The Story of Dogen Zenji

[Guest]

Hello everyone,

I came across this great little comic sharing the story of Dogen Zenji ... enjoy http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/eng/.../comics/dogen/.

Gassho
Shingen

[Jundo]

Thanks Shingen, it is a good read.

Readers should know that many of the events in the comic story are not really historical according to scholars. What happened is that, as the centuries passed, Dogen's biography was gradually embellished, and some legends were added, by various biographers and writers. This story then dramatizes it even more. Actually, much about his childhood, parentage and youth (which is the topic of these first chapters) remains almost completely unknown. He was certainly the son of a "second wife" or mistress of a powerful man in the Ancient capital of Kyoto, very bright and something of a prodigy in his literary talents, but lost both his mother and father early. Nobody knows exactly who the father was, but there are various scholarly suppositions. As was customary in the day, such children on the periphery of the nobility were shipped off to Buddhist temples to be raised and, eventually, to become priests. And so with Dogen. Other than that, little is known.

However, still a good tale.

A good time to point folks to the biopic movie too, available it seems on Youtube ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?6122-New-Master-Dogen-Movie&p=20686&viewfull=1#post20686

Gassho, Jundo

[Kyonin]

Ooooh!! I love manga! And I like it even more if it's about Master Dogen. Thanks for the link!

Gassho,

Kyonin

[Myosha]

Tons 'o fun!

Thank you Shingen.


Gassho,
Myosha

[Mp]

What happened is that, as the centuries passed, Dogen's biography was gradually embellished, and some legends were added

Thank you for the clarification Jundo. =) It seems that most biographies of influential people are exaggerated ... maybe they will do that for us when we are gone.

Gassho
Shingen

[John Cloud]

Thank you very much Shingen

Gassho