist, washing dishes as a dish washer etc. etc.
Let's see what happens!?
I will ask folks to try again if I think they might be missing something, and can do a bit better! There is nothing to gain, but we can still DO BETTER! For your convenience, I am copying below some lines from the book for you to copy and paste in your rewriting. You can rewrite all of these or just a few. Have fun.
Also, of course, post any other impressions from the book, ask any questions, joys, frustrations ... anything at all.
Gassho, Jundo
STLah
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ASSIGNMENT: PLEASE REWRITE THE FOLLOWING SUBSTITUTING SOME OTHER LIFE ACTION (FOR EXAMPLE, BOWLING, GARDENING, FIXING THE CAR, WHATEVER RESONATES IN YOUR LIFE) FOR THE IMAGE OF "DANCING" AND ACCOMPANYING IMAGES OF DANCE.
Eihei Dōgen, a Japanese Zen Master of long ago ... experienced reality as a great dance moving through time, coming to life in the thoughts and acts of all beings. It is a most special dance, for it is the dance that the whole of reality is dancing, with nothing left out, that you and I are dancing, that is dancing as you and me. It is a vibrant, swirling, flowing, merging and emerging unity that Buddhists sometimes call “emptiness,” as the motion and sweep of the dance “empties” us of the sense of only being separate beings, and fills and reaffirms us as the whole. We, as human beings, can’t be sure when or where this dance began, or whether it even has a beginning or end. But we can come to see that it is being danced now in each step and breath we take, much as a dance unfolds and constantly renews with every turn or leap of its dancers.
You and I are dancers in this dance, as is every creature great or small, the mountains and seas, every grain of sand or massive galaxy,
the atoms that make up the universe and the whole universe itself. Everything in reality, no matter how old or vast, no matter how unnoticed or small, is dancing this dance together. And although we may feel as if we are separate dancers—finite individuals on a grand stage spanning all of time and space—we are also the dance itself dancing through us. A universe of dancers that are being danced up in this dance that the whole universe is dancing. Picture in your mind a spectator witnessing a dance so vigorous and vibrant that its countless actors seem to vanish in the swirl of motion: single dancers becoming pairs, then groups, coming together and separating moment by moment, yet so merged as the overall movement that, from a distance, individual dancers can no longer be seen. ...
... So united did Dōgen see that whole that, in his mind, each point holds all other points, near or far, each point miraculously fully contains
the whole, and each moment of time ticks with all other moments of time, before or after. It is much like saying that every step of
each dancer somehow embodies, depends upon, and also fully expresses every step by all the other dancers on the stage, past, present,
or future, and fully contains the entire dance too. Dōgen experienced the time of the dance as the overall movement that is fully held and
expressed in each individual move itself, with past not only flowing into present and future, but future flowing into the present and past,
as the present fully holds the past and future of the dance.
... Master Dōgen spoke of practice, putting it all in motion. Where this dance has come from, where it is going, is not as important
as the dance that is truly realized—made real—right here, in your next leap and gesture. The dance is always right underfoot, so just
dance, without thought of any other place.
.
Maybe try again.
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