Hi Dogenites,
We will continue our Dance this week with the chapter called "How To Read Dogen," up to the middle of page 12 (for our e-readers, stopping before the section "And Thus This Book").
In this section, I describe how it is necessary to understand some basic Buddhism or Mahayana Buddhist teachings, and then how Dogen wilds up the language and images to express the teachings in new light, never leaving the teaching but bringing forth new dimensions through his playful game (sometimes with intended results, but with sometimes unexpected revelations that just pop out of his words). I give an example from the Lotus Sutra in the book, about a flying Pagoda (I know that some people don't care for the fancifulness of the Lotus, but I often tell folks that, like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings or Willy Wonka's tale of good and bad kids, the wild imagery is just a vehicle to describe something fantastically fantastic!).
Here is another section of the Lotus Sutra, a pretty straight parable about someone who has a wonderful treasure within (his "Buddha Nature" or original enlightenment) but just does not know it:
Inspired by Dogen's kind of word games, mixing and matching images and phrases, going for double-entendres or turning things up-side-down, rewrite the above in something like Dogen's style of writing to bring out this point of our Buddha Nature already being with us, we are already enlightened but just don't know it. Rather than being too rational about it, let the sound and feeling and chance "whatever pops out of the word play" convey the feeling for that message. Look at the Lotus Sutra passage quoted in my book, and Dogen's rewriting of it, for examples of the kind of word play you should do.
Oh, and try not to look at the examples of what others have done in this thread before posting your own example. After, you can look at the others, however, nobody is graded on this! Just have fun.
I may assign a "bonus" track or two later in the week to try too.
Gassho, J
STLah
PS - Now, there has been a little confusion about what is the assignment. It is not to write something really original this time. The point of the exercise is to get a little feel for Dogen's style and manner of expression by mimicking his style. So, please be sure to try this:
THE POINT IS TO WRITE AND SOUND LIKE DOGEN, not to write your own interesting story!
We will continue our Dance this week with the chapter called "How To Read Dogen," up to the middle of page 12 (for our e-readers, stopping before the section "And Thus This Book").
In this section, I describe how it is necessary to understand some basic Buddhism or Mahayana Buddhist teachings, and then how Dogen wilds up the language and images to express the teachings in new light, never leaving the teaching but bringing forth new dimensions through his playful game (sometimes with intended results, but with sometimes unexpected revelations that just pop out of his words). I give an example from the Lotus Sutra in the book, about a flying Pagoda (I know that some people don't care for the fancifulness of the Lotus, but I often tell folks that, like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings or Willy Wonka's tale of good and bad kids, the wild imagery is just a vehicle to describe something fantastically fantastic!).
Here is another section of the Lotus Sutra, a pretty straight parable about someone who has a wonderful treasure within (his "Buddha Nature" or original enlightenment) but just does not know it:
Suppose there were a man who came to the house of a close friend and went to sleep after becoming intoxicated with wine. The
intimate friend, having to go out on official business, sews a priceless jewel into the inside of his friend’s garment and, giving it to him, leaves. But the man who was drunk and asleep is totally unaware of this. After getting up he leaves and roams around until he arrives in another country. Although he diligently seeks for food and clothing they are very difficult to obtain. He is satisfied if he just obtains a very meager amount. Later on the intimate friend happens to meet this man. Seeing him, he says: O poor fellow! How have you come to this state through lack of food and clothing? Once, on such-and-such a day in such-and-such a month and year, I sewed a priceless jewel into the inside of your garment, wanting to make things easier for you and to let you enjoy the desires of the five senses as much as you wished. It is still there, although you aren’t aware of it, and you seek your livelihood with great effort and hardship! You have been very foolish. Sell this jewel and use it to buy what you need. From now on you will know neither poverty nor want and can live as you wish.
intimate friend, having to go out on official business, sews a priceless jewel into the inside of his friend’s garment and, giving it to him, leaves. But the man who was drunk and asleep is totally unaware of this. After getting up he leaves and roams around until he arrives in another country. Although he diligently seeks for food and clothing they are very difficult to obtain. He is satisfied if he just obtains a very meager amount. Later on the intimate friend happens to meet this man. Seeing him, he says: O poor fellow! How have you come to this state through lack of food and clothing? Once, on such-and-such a day in such-and-such a month and year, I sewed a priceless jewel into the inside of your garment, wanting to make things easier for you and to let you enjoy the desires of the five senses as much as you wished. It is still there, although you aren’t aware of it, and you seek your livelihood with great effort and hardship! You have been very foolish. Sell this jewel and use it to buy what you need. From now on you will know neither poverty nor want and can live as you wish.
Oh, and try not to look at the examples of what others have done in this thread before posting your own example. After, you can look at the others, however, nobody is graded on this! Just have fun.
I may assign a "bonus" track or two later in the week to try too.
Gassho, J
STLah
PS - Now, there has been a little confusion about what is the assignment. It is not to write something really original this time. The point of the exercise is to get a little feel for Dogen's style and manner of expression by mimicking his style. So, please be sure to try this:
Go back to the chapter, please, and look at the original "Lotus Sutra" passage. Then, look at what D.J. Dogen did with it in his remix passage, what he did with the elements of the story such as "treasure stupa" "sitting inside the stupa" "springing out of Vulture Peak" "two hundred and fifty yojanas" and the like, and how he stirred that all up. Study his grammar, and how he mixed or reinterpreted the various elements, and do something like that with the passage I assigned. If you are not sure what to do, just borrow Dogen's sentence structure, and just switch the elements from the old story with the elements of the new story that I assigned.
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