Dharma : A Conundrum

[karlmalachut]

Lately within my own practice I have struggled to understand what dharma actually is . This may sound like a very basic question but even reading in Shobogenzo (Using Takahashi Translation)over Dharma Nature I'm still left alluded and maybe I'm supposed to be In the Chapter in Shobogenzo over Dharma Nature Dogen says this :

"Just this right now is dharma-nature.Dharma nature is just this right now. Wearing a robe and eating a meal is dharma nature samadhi wearing a robe and having a meal. Dharma nature that is a robe is actualized. Dharma nature is that meal actualized. Dharma nature no eating actualized.Dharma nature no other than wearing actualized."

So is Dharma that which become actualized?Or that witness our true nature? The rituals and beliefs we find meaning in daily in? or the realization they are there?

Gassho
ST

[Jundo]

Hi Karl,

Well, "Dharma" has a few meanings in Buddhism that may seem a bit different at first, but actually overlap. One might be said to mean "reality." The next might be translated as "phenomena," that are the constituent elements of reality. Third is the Buddha's "Teachings" about that reality. This reality about which the Buddha Teaches is not the misunderstood way it usually appears to us, but the truth of reality that appears to the eye of wisdom. So, I might call it Capital "R" Reality. However, this Reality is also manifesting as all the ordinary things of this life and world, whether we realize so or not.

So, I might express that sentence ...

"Just this right now is [Reality]. [Reality] is just this right now. Wearing a robe and eating a meal is [Reality] wearing a robe and having a meal. [Reality] that is a robe is actualized. [Reality] is that meal actualized. [Reality] no eating actualized. [Reality] no other than wearing actualized."

So is Dharma that which become actualized?Or that witness our true nature? The rituals and beliefs we find meaning in daily in? or the realization they are there?

Reality is that which is actualized and manifests as this life and world, it is our eyes which witness this life and world, it is coming to life in our rituals and beliefs, and is the Reality we realize in our Wisdom when seeing this life and world with a Buddha's Eye and heeding the Buddha's Teachings.

I hope that helps.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Yokai]

Jundo your teaching is clear as mountain streams

Gassho, C stlah