Informal Reading Group: REALIZING GENJOKOAN 2021 Edition Begins Week of 11 April 2021

[Tomás ESP]

What a mind-blowing text

I really like your questions Nengei, so I will answer these directly. I feel like a few questions for each chapter is a great way to get the conversation going.

1. What is Dharma?

I understand Dharma as:

a) The Buddhist teachings (although Hindu teachings also employ the word Dharma).
b) Reality itself.
c) Every aspect that is part of that reality.

2. Does realization require delusion?

“Those who greatly realize delusion are Buddhas. Those who are greatly deluded in realization are living beings”. Delusion that is not recognized is present in those who are not Buddhas. To become liberated, one must recognize delusion, therefore realization cannot happen without delusion. In fact, the Buddhist path formulates liberation as the extinction of the three poisons: desire, aversion, and delusion.

3. What is the self?

“To study the Self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by all things”. Dogen points to the non-existence of the small self and how one discovers the Self when this small self and the small selves of all things drop off. From my perspective, this means that when we are free from conceptual constructs, including the view of an intrinsic, permanent, independent, solid and fixed self, we see reality as it is, whole and complete.

4. Do realization and delusion exist among all sentient beings, or only humans?

“There is practice-enlightenment – this is the way of living beings”. I think Dogen points to realization and delusion among all sentient beings, as is common in Mahayana Buddhism.

5. Dogen writes that there are inexhaustible characteristics in what is beyond what we can see, and also within what is right in front of us. How is this borne out or refuted by the advancement of scientific knowledge?

“We only see or grasp as far as the power of our eye of study and practice can see”. I agree with Dogen on this. Even though we can know an incredible number of things through scientific research, we will always have more questions. I believe (and this is purely from a subjective perspective) that we will never answer all questions about reality. Even though our methods may be more refined by the day, we will always operate from a subjective perspective that is limited. Also, the relationships and interconnectedness that compose this reality are infinite.

[Jundo]

Hi Guys,

After briefly discussing with Nengei, I am merging the "Realizing Genjokoan" discussion threads into a single thread for housekeeping purposes. In this way, we can centralize the whole discussion here.

It truly is a wonderful book, and a marvelous gateway into Dogen and the Shobogenzo.

Gassho, Jundo

STLah

[Risho]

Thank you!

risho
-stlah

[Tomás ESP]

Wonderful initiative Nengei, I have been wanting to dive into Dogen's teachings for some time now, and from the videos that I have seen of Shohaku Okumura, I am a fan! So I will be reading along, excited

Gassho, Tomás
Sat&LaH

[Nengei]

I am reading along. One request though, can we use the chapter names rather than page numbers? Printed page numbers rarely line up with the Ebook numbering.


Tairin
Sat today and lah

Certainly. I will update the post at the top of this thread to reflect that. Thank you for the excellent suggestion.

Gassho,
Nengei
Sat today. LAH.

[Shokai]

I am reading along. One request though, can we use the chapter names rather than page numbers? Printed page numbers rarely line up with the Ebook numbering.


Tairin
Sat today and lah

Good point
gassho, shokai

[Tairin]

I am reading along. One request though, can we use the chapter names rather than page numbers? Printed page numbers rarely line up with the Ebook numbering.


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Tom A.]

Gassho,
Tom

SatLah

[Myosho]

Thank You

SAT Lah

[aprapti]

aprapti

sat

[Ryumon]

3. What is the self?

Oh, sure, that's an easy one. Once we got this sorted out, we don't need to read any more. :-)

Gassho,

Ryūmon

sat

[Inshin]

Gassho
Sat

[Doshin]

Thanks

Doshin
St

[Nengei]

PS The timing is such that we should be able to finish this text before Ango begins, and be ready to dive into Ango study.

Gassho,
Nengei
Sat today. LAH.

[Nengei]

Informal Reading Group: REALIZING GENJOKOAN 2021 Edition WEEK 1, 11-17 April

Gassho, friends. This is the beginning of the first week of our informal Realizing Genjōkōan reading group. For a description of the book and what we are doing, please visit this thread.

This week we are reading through page 11 in the paperback version. This includes
- the Foreword by Taigen Dan Leighton,
-Shohaku Okumura's Preface,
-Okumura's translation of the text of Dōgen Roshi's Genjōkōan, and
-the first chapter of commentary, called Chapter 1: Dōgen Zenji's Life and the Importance of Genjōkōan.

As your colleague only, in this undertaking, I gently suggest that you not let yourself get bogged down in the foreword and preface. Read them if you like, as they do provide context on the importance of Genjōkōan, but it would also be fine to not read them, or to read them later.

Once you have read and considered this week's portion, please do come back to this thread and comment. I will list some question ideas below, but these are just ideas I had while reading. My understanding is as full of holes as anyone's, so please feel at liberty to come up with your own questions, or no questions. If you read, but don't feel that you want to comment on this week's portion, please do post that. Any discussion helps me, and probably others, to keep going.

I find Genjōkōan is at once simple and profound. It is brief but has a depth that is challenging to reach. In translation (I have no comprehension of Japanese) it seems plainly written and impossible to fully understand. I like to think that this was intentional on Dōgen's part. In reading Dōgen's writings, I find two things quite helpful, so I will tell them to you and you can decide for yourself. The first is to read Genjōkōan aloud (a trick I learned to use when I don't want my mind to wander or have to read the same paragraph fifteen times). The second is to re-read Genjōkōan regularly, perhaps even with each new section or chapter of the book. As I said earlier, it is brief.

The first chapter of Okumura's commentary is a quick description of Dōgen's life, and is interesting on its own.

Some questions I thought were helpful to think about, from this week's portion:
1. What is dharma?
2. Does realization require delusion?
3. What is the self?
4. Do realization and delusion exist among all sentient beings, or only humans?
5. Dōgen writes that there are inexhaustible characteristics in what is beyond what we can see, and also within what is right in front of us. How is this borne out or refuted by the advancement of scientific knowledge?

I am looking forward to what you write about this week's portion of Realizing Genjōkōan. I am ready to learn from your insights. Also, I am in charge of absolutely nothing. All ideas about what we should be doing here are invited. I am simply reading along with you, and hoping for glimpses of realization along with you.

Gassho,
Nengei
Sat today. LAH.